[Al Myers]

I seen the pic of your heavy bar sleeve last night on facebook. It looks great! Make sure that it is centered on your bar! Have fun heavy lifting!! Al

[Al Myers]

RJ – I hope they didn’t buy some of those “smart bars” from Power Systems!!! haha

[Al Myers]

I’d like to make a couple more points about Olympic Weightlifting bars. The High Quality bars can be IWF certified if the manufacturer decides to. This means meeting the specs set by the IWF, and paying the fee. I just got this off the IWF site:

USA Weightlifting Barbell Certification Opportunity

Barbell manufacturers whose barbell sets meet IWF certification standards, but are not currently certified by the IWF, now have the opportunity to receive USA Weightlifting certification for use of their barbell sets in USA Weightlifting national and non-national events.

In order to receive this certification, manufacturers must meet the following requirements:

•Barbell sets must meet all IWF standards for IWF certification as specified in the most current IWF Technical & Competition Rules;
•The manufacturer must make produce 20 kg and 15 kg bars, to the most current IWF certification standards available;
•If the IWF standards change during the one-year certification period, the USA Weightlifting certification is voided thereafter for the balance of the certification period;
•Barbell sets for which manufacturers seek certification, are subject to independent testing and evaluation, as USA Weightlifting, in its sole discretion, shall determine;
•USA Weightlifting retains all rights to approve or deny certification.

The USA Weightlifting annual non-refundable certification fee is $10,000.

I have not been able to find a current list of IWF certified bars. I assume these are: Eleiko, Werksan, Zhangkong

Does anyone know of others? What about Uesaka? I know they were at one time, as well as the Leoko.

However, bars can meet the specs of certification without being identified as “certified bars”. I call these spec bars, meaning they could be certified bars if they just wanted to “pony up” the money for it. Al

[Al Myers]

Timo – I’m still WAITING on the Leoko bar! But I’m looking forward to it.

Jim – the extra long bar that Rigolot used definitely assisted him in those lifts. I’ve seen the pictures of it and it looks like it would get a good flex and whip. But the question to ask is this – did it provide any more assistance than the quality WL bars that we have today??? Probably not.

dinoman

[Al Myers]

Another thing –

I’m glad you guys liked my article. There really is not much on the internet covering proper evaluation of lifting bars. And what is available – is heavy in propoganda as its from bar manufacturers. There’s some info in discussion forums – but much of that is BS.

My wife never reads anything I write in the USAWA Daily News. Last night, after finishing that story, I was so proud of it I tried to get her to read it. I brought it up on the ipad as we were sitting around the living room watching TV, and gave it to her. She only spent 20-30 seconds looking at it, and said nonchalently, “it looks good”. There’s no way she read that LONG PIECE in that short of time! Even my wife doesn’t want to read the crap I write – so I sincerely THANK ANYONE who read it all and got something out of it!!! haha Dinoman

[Al Myers]

Jim, In answer to your question – this is the website for Solid Bar: http://www.solidbarfitness.com/

They mainly deal through distributers,but do sell directly with better prices. The bar I like is the Midwest Power Bar. It’s a great bar for the price and is rated well (165000PSI). Now I have bent a couple of them, but only after lots of use. I abuse them like crazy, and use them for things a bar is not designed for (like Harness Zercher Squats and harness Front squats). You can get the bar with center knurling and without. Al

[Al Myers]

Jesse – I’ve been waiting on a review from you on your Pendlay NexGen bar. I take it you have liked it – but is there anything about it that you don’t like?? Lately I’ve been using the Pendlay Elite Bar as my primary OLY platform bar.

I’ve been fortunate to have owned 3 Jesup bars (the old ones). I wish now I would have bought several of them when they were available. The old Jesup bars had a thick shaft (1-1/4″ and were stiff bars. The new Jesup bars are not the same bars. I still have one left, and its very loose in the sleeves from wear. I don’t use it anymore.

Al

[Al Myers]

Thom hasn’t said whether he will sell it to me or not. I think he’s holding out for more money.

[Al Myers]

Haha Now the 300# Anvil – that would be on the TOP of my wish list!!

[Al Myers]

I looked at that youtube video and it appears to be just a sliding sleeve mechanism on uprights. What controls the constant speed? It doesn’t appear to have anything to do that – thus how can it be called an isokinetic rack???

I think this is more a “marketing scheme” than an engineered piece of equipment. I would take this off your wish list James! haha Dinoman

[Al Myers]

James, Your Steinborn technique looks very good. You position yourself well racking the bar onto your back, and it looked very natural. I was surprised to see you rack the bar on the back going both directions – most lifters do not do that. Good job! dinoman

[Al Myers]

James, Like Dan, this is the first I’ve ever heard of an isokinetic power rack, and as long as I’ve been around the iron game, I’ver heard about everything!

I looked over those links and articles and I never seen any info on the design specs of something like this. It would have to be engineered to maintain constant bar speed during a lift. Hopefully, this would be a feature you could adjust depending on the exercise in question. I can think of a couple of ways this could be done. Do you have any pictures of this type of power rack? And if so could you send them to me?

I have no idea if this would have any benefits of enhancing a lift, but it is an interesting concept. Al

[Al Myers]

Thom, if no one else wants the three hundred pounder – I’ll take it. That way you will have some “spending money” to make it to Ambridge, so you won’t have to bum gas money from the rest of us!!! haha Al

[Al Myers]

ET – it’s about time that you join the social media. You would be surprised how many friends that you have! Al

[Al Myers]

I take it the 0 dollars means Thoms giving them away.

[Author]

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