Olympic Bar Maintenance

Lets face it no matter whether you spent $ 150 or $ 1500 on your Olympic bar it almost certainly represents a substantial investment on your component. If you are running a gym, particularly a CrossFit or Strength and Conditioning fitness center, bars are certainly one particular of the most used and abused pieces of gear you have. Typically however nobody will take the time to effectively keep the bars. Let’s encounter it, the bar will get utilized and forgotten about, not to mention that typically there are a assortment of bar brands that are becoming utilized and normally the producers do not send out info with regards to the care of the bar. In truth I emailed all of our bar vendors asking them for data on how to keep and care for their bars and one truly emailed me and stated, “Here is our warranty info. Do not overload the bar, don’t drop the bar.” That was it! Absolutely nothing else. I have to inform you I was floored. So, the query remains, “How do we keep and care for our Olympic bars?”

RUST

One particular factor that need to be apparent about bars is that they are steel. Steel rusts when it gets moist. People sweat. Sweat=Wet=Bar Rust. Bar makers try to combat this by putting a coating on the bars. The most typical coatings (from least pricey to most high-priced) are black oxide, chrome, zinc, and creating bars from stainless steel. Even with these coatings you even now need to maintain the bar so hear are a couple of suggestions on what you can do.

Clean the chalk out of the knurling. If you use chalk and you are the only a single using the chalk then please clean the chalk off the bar. If you give chalk at your gymnasium then you require to clean the chalk off frequently (possibly daily). Use a small stiff nylon bristle brush to go in excess of the knurling. Remember that chalk dries sweaty palms. How does it do this? By absorbing moisture. Guess what it does even though sitting on the bar. Absorbs moisture! Any humidity in the air any moisture at all and the chalk will absorb and hold it on the steel. So if you want your bars to not rust please clean off the chalk.

Wipe your bars down regularly with a light coat of WD-40 or 3 in 1 oil. Regularly depends on how frequently the bar is used. If this is in your house then twice a month ought to be ample. If you are in a business setting then once a week would be better. If your utilizing them a great deal and in a higher humidity area then you may well want to do it much more often. WD-40 functions nicely due to the fact it is a water displacer and it dries swiftly. Spray it on a rag and wipe it down providing a great even coat across the whole bar. If you use 3 in one oil again location it on the rag and give a great thin coating across the whole bar. Allow it sit overnight and then wipe it down yet again. 3 in 1 will operate amazing but it will leave your bars feeling a bit much more greasy then WD-forty.

Most bars these days have been manufactured to be relatively upkeep free. You normally do not have to oil the sleeves. Most of the sleeves have oil impregnated bearings or bushings. Some of the increased finish bars do have modest oil holes in the sleeves. For these bars you would drop in some three in one oil (DO NOT use WD-forty here) and let it work into the sleeve. Once more do this soon after use and examine it prior to employing it yet again for any excess that may have leaked out to wipe it up.

STORAGE

Bars need to not be stored with weight on them. Time period. If you leave weight on your bar, especially if it is racked, you are just begging for a bent bar. The are designed to withstand the fat not developed to permanently hold the fat. Strip you bars. I know you are tired following a challenging workout but please catch your breath and put the plates away. Not only will this defend your bar, but if you are in a fitness center it will make the subsequent particular person who utilizes the bar much happier if they don’t have to strip it for you.

The bars can be stored on the rack unloaded or in a bar stand. If you can shop them horizontally it is better the vertically. We extremely recommend that you do not keep needle bearing bars in a horizontal bar holder. Dropping the bar into the holder can cause harm to the needle bearings. Most gyms that teach the Olympic lifts (that would use a needle bearing bar) do not care about mirrors so it is extremely simple to make a wall rack that you can store the bars on. Potomac CrossFit did a great occupation with theirs. Take a search at the photo.

All in all its rather straightforward to sustain an Olympic bar. A couple of minutes and you can safeguard your investment so that it lasts for many years and many years. If you have any other suggestions on keeping your Olympic bar we would really like to hear them. Depart us a comment.

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