Competition bar thickness

[JHall]

I train at home right now with a Rogue Bar (28.5mm). I am visiting family out of town and went to a commercial gym and the bars there felt very thick. Not axle thick, but far thicker than I am used to, and my forearms had a lot of trouble with grip.

I would like to at least lift once in a PL meet at some point, so my question is to those who do compete what the general thickness is for the bars, in particular with respect to the deadlift. I checked out the Texas Power Bar which appears to be about the same thickness as the Rogue Bar, if not slightly thicker. I am just trying to figure out if I need to buy a new bar to train with to build up better grip strength, or whether a 28.5mm bar is close enough to typical. Thanks.

[Tom Campitelli]

28.5 mm is a standard thickness Oly bar. It depends upon the powerlifting federation and the equipment available at the place that is hosting, but many use a bar that is 28.5 or 29 mm for deadlifts because of this reason. Some federations spell out the bar diameters in their rules, too.

[AdamW]

29mm is the thickest you will see for deadlifting at a meet. Sometimes the squat bar is thicker but that shouldn't be an issue. The bars at the gym were probably shitty 32mm bars.

[Dastardly]

Bear in mind that the perhaps the most popular bar for deadlift competition is the texas deadlift bar. That thing has mountain peaks for knurl, would cut right through the hands of an ordinary mortal.

[Dave 321]

I think the texas dealdift bar is 28mm, the power bar is 29mm and the squat bar?

I think the squat bar is like 500mm or something.