Here, you'll find everything you need to know about a straight barbell. No, really everything.
Start with knowledge: an introduction to barbells and look at the REP® barbell comparisons and market comparisons so you can be confident in your choices.
Finally, we gave some expert advice on how to take care of your barbell(s).
STEP 1: LEARN
INTRODUCTION TO STRAIGHT BARBELLS
MIXED-USE BARS
Best for: Mixed-use
The Colorado™ Bar represents our signature, flagship bar. This is a 20kg premium mixed-use barbell.
FEATURES
- Finish of Shaft/Sleeves:
Hard Chrome/Hard Chrome
Black, Blue, Green, Red, White Cerakote/Duracoat® - High-end touches:
-Laser-cut etchings of the barbell name, weight, and a tribute to Colorado, where REP was founded
-Metal endcaps featuring a unique design - Free shipping
- Price: $299.99
Best for: Mixed-use
The Colorado™ Bar represents our signature, flagship bar. This is a 15kg premium mixed-use barbell.
FEATURES
- Finish of Shaft/Sleeves:
Hard Chrome/Hard Chrome
Black Cerakote/Duracoat®
Pink Cerakote/Duracoat® - High-end touches:
-Laser-cut etchings of the barbell name, weight, and a tribute to Colorado, where REP was founded
-Metal endcaps featuring a unique design - Free shipping
- Price: $249.99
Best for: Mixed Use
The 20kg Black Canyon™ Bar is a high-value, mixed-use barbell great for powerlifting, Olympic weightlifting, and cross-training/HIIT-style workouts.
FEATURES
- Finish of Shaft/Sleeves:
Bright Zinc/Bright Zinc
Black Chrome/Black Chrome - Endcaps featuring a unique design
- Free shipping
- Price: $249.99
Best for: Mixed-use
The 15kg Black Canyon™ Bar is a high-value, mixed-use barbell great for powerlifting, Olympic weightlifting, and cross-training/HIIT-style workouts.
FEATURES
- Finish of Shaft/Sleeves:
Bright Zinc/Bright Zinc - Endcaps featuring a unique design
- Free shipping
- Price: $219.99
Best for: Mixed-use; Powerlifting
The Delta™ Basic Bar is a high-quality, powerlifting/mixed-use barbell for lifters looking for great value and versatility.
FEATURES
- Finish of Shaft/Sleeves: Bright Chrome/Bright Chrome
- Endcaps featuring a unique design
- Free shipping
- Price: $179.99
WEIGHTLIFTING BARS
Best for: Weightlifting
The 20kg Alpine™ Weightlifting Bar is REP's top-tier Olympic weightlifting barbell. This bar follows International Weightlifting Federation specifications, including a 28mm diameter.
FEATURES
- Finish of Shaft/Sleeves:
Hard Chrome/Hard Chrome
Black Chrome/Hard Chrome
Stainless Steel/Stainless Steel - High-end touches:
-Laser-cut etchings of the barbell name, weight, and a tribute to Colorado, where REP was founded
-Metal endcaps featuring a unique design - Free shipping
- Price: $329.99
Best for: Weightlifting
The 15kg Alpine™ Weightlifting Bar is REP's premium Olympic weightlifting barbell with a 25mm shaft, designed in compliance with the International Weightlifting Federation's specifications for female lifters.
FEATURES
- Finish of Shaft/Sleeves:
Hard Chrome/Hard Chrome - High-end touches:
-Laser-cut etchings of the barbell name, weight, and a tribute to Colorado, where REP was founded
-Metal endcaps featuring a unique design - Free shipping
- Price: $279.99
Best for: Weightlifting
The 20kg Teton™ Training Bar is a high-value, Olympic weightlifting barbell. This bar features a 28mm diameter shaft in compliance with the specifications for male lifters in the International Weightlifting Federation and many functional fitness competitions.
FEATURES
- Finish of Shaft/Sleeves:
Bright Zinc/Bright Zinc
Black Chrome/Bright Zinc - Endcaps featuring a unique design
- Free shipping
- Price: $249.99
Best for: Weightlifting
The 15kg Teton™ Training Bar is a high-value, Olympic weightlifting barbell. This bar features a 25mm diameter shaft in compliance with the specifications for female lifters in the International Weightlifting Federation and many functional fitness competitions.
FEATURES
- Finish of Shaft/Sleeves: Bright Zinc/Bright Zinc
- Endcaps featuring a unique design
- Free shipping
- Price: $219.99
POWERLIFTING BARS
Best for: Powerlifting
The Black Diamond™ Power Bar is REP's top-tier powerlifting barbell with aggressive-depth, volcano-pattern knurling.
FEATURES
- Finish of Shaft/Sleeves:
Black, Blue, Green, or Red Cerakote/Duracoat®
Stainless Steel/Hard Chrome
Stainless Steel/Stainless Steel - High-end touches:
-Laser-cut etchings of the barbell name, weight, and a tribute to Colorado, where REP was founded
-Metal endcaps featuring a unique design - Free shipping
- Price: $279.99
Best for: Powerlifting
The Double Black Diamond™ Power Bar is REP's top-tier powerlifting barbell with very aggressive mountain-style knurling to provide maximum grip.
FEATURES
- Finish of Shaft/Sleeves:
Black, Blue, Green, or Red Cerakote/Duracoat®
Stainless Steel/Hard Chrome
Stainless Steel/Stainless Steel - High-end touches:
-Laser-cut etchings of the barbell name, weight, and a tribute to Colorado, where REP was founded
-Metal endcaps featuring a unique design - Free shipping
- Price: $299.99
Best for: Powerlifting
The Badlands™ Bar is a great powerlifting barbell for lifters who want a bar for all three powerlifting lifts. It features aggressive, mountain-style knurling to provide maximum grip support for heavy deadlifts, although the bar can also be used for bench press, and its center knurling helps keep it in place during squats.
