Selection of barbell for female lifters

[Amy-in-PHX]

Hi - I'm just starting out on Novice LP, and I happened to see part of the live stream of the USSF national meet in Oakland recently. I saw women squatting over 300 lbs. Pretty cool. I'm wondering why the women lift with the 20KG, "men's" bar rather than the smaller-diameter 15KG bar, in competition? Seems like shorter fingers would do better with the smaller-diameter bar. (Mine are short, so I'm wondering this, in part, because I'm considering buying my first bar.) I've watched the videos on the SS website where you talk about bars and equipment, but still have this question.

[Mark Rippetoe]

The 15kg bar was designed for Olympic weightlifting, the snatch and the clean & jerk. A skinnier bar is designed to be as "whippy" under loads handled by women as the 20kg bar is for men under the same circumstances, and under heavier loads the 25mm bar will get bent. They are expensive, and in my gym they are only used for the Olympic lifts. Women have been doing the SQ/Pr/BP/DL with the 20kg bar since it was invented. Is there a reason to use a smaller diameter bar for these lifts?

[Amy-in-PHX]

The 15kg bar was designed for Olympic weightlifting, the snatch and the clean & jerk. A skinnier bar is designed to be as "whippy" under loads handled by women as the 20kg bar is for men under the same circumstances, and under heavier loads the 25mm bar will get bent. They are expensive, and in my gym they are only used for the Olympic lifts. Women have been doing the SQ/Pr/BP/DL with the 20kg bar since it was invented. Is there a reason to use a smaller diameter bar for these lifts?

Thanks for your reply. I had seen the 15kg bars described as "women's bars" -- e.g., on the Roguefitness site Barbells - Weight Training Barbells from Rogue Fitness | Rogue Fitness -- so I thought their smaller diameter and lighter weight was to accommodate women's needs in all barbell training. From your answer I see that a 15kg bar is NOT a "women's bar" for women to use for squat/press/DL, but a bar for women who are Olympic lifting - which I understand to be the kind where you are doing "power" moves. Those are not in my plans (being almost 60 years old and having zero strength training up to now, I'm doing the squat, press, DL, and bench press, but no power clean) - so now I know that a 15kg bar is not what I need to buy. I thought smaller diameter might be easier to grip for me, since I have relatively short fingers. Also I need something lighter to start on than 20kg. Up to now I've been using the equipment at the Y - they have ~4' long bars with smaller-diameter collars, and plates that are 1kg or 2.5 kg. (I don't even count the weight of those bars in my lift totals since they are pretty light and not marked as to what they actually weigh. They're actually designed for group "fitness" classes and I have to sneak into the studio and grab a bar and plates to bring with me into the free weight room.) For DLs I use kettlebells, but I'll soon be up to 50 lbs on that lift. Might need to get a "technique bar" and then a 20kg bar later.

Thank you for all the work you put into the books, and the SS website, especially the "on the platform" training videos. Your books and Dr. Sullivan's are the most useful I've had in my hands since at least 1985 - and I can say with great confidence that nothing this useful was ever communicated to me in many years of "physical education" classes in public school, in the 60s - 70s. We used to do the President's Physical Fitness Test every year, but there was never any training to develop the abilities being tested!

[Mark Rippetoe]

Glad to help. Good luck with your training.

[MikeK]

Thanks for your reply. I had seen the 15kg bars described as "women's bars" -- e.g., on the Roguefitness site Barbells - Weight Training Barbells from Rogue Fitness | Rogue Fitness -- so I thought their smaller diameter and lighter weight was to accommodate women's needs in all barbell training. From your answer I see that a 15kg bar is NOT a "women's bar" for women to use for squat/press/DL, but a bar for women who are Olympic lifting - which I understand to be the kind where you are doing "power" moves. Those are not in my plans (being almost 60 years old and having zero strength training up to now, I'm doing the squat, press, DL, and bench press, but no power clean) - so now I know that a 15kg bar is not what I need to buy. I thought smaller diameter might be easier to grip for me, since I have relatively short fingers. Also I need something lighter to start on than 20kg. Up to now I've been using the equipment at the Y - they have ~4' long bars with smaller-diameter collars, and plates that are 1kg or 2.5 kg. (I don't even count the weight of those bars in my lift totals since they are pretty light and not marked as to what they actually weigh. They're actually designed for group "fitness" classes and I have to sneak into the studio and grab a bar and plates to bring with me into the free weight room.) For DLs I use kettlebells, but I'll soon be up to 50 lbs on that lift. Might need to get a "technique bar" and then a 20kg bar later.

Thank you for all the work you put into the books, and the SS website, especially the "on the platform" training videos. Your books and Dr. Sullivan's are the most useful I've had in my hands since at least 1985 - and I can say with great confidence that nothing this useful was ever communicated to me in many years of "physical education" classes in public school, in the 60s - 70s. We used to do the President's Physical Fitness Test every year, but there was never any training to develop the abilities being tested!

If you're looking at bars to start off with...my wife started out using a Rogue 10kg "junior" bar as opposed to a technique bar. It's more or less a women's bar (25mm), but with very short sleeves so it's lighter but can still fit on a standard power rack or squat rack. It's steel, it's cheaper than their aluminum 10kg technique bar (by $60), and the weight limit is going to be how much one can realistically fit on the short sleeves instead of driven by the strength of the bar itself. By the time she reaches that point, she'd have no problem using a regular 20kg power bar, but having a lighter one has definitely helped her build strength and confidence in the early going.

Good luck!

[Mark D]

I'm glad I saw this, I was planning on getting my wife a women's bar when we set up our garage gym this spring/summer. I was mostly concerned with the bar diameter during deadlifts since she has tiny hands, I thought the 29mm B&R might be a little much for her. (We're both over 50, no I won't say how MUCH over 50 she is, so power-cleans are not really in the cards.) We'll give it a try and see what happens, if she has trouble holding the B&R bar because of the thickness we'll explore other options.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Old York Classic bars are 28mm, and can be found used all over the country.