Category Archives: FAQ

Bar Shopping



www.roguefitness.com is now the best place in the world to shop for a new bar. Not only can you be sure that any bar that you buy from our site will be top quality, it is now much easier to choose a bar to perfectly fit your needs.

We have a huge selection of bars, ranging from needle bearing Olympic weightlifting bars, to men’s and women’s multipurpose bars. We also have bars ranging from powerlifting bars to junior and technique bars and even specialty bars, as well as everything in between with the tools and knowledge that will enable you to pick the bar that is perfect for your application.

If you are looking for a certain brand, an intended use, a feature, a shaft diameter, a knurling texture, a construction method, a specific tensile strength, a coating, or even a certain color, it has never been easier to find what you are looking for.

Whether you are looking for a men’s weightlifting bar, a women’s bar or need something more specific like a 28 MM bar with bushings and no center knurl or 29 MM bar made from 185K PSI steel with powerlifting knurl markings finding what you need is as easy as picking from the categories on the left side of the page. Keep choosing categories to narrow down the choices until you have found exactly the bar you are looking for.

Check out our Bars Page to try it out.

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More Bar Questions

There are many variables to consider when choosing a bar. Here are some questions that you might be asking:

Do you choose a 25 mm, 28 mm bar, 28.5 mm or 29 mm bar or do you go even thicker?

What is bar whip and do you need it?

What finish is best for you?

What knurling texture will best suit you?

Olympic Competition bars are 25 mm in diameter for women and 28 mm for men. These diameters have 2 effects. First they allow most people to properly perform a hook grip. Second, the thinner steel is able to “whip”. A hook grip, where your thumb is gripped between the fingers and the bar, is not only stronger, it allows you to grip the bar while keeping your forearms somewhat relaxed. When your arms are relaxed you are much more able to perform the rapid movements required for the clean and the snatch. The whip in the bar allows an advanced lifter to use the bar as a spring by taking advantage of the fact that the bar bends under the load and acceleration and then springs back to it’s original shape.

It takes stronger steel to reach the same strength as a 28.5 mm or higher diameter with a 28 mm bar and therefore these bars are typically more expensive if made to stand up to the demands of Olympic lifting.

28.5 mm bars still allow athletes to use a hook grip and whip pretty well, but not as well as 28 mm bars. 28.5 mm also works well for Powerlifting. Therefore many hybrid, general purpose or CrossFit bars have 28.5 mm shafts. Most of the bars used for men at the CrossFit Games for the past several years have been 28.5 mm.

Most dedicated Powerlifting bars are 29 mm. They do not make separate bars for men and women, since a hook grip is not required. Athletes use an alternating grip for deadlift that allows nearly any hand size to grip effectively.

29 mm bars are much stiffer than 28 mm bars so some of the whip of an Olympic competition bar is lost in a Powerlifitng bar. In competion, the whip is not needed as much since the power lifts are not as dynamic as Olympic lifts, although some people do use the whip to get out of the bottom of a squat.

The thicker a bar gets, the more comfortable it feels on your shoulders for back squats and the easier it is for a bar manufacturer to make a really strong bar. Also gripping a thicker bar will help develop grip strength. Rogue sells bars with diameters as high as 50 mm specifically to work on grip strength.

An uncoated bar often offers the best grip available without having to make a sharp knurl that will tear up your hands. However, if you live in a humid climate or near the ocean, the bar will quickly rust unless it is made out of stainless steel which is much more expensive. The rust will not affect the performance of the bar unless it is excessive, but it will discolor the bar which is a problem for many people.

Chrome offers rust resistance but is generally more slippery than uncoated steel. However, there are many types of chrome and if done well the grip can be quite good. Many of the best bars in the world have a chrome finish.

Nearly everyone agrees that the best knurling texture for Olympic lifting is a fine knurl that is not sharp. This is accomplished by closer spacing of the cuts and deeper cuts than you will see on the bar that comes with the 300-pound weight set from your local sporting goods store. Knurling like this takes precision equipment and is time-consuming to create, which is one of the things that makes bars like this so special.

