Olympic Weight Lifting Equipment

Olympic Weight Lifting Equipment

So you want to get some high quality Olympic weight lifting equipment, but where do you start? From barbells, to finding an Olympic weight set, there’s a huge range of quality in Olympic weight lifting equipment. You don’t want to make the mistake of buying junk that you’ll need to replace a year later as you get stronger, but at the same time there’s no reason to spend more than you need to. Here are some tips and questions to ask yourself that will guide you toward the right type of Olympic weight lifting equipment for your budget and your preferred training style:

1) Do you plan on doing mainly Olympic lifts, or mainly power lifts?
a) Power Lifts – If you plan on focusing on the power lifts like the bench, squat, and deads, then you basically need 3 things: A barbell, a bench, and a power rack. You can go cheap and just get a simple squat rack, but it won’t be as safe and won’t allow you to do as many movements. I’d recommend saving for a power rack if you can afford it, otherwise you’ll end up wanting to sell your squat rack in a year or so and get a power rack.
You can get away with a less expensive barbell than the Olympic lifters need. Something in the range of $150 will work fine for all but the strongest lifters. If you routinely squat or deadlift over 500lbs, you might want to consider stepping up to some of the higher quality Olympic weight lifting equipment that’s made in the USA. Expect to spend around $350 if you want a barbell that will hold up no matter how much you lift. Lastly, take some of the money you save on a bar and get yourself a bench. Be sure it’s made of heavy gauge steel, and don’t forget to take into account the fact that the bench needs to be able to hold your weight plus whatever amount of weight you’re lifting.
b) Olympic Lifts – If you want to train mainly the Olympic lifts, or split your time between the Olympic and the power lifts, you need to shell out for a quality barbell. A crappy barbell isn’t going to have smoothly spinning sleeves, and that can potentially cause serious injury to your wrists if the barbell doesn’t cooperate during a heavy lift. Expect to spend around $350 for a high quality American made barbell that will have smoothly spinning sleeves and can withstand the shock of being dropped from overhead without bending.
Another investment you should make is in an nice Olympic weight set that includes some bumper plates. It goes without saying that you can’t drop the weight from overhead without bumper plates, so go ahead and pick up at least a pair of 45’s, if not a full 200-300 lb set. With just these two pieces of Olympic weight lifting equipment, you have the majority of what you need to build some serious muscle.

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