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Barbell Distance (inside) Between Barbell Collars

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Steve Freides

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Senior Certified Instructor Emeritus
Elite Certified Instructor
Prior discussion

I went to swap bar, putting my bar without center knurling in my squat stands, and when I put the other bar in my power rack, I made an interesting discovery:

The bar I'd been bench pressing with measured 142 cm. My rack hooks are about 120 cm apart. All my other bars measure about 130 cm, which would make slamming a bench press back into the rack something that requires more side-to-side accuracy than I'm used to using.

My impression is that inside-the-collars distance was standardized. The rings seem to be 82 cm apart on everything.

Anyone can shed more light on this?

Do I need to get used to using a 130 cm-spaced bar on my 120 cm-space rack?

NB: Rogue Ohio bar also measure 130 cm inside the collars, but here: The Ohio Bar - Stainless Steel the specification isn't given and you can't tell what it is because you'd need to know the thickness of the collars, in addition to the length of the loading area, to figure out this measurement.

I am bewitched, bothered, and bewildered by this. (young folks, see song of this name: )

-S-
 
I think I understand what is happening here, only because I recently acquired an Okie deadlift barbell for Xmas from the wife.

130 cm is a normal olympic barbell. This is typical. My deadlift bar is about 142 cm, like your bench press bar. I think you were bench pressing with a deadlift bar. Do you notice that the diameter of the longer bar is a little smaller vs your Ohio bar? Also, the knurling on the longer bar should be really extreme (for a deadlift grip).

Regards,

Eric
 
I imagine squatting or bench pressing with the deadlift bar would be a little awkward, especially if you are an explosive, fast lifter. If your squat/bench movements are very slow grinds (especially when you change direction), you may not notice a difference.
 
I think I understand what is happening here, only because I recently acquired an Okie deadlift barbell for Xmas from the wife.

130 cm is a normal olympic barbell. This is typical. My deadlift bar is about 142 cm, like your bench press bar. I think you were bench pressing with a deadlift bar.
You definitely nailed it. On the texaspowerbar site, they specify the power bar as 52" and the DL bar as 56.5" between the collars.

-S-
 
Gentlemen, my lifetime best BP in competition is 190 lbs. I'm currently working on 5 x 5 @ 165 lbs, will finish tomorrow and move on to 175 lbs after that. 1RM at this moment is likely 190-200 lbs. You may rest assured that whatever differences the DL bar may exhibit with more weight on it, it ain't exhibiting them with the kinds of weights I'm using. As my parents would have said, "You should only have such problems ..." as to be worried about using a DL bar for bench pressing.
That's hardcore.

It's somewhere between an honest mistake and careless on my part.

-S-
 
That's hardcore. That's got to make it tougher, right?

yes and no.

I guess if a lifter did a real abrupt touch and go bench, there might be some bounce there you could (theoretically) match the momentum from the rebound on the way up.

For a paused bench, I think it would be disadvantageous for the opposite reason, when you go to push the bar might "die" off the chest soaking up the force. Hard to say.

Deadlift bars are narrower too IIRC.
 
Deadlift bars are narrower too IIRC.
Typically they are. PL federations usually specify a diameter of between 28 and 29 mm, but deadlift speciality bars are often 27 mm, e.g., Rogue's and also the Okie DL bar.

-S-
 
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