Barbells come in many shapes and sizes. There are curl and tricep bars, as well as shorter, narrower and lighter bars than the Olympic standard. But the process for using barbells is the same no matter what they look like: Add weight plates, add collars, lift, remove collars and remove weight plates.
Shape Matters
Consider switching to a curl bar or a triceps bar if you're doing biceps or triceps exercises. The angle of the curl bar allows you to position your hands comfortably at just the right position without putting undue stress on your elbows or forearms. The shape of the triceps bar allows you to align your hands with both palms facing in, making it easy to maintain form when doing exercises such as the overhead triceps extension.
Avoid the Neck
When doing squats or lunges with a barbell, make sure the bar sits on the large muscle just below your neck and not directly on your neck. If you're uncomfortable resting the bar on your trapezius muscle, try placing a folded towel underneath the bar or using a specially molded support that clips onto the bar and helps situate it correctly on your shoulders. You can also support the bar lower on your shoulders, but make sure, once again, that it rests on your muscles, not on bones or joints.
Collars and Plates
A barbell should always be evenly balanced, with the same size and number of weight plates on each side. Because the bar can sometimes tip unexpectedly, use collars, which keep the weight plates from shifting around or sliding off the bar, on both sides of the bar.
Heft
Don't forget to take the weight of the bar into account when you're toting up how much you're lifting. An Olympic bar (2-inch diameter) typically weighs about 45 lbs., while a standard bar (1-inch diameter) will typically weigh 20 lbs. You're unlikely to encounter standard bars in the free weight room, but they're common in group fitness classes and commonly sold as home gym equipment.
Bar weights do vary slightly, but if you see a 2-inch diameter bar in the gym, it's usually safe to assume that it weighs 45 lbs.
Clean the Bar
If you're working out in a gym, always remove your weight plates from the barbell when you're finished with your set. The next exerciser to come along might not be able to lift the plates off safely and, even if he can, he'll surely have other things on his mind than cleaning up after you.
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