Pin presses and rack pulls banned

[MWM]

I've found an almost perfect gym in my local area, owned by a former world champion powerlifter. However, during an e-mail conversation with their front desk, I was told that they don't allow pin presses or rack pulls for the following reason:

The pin presses and rack pulls are not permitted because it voids the warranty on the bars and they become easily damaged. the rack pulls particularly also make the bar behave quite differently with no slack to pull out of it so we have found it more an ego lift than a well positioned block pull.

The remark about ego lifting seems rather spurious to me (surely every useful lift can be an 'ego lift' if performed with too heavy a weight with no regard to proper technique, and the lack of slack just makes a rack pull a different lift to the deadlift in an additional respect, and not necessary a bad lift), but I'm intrigued by the comment about the warranty. This gym has Texas power bars and Olympic bars (they didn't tell me the make of the Olympic bars but my impression is they aren't bottom-of-the-barrel), so we're not talking about cheap junk which might plausibly be damaged in conditions that any decent bar wouldn't be. Presumably WFAC and the other Starting Strength gyms have bars of at least a comparable quality, and yet I've never heard anyone here say a word against pin presses and rack pulls for this reason. Is this gym being overly precious about their bars, or do WFAC and the SS gyms just consider rack pulls and pin presses too important to care about the warranty on/lifespan of their bars?

[stef]

It's really easy to bend bars if they're dropped on pins with rack pulls. Not as easy as dropping it over a bench or bailing at the top of a lift and letting it crash unevenly to the ground, but it can be a problem. The trick is to use bent bars for rack pulls. Blocks are fine alternative, assuming that you can get the height you need.

I don't know that any manufacturer specifically names rack work as voiding the warranty. If it were me, I'd check with the seller on that. That part sounds even more unlikely than bending bars via pin presses.

[MWM]

That's interesting. Do SS gyms keep a bent bar specifically for rack pulls, or are only block pulls allowed?

[Mark Rippetoe]

We have bent bars for rack pulls. Most people are not strong enough to bend a decent bar in a pin press.

[CSilv2016]

Just out of curiosity, how long do the rack pull bars last before they are too bent for even rack pulls?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Decades.