Olympic barbell sets are a must have for your home gym. If you only have one barbell set, you'll have to keep moving it from the power rack to the floor depending on the exercises you've chosen for your weight lifting cycle.


This can take a lot of extra time and energy when you're working out. That's why I suggest you buy two barbell sets for your home gym.


You should always purchase the olympic weight lifting bars and olympic weights. These are much better quality than the standard weight lifting bars and will hold much more weight and last you a lot longer. A few good sets of olympic weight lifting bars and weights will last you a lifetime!


For example, let's say you're doing barbell deadlifts from the floor with around 400 pounds for your back depth exercise. Your next exercise after the barbell deadlifts is seated overhead barbell press for your shoulders. You'll only be using around 150 pounds for your seated overhead barbell press.

Now, you have to get the majority of the 400 pounds of weight off of the barbell and get it back into the power rack. You'll have to bend over multiple times to take all the weight off the barbell. You'll be wasting a lot of energy just getting the weights off the barbell. And this is just to get ready for one exercise! What if you have multiple exercises like this? Too much time and too much energy is wasted.

Once you have most of the weight off the barbell, you'll need to get the correct weight for your warm up set for overhead barbell press. Then you'll be loading the bar back up with more weight for your working set of overhead press. You don't need all that extra work before your shoulder exercise.


You're weight lifting efforts will suffer from the added effort of moving the olympic weights and the bar from the floor to the power rack.


Let's say you followed my advice and you now have two barbell sets. You can leave the loaded barbell with 400 pounds of weight on the floor. You don't need it for your next exercise, and you don't have to move the barbell back to the power rack.


You already have a second barbell in the power rack. You get it loaded with the correct weight for your warm up set of overhead press. You're then ready for the warm up set. No wasted energy in between sets.


The second barbell improves your weight lifting because you save all your energy for your actual weight lifting exercises and not for exchanging weights just to get the barbell back into the power rack.


If you don't have the money for a second olympic barbell set, then you do have some options. When you're choosing your weight lifting exercises for your weightlifting program, you'll need to be conscious of the types of exercises you choose and whether you'll be using a barbell or dumbell for your exercises.


You can also make sure to not choose exercises that are done from the floor. Do rack deadlifts instead of deadlifts from the floor. These are the things you'll have to think about if you don't want to spend the money on an extra barbell set consisting of another olympic weight lifting bar and olympic weights.


It would be much easier, though, to just purchase the extra barbell set. Then you won't be designing your weight lifting program around the lack of equipment!


You want to design your weight lifting program around the exercises that you need to improve your body. You don't want to worry about choosing exercises that aren't the best for you just because you don't have that extra barbell set.


Trust me, I've went thru all of this before. I've spent so much energy changing weights. My weight lifting suffered. I finally decided to invest in a few more olympic weight lifting bars and olympic weights. Saved me lots of time and energy! And my body benefited.


Olympic barbell sets have really become expensive over the past several years. I remember when you could buy a set for a little over $100. Now, they have tripled and even quadrupled in price due to rising steel prices. You've got to have them, though...

Learn more about Weight Training Equipment at the Main Equipment Section of the Website: Weight Training Equipment Recommended equipment, what to look for in equipment when buying, and more!

Or, you can go straight to the guides on each of the pieces of weight lifting equipment below...

Home Gym Flooring		Weight Benches
Power Rack		Home Gyms
Adjustable Dumbbells		Olympic Weights
Dumbbell Sets		Trap Bar
Smith Machine		Hip Belt
Pull Up Station		Home Gym Equipment

The guides above will tell you what to look for in each piece of weight training equipment. You won't find information like this anywhere else.


Go back to Weight Training Equipment from Olympic Barbell Sets