Sleeve spin

[Nockian]

Been lifting with my new bar for a couple of weeks but noticed a tendency for me to feel movement on the back during squats and in the hands during heavy deadlifts. I’ve not noticed this feeling with the bars in my gym. I use bumper plates and standard wire clips in the gym and thin steel plates with locking collars at home-if that makes a difference ? The bars in the gym have very little grip left on them compared to the pretty sharp, grippy knurling on my bar which certainly gives a sense of a lot more contact.

The sleeves on the new bar spin smoothly, but they aren’t friction free. The sleeves on the gym bars feel far looser which is likely down to thousands of hours of abuse.

Is it normal to feel a bit of movement through the bar when it’s new, or is this something to do with the knurling, plates, wear and tear combination compared with the bars in the gym ?

If I put the new bar across the pipe safeties of the rack and slowly spin the sleeve, the bar will very slowly move on the safeties, it’s more a slight drag than grab and the sleeves move several revolutions compared to the slow spinning of the shaft. On second thoughts perhaps I need to film it. Both sleeves are identical in that regard.

[AndrewLewis]

You should post a video of your squat and deadlift.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Hear, hear!!

[Nockian]

It’s not affecting the movements so I’m not sure how a video of them would help ? It just feels a bit weird to have the bar trying to twist slightly compared to what I’m used to, but then the bar has a much more aggressive knurl, so maybe it’s just communicating better.

[Fulcrum]

Been lifting with my new bar for a couple of weeks but noticed a tendency for me to feel movement on the back during squats and in the hands during heavy deadlifts. I’ve not noticed this feeling with the bars in my gym. I use bumper plates and standard wire clips in the gym and thin steel plates with locking collars at home-if that makes a difference ? The bars in the gym have very little grip left on them compared to the pretty sharp, grippy knurling on my bar which certainly gives a sense of a lot more contact.

The sleeves on the new bar spin smoothly, but they aren’t friction free. The sleeves on the gym bars feel far looser which is likely down to thousands of hours of abuse.

Is it normal to feel a bit of movement through the bar when it’s new, or is this something to do with the knurling, plates, wear and tear combination compared with the bars in the gym ?

If I put the new bar across the pipe safeties of the rack and slowly spin the sleeve, the bar will very slowly move on the safeties, it’s more a slight drag than grab and the sleeves move several revolutions compared to the slow spinning of the shaft. On second thoughts perhaps I need to film it. Both sleeves are identical in that regard.

I doubt its the sleeve spin.
Sounds like a slightly bent bar though.....
A bent bar will want to find "up" (or down, depending how you think about it) if its not put that way to begin with.

[Mark Rippetoe]

It’s not affecting the movements so I’m not sure how a video of them would help ? It just feels a bit weird to have the bar trying to twist slightly compared to what I’m used to, but then the bar has a much more aggressive knurl, so maybe it’s just communicating better.

Video communicates better.

[Nockian]

I doubt its the sleeve spin.
Sounds like a slightly bent bar though.....
A bent bar will want to find "up" (or down, depending how you think about it) if its not put that way to begin with.

No sign of it being bent. I’ve rolled it and checked the ends for eccentricity and there’s not a cigarette papers worth of difference. It’s as straight as it can be.

Video communicates better.

OK, but I’m struggling to figure out how you would see what I’m feeling. It’s so small of a movement. If it was rolling up my back, or ripping out of my hands, but its not. It’s more of a wobble, like an out of balance tyre on a car.

[Mark Rippetoe]

We're struggling to understand why you won't just go ahead and post a fucking video.

[AndrewLewis]

OK, but I’m struggling to figure out how you would see what I’m feeling. It’s so small of a movement. If it was rolling up my back, or ripping out of my hands, but its not. It’s more of a wobble, like an out of balance tyre on a car.

This is like IT support. IT is going to ask you to turn it off and on again before they proceed further. They don't care how annoyed you are. They have to know it was tried.

We have to see the video. Video shows so many problems we can easily help you diagnose to fix the problem you're feeling. So, please indulge us.

[Nockian]

I think it’s a problem with the sleeves. I loaded a plate on one side and even a slight movement of the plate results in binding which turned the shaft with sufficient force that it was as if the sleeve was welded. If I spin the weight moderately I can feel the sleeve binding on and off as it rotates. I’ve never felt that with the bars in the gym-I can load a plate and spin it and it does so nice and freely. Where the sleeve on my bar binds, then rotates back, which is what I’m feeling. Looks like it’s faulty. It’s my first bar, so I thought it might be just getting used to it and couldn’t directly compare to the gym bars because Covid has closed them.