Barbells

Ways to Secure Barbell Weights

Barbells are long, steel bars with removable weighted plates on each end. One type of barbell has the weights permanently attached to either end. The other type of barbell can hold several disks, ranging in weight between 5 and 100 pounds, but the weights are detachable. Securing your barbell weights keeps them from sliding off the metal bar and causing injury. As described by the International Olympic Committee, collars are the devices that secure barbell weights by tightly encircling the rod outside the weighted plates. The type of collar...

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All About Barbells

Barbell Squat Safety

barbell squats can help strengthen and build coordination in several muscle groups and joints, including the hamstrings, quads, glutes, calves, lower back, hips, ankles and knees. Although barbell squats can be beneficial, be s...

When Can I Change Barbells?

Performing workouts with a barbell will often help you tone your arm, shoulders and upper body muscles. If you are looking to change up your normal barbell routine, adding or taking away weight will have different effects on yo...

Dumbbell Vs. Barbell Shoulder Press for an Injury

...e stressful to the shoulder joint and the rotator cuff muscles. Strengthening the shoulder muscles helps prevent and rehabilitate an injury. Using dumbbells generally offers several advantages over a barbell, but speak to yo...

Overhead Press & Locked Knees

Compound moves for weightlifting mean you work more muscles in less time. One example of a compound exercise that’s included in most weightlifters’ routines is the overhead press. This move works your core, shoulder...

York Barbell Training for the Calves

York Barbells have helped build bulging biceps, broad shoulders and powerful chest muscles since 1932. Don't forget about the benefits to the lower body -- particularly the calves. Several exercises designed for York Barbells i...

How to Autoclave a Barbell

The autoclave is an important device for use in the medical field. It is used to sterilize equipment and tools. If you run a body-piercing business, owning a small autoclave adds to your credibility and provides your customers ...

How to Do P90X With Barbells

..., an ab routine, a stretch routine, a plyometrics routine and two cardio routines. The weight-training routines require dumbbells, resistance bands or some other form of resistance weight. If you own barbells instead of dumb...

A Barbell Deadlift Technique

A traditional form of strengthening muscles of your back and lower body, barbell deadlifts are implemented at powerlifting competitions around the world to gauge strength and power. However, this exercise can be modified to tar...

What Is a Barbell Snatch?

A barbell snatch is an Olympic weightlifting exercise. It is one of two movements -- the clean and jerk being the other -- athletes perform during the Olympic weightlifting event. The barbell snatch is an explosive movement tha...

How to Do a Proper Squat With a Barbell

...uld be able to squat proficiently with your own body weight. Make sure you can do this before you add resistance, suggests physical therapist Gray Cook, author of "Movement." You can hold a barbell in various posit...

Muscles Used When Lifting a Barbell

A standard barbell weighs 45 pounds and it has accompanying weight plates that range from 2 1/2 to 45 pounds. This gives you plenty of resistance to choose from while working out. Trying to find the right exercises to do can be...

How to Load Weights Onto a Barbell

Free weights, including barbells, force your body to control and stabilize the weights through the entire range of motion. Although this provides an effective, versatile workout, it also creates the additional risk of getting t...

How to Do Skull Crushers With Barbells

The triceps sit on the back of the upper arms. They have a lateral, medial and long head. Skull crushers, which are referred to as triceps extensions, zero in on this muscle group. Because there is only one joint movement and o...

What Is a False Grip With a Barbell?

barbell exercises are used to strengthen major muscle groups. You lift, press, push, pull, curl, extend, squat and lunge with a barbell. Although the ways in which you modify a barbell exercise are limited because the bar does ...

Advantages of a Barbell Machine

A barbell machine, also called a Smith machine, is a rack with a barbell that runs on guide rails. The barbell can only follow the path of the rails, so it offers a limited number of exercise choices. However, the main advantag...

What Muscles Are Used to Complete a Barbell Shrug?

The American Council on Exercise states that your trapezius and rhomboids are the primary muscles worked during the standing barbell shrug exercise; however, your levator scapulae and forearms are also important for generating ...

What Machine Mimics the Barbell Squat?

Exercise machines can lend more stability and balance to your workout, creating a safer way to perform the barbell squat that can be extremely dangerous because it is performed with free weights with no back or leg support. Mac...

Types of Lifting Barbells

Barbells fall into the category of free weights. These training tools do not have attachments, cables, pulleys or chains regulating their movement. Blending these into your workouts causes you to recruit more muscle fiber to ma...

How to Do Barbell Hack Squats

Barbell hack squats allow you to train your legs without the need for a spotter. As the bar does not rest on your upper back, should you experience difficulty standing up with the weight, you can just set in on the ground. Hack...