FEATURES
- Finish of Shaft/Sleeves:
Bright Zinc/Bright Zinc
Black Chrome/Bright Zinc - Endcaps featuring a unique design
- Free shipping
- Price: $249.99
Best for: Squatting
The Helios™ Squat Bar is a top-tier, specialty barbell designed specifically for squats.
FEATURES
- Finish of Shaft/Sleeves: Black Cerakote/Durcoat®
- High-end touches:
-Laser-cut etchings of the barbell name, weight, and a tribute to Colorado, where REP was founded
-Metal endcaps featuring a unique design - Free shipping
- Price: $369.99
Best for: Deadlifting
The Hades™ Deadlift Bar is REP's top-tier deadlifting-specific barbell. This 20kg (44.1lb) bar features no center knurling and very aggressive, deep, mountain-style knurling to provide maximum grip support for heavy deadlifts.
FEATURES
- Finish of Shaft/Sleeves: Black Cerakote/Duracoat®
- High-end touches:
-Laser-cut etchings of the barbell name, weight, and a tribute to Colorado, where REP was founded
-Metal endcaps featuring a unique design - Free shipping
- Price: $339.99
TECHNIQUE BARS
Best for: Technique Training
REP's lightweight Mesa™ Technique Bar is ideal to help you learn the proper techniques of Olympic weightlifting and powerlifting.
FEATURES
- Finish of Shaft/Sleeves: Aluminum/Duracoat®
- End caps featuring a unique design
- Free shipping
- Price: $159.99
STRAIGHT BARBELL COMPARISONS
They may look similar, but all barbells are not for all kinds of lifts. Try to do a snatch with a squat bar or a heavy bench press with a super spinny weightlifting barbell, and you’ll immediately see why. (Actually, no, please don't try that.)There are four main styles of barbells: powerlifting, Olympic weightlifting, mixed-use, and specialty. These each come with different characteristics ideal for different kinds of lifts
LEARN MOREConstruction refers to things like material, bearings, and bushings. We use state-of-the-art processes to ensure a consistent, high-quality product and sets the standard for manufacturing.
Our barbells were designed by lifters for lifters; our engineers (and our whole team) live the gym lifestyle and use REP’s equipment ourselves. This line of barbells was over 10 years in the making -- the fusion of customer insights, rigorous testing, thousands of reps by different types of athletes, and our decades of experience in both lifting and designing quality, innovative gym equipment.
When designing these bars, our engineers paid close attention to every detail:
> Consistent knurling and well thought-out knurling patterns for different types of bars
> Tons of design effort put into tolerance analysis to ensure the bars have the most solid build quality possible and extremely tight tolerances. Everything fits together perfectly every single time.
> Specs that are strategic for each bar. Our weightlifting bars adhere to International Weightlifting Federation standards, and our power bars are in alignment with the International Powerlifting Federation’s competition specifications. We carefully considered the length, diameter, and all specs of every bar – because even 1mm difference can totally affect the feeling and function of a bar. We get it.
> Newer (and rare) technologies, such as high-end barbell sleeve construction options like our inner race needle bearings on the Alpine™ Weightlifting Bar.
We test each batch of steel to ensure it’s up to our rigorous quality standards. In fact, we went through five different types of steel and stainless-steel prototypes to find the exact material for the best attributes for each type of bar we designed (power bar, Olympic weightlifting bar, mixed-use bar, training bar).
The actual makeup of the steel – the heat treatment and the final result – varies between the different types of bars. For example, how we treat a power bar vs. the Colorado™ Bar is different (tensile strength, stiffness, shaft diameter). It all depends on the functions and demands of the bars.
We strive to deliver a great product to your door with no hassle. We ensure this by employing our own quality control team that is on-site daily, at the manufacturer and warehouses, for both inspections and training to improve production methods (even the robots need help sometimes!) and packaging. We also ensure our packaging is designed to survive the occasional brutal beating while en route to the customer, so you'll notice our boxes are reinforced and the parts within are further protected with internal packaging.
Our competitors that import often don't spend the money for quality control, and our competitors who manufacture domestically often don't spend the money for great packaging -- both of which lead to hassle for you as you try to get credit for damaged parts or new parts sent.
You will also notice consistent high quality in the equipment itself. Every barbell is as beautiful as the next, even down to our coatings. We put a ton of effort to dial in the perfect Duracoat® or Cerakote coatings, and they’re always consistent, due to our standardized process. With REP’s barbells, you know what you’ll get. Every time.
Value is subjective, but we're at the sweet intersection of price and quality. Spend more, and it's likely just for a name or very minor, nonfunctional details. Spend less and you're likely rolling the dice on durability over time. The benefit of our scale is that we can employ the most modern manufacturing methods, resulting in a consistent, high-quality product.
For barbells, good quality construction is important – good quality materials, consistency – and at a price you can afford.
STEP 2: MAINTENANCE
Barbells take a ton of abuse. They bear a heavy burden and are thrown around, bumped and jerked, and then often put away filthy to forget about until tomorrow. But barbells need love, too. After investing in a quality barbell, you want it to last – and continue working well as long as you’re working. Taking care of your bar will keep its spin smooth, maintain the knurling, and keep it looking shiny and new. Follow the link to learn how to properly care for your barbell so it doesn’t rust and bust.
LEARN MORE