There is less consensus in the Powerlifting world with respect to knurling texture. Some athletes like the same knurling texture as the Olympic lifters. However, some prefer a slightly sharper knurl that comes from making the cuts a little deeper. Rogue sells power bars with both styles of knurling.

The Olympic style knurling seems to be perfect for CrossFit movements and workouts which is why most quality bars aimed at the CrossFit market have this texture.

Once you know the answers to these questions, you can find the perfect bar to suit your needs here.

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Center Knurl or No Center Knurl?

You may be trying to decide between a bar with a center knurl like this, this, or this and a bar with no center knurl like this, this, or this.

There is not a definite right or wrong answer. Any of these bars will perform well at just about any task you throw at them, but different bars are optimized to really excel in certain areas. It all depends on what your predominant use will be for the bar. You need to ask yourself some questions as for whether or not a bar has a center knurl is only a small part of picking the right bar for you.

Will the bar be used predominately for powerlifting movements, Olympic lifting movements or both?

Will the bar be used in CrossFit workouts?

Here is some discussion to help the answers to those questions to help guide you to the perfect bar to fit your needs.

If you will be predominantly Powerlifting and only occasionally Olympic lifting a good power bar will serve you well. The center knurl will help keep the bar in place on your back during back squats and on your chest for front squats. If you are not doing cleans and thrusters you will not have to worry about scraping up your chest. Even if you are using a bar with center knurling for traditional Olympic lifting workouts a center knurl may not bother you, because the number of repetitions is not typically that high. In fact, all certified men’s Olympic lifting bars have a center knurl. However, if you are doing Olympic lifts during CrossFit workouts you may end up scraping you chest raw.

If you will have separate bars for Olympic and power lifts or of you almost exclusively Olympic lift, you will love the dedicated Olympic lifting bars or even the hybrid bars without a center knurl since you won’t end up with a permanent abrasion on your collar bones.

If you are competing or considering competing in Olympic weightlifting or Powerlifting, not only are you likely to lift more with a dedicated bar for that sport, you will also be lifting with an implement that is a close as possible to what you will be using in competition, helping to eliminate at least one variable on competition day.

Dedicated Olympic bars have bearings or bushings that ensure that the collars will spin freely 100% of the time which greatly reduces the likelihood of a wrist injury. Since many of the athletes that Rogue caters to, do a variety of lifts, most of the bars we sell spin well enough to keep you safe when Olympic lifting. However, a really fast bearing bar, may not be the best choice for bench press, since the spin may cause the weight to feel wobbly, making the lift more difficult and less safe.

If you will be using the bar for CrossFit workouts and both Olympic lifting and Powerlifting, a good hybrid bar like the Rogue Bar or the Burgener Rippetoe Bar may serve you well. They will stand up to abuse and do well in all the movements.

There are many other variables and many other questions you can ask to find the perfect bar for your situation. Read the descriptions carefully and don’t hesitate to ask questions to ensure that you get the best product available for your situation.

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Rogue Bumpers ZERO FAILURES – Tested in the Field


At Rogue we are staffed with an Industrial Engineer and a Mechanical Engineer so understanding how our equipment is made is critical. That being said we could tell you all kind of factors concerning your bumpers like modulus of elasticity and sheer strength but would you understand what that means? How about if we told you that neither Rogue Fitness or HiTemp has replaced a single bumper due to failure.

The zero above is the amount of Rogue HiTemp bumpers that have been replaced due to failure! The HiTemp factory has not replaced a single bumper in over one year due to failure.

This is out of hundreds of thousands of pounds that are out there getting used daily. Rogue HiTemps are unlike the Chinese made bumpers, they are made with recycled rubber and bonding compounds. This is why we believe that the best way to test bumper plates is through destructive testing and/or repeated use. With the number above it is easy to see how they hold up!

We just received a new Rogue Bumper similar to the MHTY bumpers that are produced in China. Now we will see if they can meet the same standard!

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