How to Do a Barbell Snatch High Pull

A snatch high pull was first used by Olympic weightlifters to build power for the snatch. This exercise requires you to pull the bar over a great distance -- quickly -- using your legs, hips and upper back. Any sort of high pul...

How to Grip a Barbell

A Barbell is a weight-training bar that allows you to attach free weights to the ends, for the purpose of increasing the total weight to be lifted. Barbell can be used to add resistance to many arm, back, butt and leg exercises...

How to Do Barbell Pullovers

Barbell pullovers are good for an extra chest pump. They provide an intensive workout for your latissimus dorsi – the largest muscles in your back. They also activate your chest, shoulder and triceps; they're an excellent...

How to Load Barbells

A barbell is a metal bar, 5 to 7 feet long, that holds weight plates. Olympic barbells take Olympic plates, and standard barbells take standard plates. The process is the same to load either type of barbell. Manufacturers produ...

How to Do Overhead Barbell Presses

The overhead barbell press, or shoulder press, is a power weightlifting movement that’s designed to build size and strength in your shoulders. The overhead press is often combined with different isolation moves like later...

How to Do Heavy Barbell Squats

barbell squats are designed to work the muscles of your upper legs, including the hamstrings and quadriceps. Working with a heavy barbell will put more strain on your muscles, allowing you to build strength quickly. Before you ...

Powerlifting & Different Kinds of Barbells

Powerlifting requires more than mastery of the squat, bench press and deadlift. Like all sports, powerlifting requires you have the right equipment to succeed. Standard, light training bars do not hold up to the weight and occa...

Front Barbell Squats Vs. Regular Squats

Squatting is a movement that most people perform on a daily basis and is also an effective leg exercise. There are numerous forms of exercise squats, but barbell back squats and barbell front squats are among the most common. B...

How Often Can You Do Barbell Complexes?

Barbell complexes, which feature a series of movements that can range from Olympic lifts and their variants to compound and isolation exercises performed in a continuous fashion, serve as a great warmup and are a fat-burning to...

What Are the Dangers of Behind the Neck Barbell Presses?

Behind-the-neck barbell presses are a contraindicated exercise for anyone with shoulder pain or a previous shoulder injury. Even if you don't have problems with your shoulders, you may want to avoid the behind-the-neck barbell ...

Body Bar vs. Barbell

A Body Bar is a brand name of fixed-weight barbell. Although you can use a Body Bar for most any exercise that you can use a regular barbell for, Body Bars have a different design and different features from a regular barbell. ...

How Much Weight Should I Squat With Barbells?

The amount of weight you should squat depends on your goals, your skill and your energy levels. If you have only recently started squatting, you need to keep the weight light and develop proper technique. If you wish to gain le...

How to Grip a Barbell to Avoid a Callus

While you may look forward to your daily workouts and the overall feeling you get from the experience, barbell lifts, such as deadlifts and shoulder presses, can leave your hands in pain. The texture of the barbells and nature ...

Alternatives to Barbell Deadlifts

The barbell deadlift works nearly every muscle in your body and is effective for developing the lumbosacral, trapezius, quadriceps and gluteal muscles. This total-body exercise can take the place of several single-joint exercis...

Hex (Trap) Bar Deadlifts vs. Barbell Deadlifts

...n your upper and lower body. The trap, or hex, bar is a specialized training tool that lifters use for two exercises: the deadlift and the shrug. The trap bar deadlift has several advantages over the barbell deadlift and, ov...

How to Get Ripped Forearms With Barbells

Barbell training can strengthen your body and increase muscle definition in your forearms as well as your entire body. You can perform a combination of isolation exercises that emphasize your forearms and integration exercises ...

How to Lift a Barbell

Weightlifting is a component to building muscle mass and overall strength. Lifting can be beneficial to your body, but also dangerous if you do not lift safely. Safe lifting usually means lifting with your stronger leg muscles ...

The Advantages of Barbells

barbells are one of the most common pieces of the exercise equipment found in fitness centers across the world. Free weights such as barbells and dumbbells are more beneficial than weight machines in allowing you to train multi...

Kettle Snatch vs. Barbell Snatch

The snatch -- normally done with a barbell -- will also work using a kettlebell. Both provide advantages, and you can use them both in your training program. Kettlebells have been used for decades; the snatch has been part of t...

How to Grip the Barbell for a Deadlift

The two methods of deadlifting -- conventional and sumo -- require a slightly different grip. You not only want to grip the bar and hang onto it, you must ensure that your elbows do not bend and you do not pull the bar any fart...

