How much does a barbell weigh? Every bar in the gym

A standard Olympic barbell weighs 20 kg (44 lb). The women's Olympic bar weighs 15 kg (33 lb). Many bars in US gyms are sold as 45 lb instead. Smith machine, EZ and trap bars have no standard at all, so their weight depends on the maker. Once you know the bar, the Plate Calculator works out the plates for each side.

The standard bar: 20 kg

Two rule books set the figure. The International Weightlifting Federation's equipment rules say the men's bar weighs 20 kg and the women's bar weighs 15 kg. The International Powerlifting Federation's Technical Rulebook, effective 1 March 2026, puts the bar and its collars at 25 kg: a 20 kg bar and two collars of 2.5 kg each. In pounds, 20 kg is 44.1 lb, not 45.

The IWF equipment rules also set the markings, which is how you tell two competition bars apart: men's bars carry blue markings and women's bars yellow, matching the 20 kg and 15 kg discs.

The IPF Technical Rulebook adds the measurements: total length not to exceed 2.2 m, and a shaft diameter between 28 and 29 mm.

Makers who build to those rules list the same numbers. Eleiko, which makes IWF-certified bars, lists its men's bars at 20 kg with a 28 mm shaft and its women's bars at 15 kg with a 25 mm shaft.

Is it 45 lb or 20 kg?

Both exist. Rogue's Ohio Bar page states: "The Ohio Bar weighs 20KG or 44lbs." The same maker's catalogue also lists a Rogue 45LB Ohio Power Bar. So one US gym can hold 20 kg bars and 45 lb bars on the same rack. The gap between them is 0.4 kg, or 0.9 lb.

That gap is small enough to ignore inside one gym and large enough to notice in two places. It matters when you compare a lift across gyms, and when you count in the unit the bar was not sold in: a 45 lb bar is 20.4 kg, and a 20 kg bar is 44.1 lb.

The smallest step you can add decides how you move up, so it pays to know which plates your gym actually stocks; see double progression.

Every bar in the gym

Here is every bar you are likely to meet in a commercial gym, with the weight its named source gives. The first two rows come from rule books. The rest are one maker's figure for one model, so a bar from another maker can weigh something else.

The second column is the maker's or rule book's own unit; the third is the conversion. Where a row says "no standard", the figure is a starting point for the bar in front of you, nothing more.

The Smith machine bar

There is no standard. A Smith machine bar rides on rails and is often counterbalanced, so makers quote a starting resistance rather than a bar weight. The sheets we read run from 2 kg to a full 20 kg. The spread is wide enough that a guessed number is no use to anyone keeping a log.

The figures, smallest to largest:

• Spirit Fitness commercial Smith machine: "Bar is counterbalanced to 4.4 lb" (2 kg).
• Precor Vitality Smith Machine: starting weight 11 lb (5 kg).
• Atlantis E155: 5.4 kg (12 lb) in the maker's feature list, 7 kg (15 lb) in its specification table on the same page.
• Matrix Magnum Smith Machine (MG-PL62): "counter-balanced, 11.3 kg / 25 lb. bar takeoff".
• Life Fitness Smith Machine: starting resistance 30 lb (13.6 kg). Hammer Strength Vertical Smith Machine: 30 lb (14 kg).
• Life Fitness Axiom Series Smith Rack: starting resistance 45 lb (20 kg).

The Atlantis page is the warning: one maker, one model, two different weights printed in two places. So "the Smith bar weighs 15 lb" is true of some machines and wrong for others. The machine you use has its own number, and it is the only one worth logging.

EZ, trap and other bars

These have no standard either. Two EZ curl bars (a bar with a bent shaft): Eleiko's Curl Bar weighs 12 kg (26.5 lb) and the Rogue Curl Bar 30 lb (13.6 kg). Four trap bars, also called hex bars: York's Olympic Hex Bar weighs 45 lb (20.4 kg), Eleiko's Öppen Bar 25 kg (55.1 lb), the Rogue TB-2 60 lb (27.2 kg) and York's Multi Hex bar 77 lb (34.9 kg). The Rogue SB-1 safety squat bar weighs 70 lb (31.8 kg). Eleiko's Technique Bar weighs 10 kg (22.0 lb).

Each of those is one model from one maker. Rogue's other trap bar, the TB-1 2.0, is listed at 60 lb plus or minus 2 lb, so even a single maker allows a tolerance on a single bar. No rule book sets a weight for either, so a range quoted for EZ or trap bars is a summary of some makers' models, not a standard.

Eleiko describes its Technique Bar as a 10 kg bar with Olympic dimensions, built for beginner lifters and skill development. A bar of the same size at half the weight is one more reason to read the end cap.

How to check the bar in front of you

There are four ways, and any one of them gives you a number you can log from.

1. Read the end cap of the sleeve. Many bars have the weight stamped or printed there.
2. On a Smith machine, look for the maker's placard on the frame, or search the model name with "starting resistance".
3. Weigh it. Stand on a scale holding the bar, then stand on it without the bar, and subtract.
4. Ask at the gym desk. Staff may know which bars are which.

Once you know it, write it down, because every plate sum starts from it. Noting the bar beside the exercise is one of the small habits worth starting in your first four weeks in the gym.

Do you count the bar?

Yes. The weight you log is the bar plus everything on it. A 20 kg bar with one 20 kg plate on each side is 60 kg. In pounds, a 45 lb bar with one 45 lb plate on each side is 135 lb. Leave the bar out and every number in your log reads low.

Masheen is a workout log for people who lift, coming soon to iPhone and Android. Under every barbell set it draws the bar with the plates for each side, in kg or lb, and assumes a 20 kg bar (45 lb if you log in pounds) until you set your own bar weight. On this site, the Plate Calculator lets you pick the bar first: 20, 15 or 10 kg, 45 lb, or a weight you type in.