What’s the price of an Olympic barbell these days? It depends. Barbells come in different types, materials, coatings, bearings, and quality. Inside, we’ll take a look seven examples and their prices in US dollars.
- Barbell for Olympic Lifting
- Powerlifting / Power Barbell
- Deadlift Barbell
- Best Barbell For The Garage Gym
- Women’s Olympic Barbell
- Best Barbell In The World
- The Barbell I Bought & Why
Barbell For Olympic Lifting
If you’ll be doing classic Olympic lifts like the snatch or the clean, you’ll need an Olympic barbell that ‘s—well—designed for Olympic lifting. These are also the kinds of barbells used in CrossFit gyms.
Barbells made for Olympic lifting:
- Have mild knurling—this is less abrasive.
- They don’t have the centre knurling for barbell squats
- The marks in the knurling are placed for Olympic lifts
- Have a high-degree of whip/flex
- Usually are a bit thinner
- Usually, higher-end bearings with a more viscous lubricant for better spinning
Recommendations for Olympic Bars:
| Tier | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Budget | Rep Sabre Zinc Olympic Barbell | 200 |
 | CrossFit Style | Rogue Ohio Bar—Black Oxide | 320 |
 | High-End | Rogue Pyrros Olympic IWF Stainless Steel Bar w/ Needle Bearings | 720 |
Powerlifting/Power Barbell
A powerlifting barbell is designed for squatting, deadlifting, and pressing. That means these bars have no or minimal whip/flexibility.
They usually have more solid knurling (grip) and have the center knurling to help when doing barbell back squats.
Power bars are great all-around barbells.
Recommendations:
| Tier | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Quality | Rogue Ohio Power Bar—Black Zinc | 305 |
Deadlift Barbell
Deadlift barbells have a high level of flexibility/whip.
This allows you to get ever-so-slightly higher as the weight comes off the ground, helping you to pull heavier weights.
They also don’t have the center knurling used for squatting.
The deadlift barbell will usually have more aggressive knurling to help with grip.
Recommendations:
| Tier | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Quality | Rogue Ohio Deadlift Bar—Black Zinc | 390 |
Best Barbell For The Garage Gym—Stainless Steel
If you’re going to lift in the garage, your barbell is going to face the issue of moisture and oxidation.
This is especially true if where you live has high levels of humidity, you live near the ocean, or the garage goes through big temperature swings between seasons (like in the North.)
In those cases, a garage gym usually means you’ll be cleaning rust off your barbell at some point—unless you opt-out and buy a stainless steel barbell.
The biggest problem with stainless steel is that it’s more expensive. A smaller downside is that they look pretty plain. Otherwise, they make excellent barbells and are especially fitting for the garage gym.
Recommendations:
| Tier | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Olympic | Rogue Ohio Stainless Steel | 370 |
 | Power Bar | Rogue Ohio Power Bar—Stainless Steel | 445 |
Women’s Olympic Barbell
Women’s Olympic barbells are:
- 15kg heavy. This makes them 5kgs lighter (about 11 pounds lighter) than the heavier men’s Olympic barbell.
- They’re also 3mm less thick to grab, and about 7″ less long.
- They still fit the traditional Olympic weight plates, but the overall size of the barbell is proportionally designed for women.
Recommendations:
| Tier | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Olympic | Rogue Bella Bar 2.0—Black Zinc | 235 |
| Stainless | Rogue Bella 2.0—Stainless Steel | 330 |
Best Barbell In The World—Eleiko IWF Competition Bar
Arguably the best barbell in the world is the Eleiko IWF Weightlifting Competition Bar, and it can be yours for only $1,220 dollars 😉
- Certified to be used on a competition stage, such as during the Olympics
- the precision needle bearings are dust-proofed for longevity
- lifetime warranty
- the bar is coated with elastic chrome
- It’s freely made in Sweden
Runner up:
The Barbell I Bought & Why
After a lot of research, I decided to buy the Rogue Westside Power Bar 2.0. It sells today for $370 USD.
- It looks badass. It comes with a blank zinc finish, and has visible bronze bushings. Black zinc is decent against oxidation. It’s not as good against rust as stainless, but I lift in the basement and not the garage.
- It has no whip—great for a variety of lifts.
- It has an aggressive knurling pattern—great for deadlifts (even if it has no whip).
- It’s ever so slightly thicker—making it have a very high tensile rating at 205k.
- Like almost every Rogue product—it’s made freely in the USA.
As a regular guy lifting weights at home in a heated basement who only wanted one barbell, I needed a barbell that could handle everything—squats, deadlifts, benching, overhead press, etc—which is why I decided to get the Power Bar with the centre knurling and no whip.
This Rogue Westside barbell is the best barbell I’ve ever used—better than the barbells I’ve used at every gym I’ve ever trained at over the past twelve years of lifting weights.
What do you think? Which barbell piques your interest?
Want to see how we’d build a home garage gym?