How to Learn the Westside Barbell Routine

The Westside barbell routine focuses on both dynamic and maximal effort squat and bench press workouts, in addition to improving your deadlift. This type of routine requires a good working knowledge of exercise technique, theor...

What Is the Proper Way to Do Barbell Deadlifts?

The traditional deadlift and straight-leg deadlift are variations of the exercise that you can perform with a barbell. The exercises target the gluteus maximus and hamstring muscles, which extend your hips, and the erector spin...

The Benefits of Barbell Front Squats

The barbell front squat is a compound exercise that targets multiple muscle groups within your body. This squat variation, as with all squat variations, requires strict form so that the exercise can be performed safely and effe...

How to: a Front Squat With a Barbell

If you are serious about building powerful quadriceps muscles, adding squats to your workout routine is a must. You can do squats using just your own body weight, dumbbells, resistance bands or a barbell. One barbell variation ...

Workouts With Barbells

Barbells offer the best exercises for developing strength and adding muscle mass. Barbells consist of a long bar, typically weighing 45 lbs., with weight plates at each end. You can add and remove plates of various weights to c...

Barbell Workouts for the Anterior Deltoid

Barbell workouts for the anterior deltoid involve upper-body pushing and pulling exercises, which strengthen the front of your shoulders. These workouts emphasize shoulder joint movements. The National Federation of Personal Tr...

How to Take Off Ball on Circular Barbell

Regardless of the location of a piercing, several choices are available when it comes to jewelry. The circular barbell is constructed in the same way as a standard straight barbell -- with a post and a threaded ball on each end...

Arnold Press Vs. Barbell Press

Bodybuilders spend countless hours pushing and pulling weights to get their muscles toned, taut and incredibly defined. Arnold presses and barbell presses make regular appearances in these workout programs. If your upper body i...

What Type of Barbell Do I Need My First Time?

Barbells, long bars with weights attached at both ends, are a type of free weight included in strength training workouts. People who perform strength training routines build muscle and strength, as well as stronger bones. Selec...

How to Get Strong Without Barbells

If you want to get stronger, many paths can be taken besides the barbell route. Following a strength training program that incorporates a variety of exercises can help you get strong and lean. Dumbbells offer an alternative for...

Barbell Front Presses Vs. Behind the Neck Presses

Before the advent of powerlifting in the 1960s, overhead pressing fulfilled the role of defining strength. Putting large amounts weights overhead comprised a majority of athletic training, and pressing body weight became a rite...

How to Get Huge Arms Just Using a Barbell

...res you to perform a combination of strength exercises that stimulates muscle growth, proper nutrition to provide energy and protein synthesis and recovery to allow your muscles to heal and grow. The barbell's balanced weigh...

Standard Barbell Lengths

barbells are available in one of two types: Olympic or standard. Olympic barbells are used in Olympic weightlifting competitions and have certain size specifications. These are the barbells you see in commercial gyms and fitnes...

Can You Do an Overhead Press With Barbells?

A barbell offers several significant advantages over dumbbells when performing the overhead press. Up until 1972, the press, or properly the clean and press was contested in Olympic weightlifting and was considered a true measu...

Standard Barbell Bar

The barbell is a common weightlifting tool for strengthening and toning various muscle groups. Although the Olympic barbell is one of the most common barbell designs found in gyms and health clubs, the standard barbell is a sho...

Development of Barbells

A fixture of most gymnasiums and health clubs, the barbell has become synonymous with physical fitness. Basically an extended dumbbell, the barbell consists of a long bar with weights at either end. Since they require two hands...

The History of Barbells

The barbell is a standard fixture in gyms across the world. In the early part of the 21st century, there are barbells with flexible spring steel and precision revolving bearings, but this was not always the case. Even in the ea...

Standard Barbell Weights

A standard barbell is smaller and lighter than an Olympic barbell. Commercial fitness centers and gyms usually have Olympic barbells and weight plates. Standard barbells and weight plates are found in home gyms. You use standar...

Are Dumbells Better Than Barbells?

Dumbbells and barbells each have advantages and disadvantages. For either type of free weight equipment, it's vital to use proper form to help you maximize your strength gains and prevent muscle and joint injuries. If necessary...

About Barbells Workouts

Barbells consist of a metal bar with either a fixed or adjustable weighted plate on the ends. They're used during strength training workouts to provide a resistance that will overload your muscle groups while performing moveme...

What Are Barbells?

The barbell is perhaps the most ubiquitous tool in all of strength training. With numerous variations in size and shape, the barbell is one of the most versatile and effective pieces of equipment for building muscular size and ...

Differences Between Barbells

Open any fitness catalog, log on to any gym equipment website, or walk in to your local health club and you will notice a number of barbell choices. Some are long, some are short. Some are straight, some are bent. Some are ligh...

