Best bars for squat, deadlift, and bench

[porky little keg]

Happy to see this come back up...... an important point that I think got buried in my original response..... try to train on the same bars you'll be competing with.
The different bars sit differently on your back and there's a HUGE difference in the way you squat with a 55 lb squat bar versus a 65lb bar...... with a thinner bar you can ride the bar whip out of the hole if you descend fast. With a stiffer bar it'll staple you if you do that.

 

[BrotherIron]

Never squatted with a 65lbs bar but I'd like to so I could feel the difference.

 

[EastCoast1]

I like squatting with a power bar like the texas bar. The squat bar(55lb) kills my damn arms if I train with it. I use it at the meet, and that is enough..lol

 

[dragnflies]

Happy to see this come back up...... an important point that I think got buried in my original response..... try to train on the same bars you'll be competing with.
The different bars sit differently on your back and there's a HUGE difference in the way you squat with a 55 lb squat bar versus a 65lb bar...... with a thinner bar you can ride the bar whip out of the hole if you descend fast. With a stiffer bar it'll staple you if you do that.

Love this kind of info. You can see the whip out of the hole with the thinner bar. I have a team mate who comes out of the hole so fast that the bar is a half inch off his shoulders when he hits the top. This was happening when we were in meet prep and training with the thinner bar that would be used. I have noticed that the air he got between himself and the bar is not happening with the Bulldog. He is still explosive, the bar is just not as helpful.

One of the most disconcerting things about the 65lb bar is the diameter. It makes gripping the bar more of a challenge. The whole setup took a toll on me mentally until I accepted it. I would un-rack, prepare to go down and back out on the lift and re-rack. This would happen on every first rep of the first set at working weight until about 3 weeks into our training cycle.

 

[Halo]

For me the Mastadon is unequaled I have an Iron Wolfe squat and DL bars and for me I don't like them, but I realize many people with big numbers do. I loath the 55lb Texas squat bar it definitely didn't help me at my last meet where they were brining in the mastadon in a light drizzle the night before and got enough rust on the collars to not be able to fit those damn Kilo plates, so they opted for not working the rust off and using the Texas 55lb squat bar. First as I was unracking in the mono it wasn't making it out of the rack because of the flex and the narrow bar seemed to be digging deeper into my back, after we corrected that with a rerack LOL I was descending with 860 and the bar never stopped flexing I'm sure if I would have trained with one I could have attempted to use the flex to my advantage on the turn up out of the hole but I hadn't and it jackhammered me for a second but I drove it up, should have been a 900 day but regardless I am not a fan.

Bench I use the Texas Power Bar

Deadlift I have the Iron Wolfe, but I'm a believer and love my Okie it's awesome.

Other bars I have are Buffalo, Elite Safety squat, Hollow fat bar, Big Curved Cambered bar

I coach the Naval Academy PL Team and they are they compete USAPL and based on that only use the 45lb Texas Power Bar type bars for all lifts so that is what they get to train with outside of speciality bars for box squats and chains bands etc when applicable.

 

[alpha]

Okie for DL's, TPB or Wolfe for squatting, and Wolfe for benching.