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Barbell Whip or no whip

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Kettlebelephant

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Hey!
I'd like to know the opinion of @Steve Freides, @Geoff Chafe and others who competed in powerlifting or have a long history training with barbells.

For someone who will use the bar for deadlifts 90% and press, floor press & TGU 10% of the time, would you go for a bar with whip or no whip?
I'm a bit confused here, because Rogue has a special deadlift bar that has whip, but on the other hand they also have a power bar (specially designed for the powerlifts, including the DL) which has no whip.

Thanks for your answers.
 
This article comes to mind.
The Science of Strongman: The Curious Case of the Bumper Plate PR - Starting Strongman

I my Eleiko is a whippy expensive Weightlifting bar. I never use it in a rack. I have a cheap Chinese bushing bar that I bought new on sale for $79.99 that is very stiff. I recently did 700lb Rack Pulls with it with not much Bend at all. My Axel I use for everything this year is a piece of 1 1/2" sch 80 black Pipe with no bend at all. You could drive over it with a truck. It depends if you use enough weight to take advantage of the whip, the training effect you want, and what you use it for. On a Max Get Up you are not using enough weight so it doesn't really matter. For general lifting I would go with a stiffer bar. A whippy bar on heavy max presses and Deadlifts can be harder to control the whip, but on power movements like Push Press Jerk, Cleans, etc. the spring helps move more weight. Off the ground on a whippy bar you get a loading effect as the bar bends. If you don't use the whip in presses and squats it can staple you because of the enertia loading. Load the plates on the outside of the bar to see how much more whippy and bendy it is.

We would train with Stair Blocks sometimes to harness and learn to control the whip with new weights, and rep work. Hang Pulls, Hang Powers, Hang Muscles, Hang long Pulls, etc.
Stair Blocks: You Don't Need Them, but Here's How
 
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I deadlift with an Okie DL bar. You can google that and find it on amazon.com and on the site of Rickey Dale Crain, whose is the "Okie." It's purpose built for the barbell deadlift and used by many powerlifting federations. $500 plus $100 shipping in the continental US and worth it.

It's slightly narrower in diameter, deeply knurled, and bends without being "whippy." It's perfect for the job it's intended to do, and in my home gym, it sits by itself, never gets completely unloaded, and is never used for anything except deadlifting.

-S-
 
A "powerlifting" bar is not a DL bar. I prefer a PL bar for everything but deadlifts.

-S-
 
I think Geoff posted most of what was necessary information. The only thing I'd like to add is to use the same bar you will compete with. If you are not planning to compete, I don't think the difference between bars is that important.
 
Generally don't use a deadlift bar for anything besides deadlifting. If you plan to do pretty much anything besides deadlifts then it would be better to get a power bar. It is generally a bad idea to do anything out of a rack with a deadlift bar (i.e. squats, bench presses, even rack pulls) because the deadlift bar is much more likely to wind up bent than a stronger, stiffer power bar.
 
@Tony Gracia I disagree. The only reason to not use a good bar in a rack is it wears out the knurling. It takes an insane amount of weight and abuse to bend a quality bar.



I have done the Hand and Thigh lift out of the rack with 945lb, with a cheap bar with no damage. I think the bar is only rated at 500lb it is so cheap and crappy.
 
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One more thing is that the IPF does not allow the use of a special DL bar. You can decipher for yourself what it means.

I would personally recommend getting a good stiff bar. If you have problems with the DL lift-off with a stiff bar, you can always pull from a rack or blocks.
 
Thanks a lot guys!
The power bar is also 100€ cheaper than the DL bar, so I think in the end it's a no brainer and maybe in the distant future I'd treat myself to a special DL bar.
 
I deadlifted with the Texas DL bar for a year, and currently I'm using Okie, that @Steve Freides mentioned here - succesfully, my gym has both. Comparing those 2, Okie has more agressive knurling, and less whippy, measured at the test - almost by an inch. So to say, with load under ~400 lbs the whip is not significant, which is, in my opinion, good for the training purposes. Also, as it was mentioned already, whippy bar is harder to control on the heavy lifts. Okie has a perfect balance, for me, between the stiffness and flexibility. And, at the small to moderate weights, it can be easily used for presses.
 
Accidentally used deadlift bar for squats as someone left it in a rack - horrid. For deadlifting it was great but all round powerbar for everything else.

Rogue power bars are very good value and quality is closer to an eleiko bar. Texas bars seem to not be as good as they used to be.

For the average trainer I think many of the decent hybrid bars out there are pretty good because
*good value
*good balance of whip/stiffness
*bearings allow olympic lifts which power bars arent great for
 
Glen said:
Rogue power bars are very good value and quality is closer to an eleiko bar.
Click to expand...

Rogue Vs Okie and Texas Deadlift Barbell

I have a Rogue Deadlift Bar. It rivals the Texas and Okie Deadlift Bar. The price is lower than both the Texas and Okie Deadlift Bars.

Eliko Bars

The Rogue Barbells are good bar. However, they do not compare to the the Rogue Barbell in quality nor price.

The cost of an Eliko Barbell is between three to four time more than a Rogue Barbell; there a reason for the price difference.

Kenny Croxdale
 
kennycro@@aol.com said:
Rogue Vs Okie and Texas Deadlift Barbell

I have a Rogue Deadlift Bar. It rivals the Texas and Okie Deadlift Bar. The price is lower than both the Texas and Okie Deadlift Bars.

Eliko Bars

The Rogue Barbells are good bar. However, they do not compare to the the Rogue Barbell in quality nor price.

The cost of an Eliko Barbell is between three to four time more than a Rogue Barbell; there a reason for the price difference.

Kenny Croxdale
Click to expand...

Undoubtedly the eleiko is the rolls royce of bars - I was more meaning out of other power bar options Rogue was closest but at a fraction of the cost.
 
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