Barbells Throughout History

The barbell is a familiar implement to all gym goers; it's a long metal rod, usually about six feet long, loaded with weights at each end. This simple design, however, has undergone many permutations over the last couple of cen...

The Best Adjustable Barbells

Adjustable barbells are weight-training equipment used to add resistance to exercises and help you build strength, power and muscle mass. Completing strength-training exercises with barbells requires more coordination and balan...

Cybex Smith Machine Review

Based in Massachusetts, Cybex International is a leading exercise equipment company specializing in commercial and home fitness machines. One of its most versatile pieces of strength training equipment is the Plate Loaded Smith...

The Benefits of Barbell Pullovers

Barbell pullovers target your latissimus dorsi muscle, the flat, triangular shaped muscle that covers the lower part of your back. Your latissimus dorsi is the largest and most powerful muscle in your back. Barbell pullovers ar...

Invention of the Barbell

The barbell is a straight metal bar with circular weights attached to each side used in weightlifting to sculpt muscles. Some barbell sets have changeable weights while others do not. Frank Fitzpatrick, in an article published ...

EZ Bar Vs. Barbell

EZ bars and barbells share more similarities than differences. These are fitness bars that can be used for a variety of exercises. Both EZ bars and barbells come in several sizes as well. The most significant difference between...

Standard Barbell Capacity

The use of free weights, specifically barbells, allows you to lift large amounts of weight while engaging several stabilizer muscles that improve balance and overall strength. Standard barbells come in different lengths and wit...

Straight Barbells Size Guide

A barbell is a long, metal rod with thick ends that holds weight plates. You can use barbells for a large number of both upper body and lower body exercises. barbells are available in two different types: Olympic barbells and s...

How Barbell Plates Are Made

Lifting weights is a highly productive method of improving your strength. Barbells are one of the few items of fitness equipment that are used for both recreational fitness right through to Olympic competition. With such broad ...

What Is a Cybex Machine?

Cybex machines are manufactured by Cybex Internationl, Inc. Most Cybex workout equipment falls into the category of club quality, though some machines are priced toward the upper end of the home consumer market. Cybex machines ...

The Best Barbells

Competition and recreational weight lifting continue to bring about advancement in the design of barbells. The days of tightening small bolts to secure free weights are all but gone as is the problem of loose weights that once ...

Standard Barbell Weight Limit

The standard barbell's origins date back as far as 1870, according to Dr. Jan Todd in "Iron Game History." The barbell has grown in popularity from this time and can be seen in most fitness studios across the United States. Kno...

Muscles Involved in Barbell Shrugs

Although often included in a shoulder workout, barbell shrugs target the muscles of the upper back. Understanding muscle function and proper execution of the exercise helps you best incorporate it into your strength-training ro...

How to Use Circular Barbells

Circular barbells are a type of piercing jewelry with a horseshoe shape. The jewelry consists of a curved bar with a bead on either end. The beads unscrew to allow the jewelry to be inserted and removed. Piercing areas in wh...

Barbells Vs. Dumbells

You can find barbells and dumbbells in almost every gym, for strength and power training. Regardless of which tool you use, you will gain muscle mass, improve total body strength and power, and increase your metabolism to help ...

How to Workout With Barbells

Most gyms offer several types of barbells to choose from, depending on what sort of exercises you’re doing. Olympic-style barbells are seven feet long, designed for supporting large amounts of weights for exercises like s...

Training With Barbells

barbells are types of free weights that can be moved in multiple directions without any restraints. A standard Olympic barbell weighs 45 lbs. and measures 7 feet long. It is one of the most common bars used for exercises. Barbe...

Standard Barbell Sizes

The barbell is easily one of the most popular resistance training devices. The various competitive and commercial uses for the barbell necessitate that barbells be compatible with weights and equipment from different manufactur...

Types of Barbells

There are a variety of different types of barbells used in weight training. barbells are designed to handle different amounts of weight, bend differently and allow the weight to move around the barbell differently. Other specia...

How to Use Barbells

...g at least two nonconsecutive days per week, completing at least one set of eight or 10 exercises to target all the major muscle groups of the body. You can easily fulfill these recommendations using barbells. Fitness facili...

3 Ways to Do Barbell Deadlifts

Though still not considered as risky as contact sports, cheerleading has its fair share of injuries. As stunts become increasingly athletic (such as jumps, flips and tosses), the risk of injury rises. One of the most common che...

4 Ways to Do Barbell Shrugs

Whenever you are weight training, use a weight that is secure, yet offers some sort of challenge as you work a designated muscle area. With barbell shrugs, you want to isolate the neck and shoulders. The location of these musc...