Masheen

The bar and plates

Barbell

Also called Olympic bar, Olympic barbell, power bar, straight bar

A barbell is a long steel bar that takes weight plates on both ends and is lifted with two hands.

20 kgShaft
An empty men's Olympic bar: 20 kg with nothing on it. Benching the bar is a 20 kg lift.

In plain words

The middle section you grip is the shaft. The thicker ends that plates slide onto are the sleeves.

What beginners miss is that the bar counts. A program that says 100 kg means bar plus plates: a 20 kg bar with 40 kg a side. In weightlifting the men's bar weighs 20 kg and the women's 15 kg, by the International Weightlifting Federation's rules. A 20 kg bar is 44.1 lb, so gyms working in pounds call it a 45 lb bar. Not every bar weighs 20 kg: shorter bars, EZ bars and Smith machine bars differ, and the weight is often stamped on the end of the sleeve.

An example

The bar in the figure has nothing on it: a men's Olympic bar, 20 kg of steel. Benching the bar is a 20 kg lift, and it is the weight every barbell lift starts from. Load it to 100 kg and you have the same 20 kg bar with 40 kg on each side. The bar is 20 kg of that number.

Often confused with

Smith machine A Smith machine's bar runs on rails and often weighs less than 20 kg; a barbell moves freely. Dumbbell A dumbbell is the short, one-hand version.
Sleeve The sleeve is the thick end of a barbell that the plates slide onto.
Knurling Knurling is the rough cross-hatched pattern cut into a bar's shaft where the hands go, so the bar does not slip.
Collar A collar is the fastener that goes on the end of a barbell, outside the plates, to stop them sliding off.
Plate A plate is a disc of metal or rubber with a hole in the middle that slides onto a barbell's sleeve.
Bumper plate A bumper plate is a weight plate covered in thick rubber, built so a loaded bar can be dropped to the floor.
EZ bar An EZ bar is a short barbell with a zigzag bend in the shaft, so the hands sit at an angle.
Trap bar A trap bar is a bar shaped as a frame you stand inside, with a handle at each side.

Go deeper

How much does a barbell weigh? Every bar in the gym A standard Olympic bar weighs 20 kg (44 lb), the women's bar 15 kg. Smith machine, EZ and trap bars have no standard. Checked figures, and how to check yours. Updated

Sources

  1. International Weightlifting Federation, Equipment (archive copy of 17 October 2026) Read

Updated . How these pages are researched and corrected: editorial policy. Every term in the glossary.