Best Barbells for Your Workouts

If you’re looking for a high-quality barbell set to start your home fitness routine, this offering from Step Fitness may really interest you. It’s a perfect beginner set that comes at a very reasonable price and has quite a lot of novelty features to bring to the table.

To begin with, this is a deluxe set that stands out from the competition with its unique design. Unlike others, the weights on this set are designed like steering wheels with multiple grips, making the weights much easier to hold, which is particularly great for beginners. Also, the design like this allows for more training options as you can take the weights off the set and use them alone as dumbbells for other exercises in your fitness routine. The weights have an additional handle and are quite comfortable to use without the bar. The Nylon collars in this set are also super quick to use, meaning that swapping out weights on the bar will be easy as well.

The SOSUSHOE Weights Dumbbells Set will be an ideal offering for those who’re limited in space but still want to get the most out of their workouts. It’s an ultimate versatile piece of fitness equipment that can help you perform a wide variety of exercises from squats and deadlifts to curls, shoulder presses, triceps extension, and many more.

First off, we would like to mention that this set consists of two dumbbells, a reliable grip, an arm tension band, and a push-up plate. The dumbbells can be used on their own or easily transformed into a barbell using the connecting rod (included in the box). The connecting rod is wrapped in a generous layer of foam, which is intended to protect your skin from scratches, prevent slipping, and relieve the pressure of the barbell on your body.

As your fitness level grows, you can try to increase the weight plates to maximize your body workouts. For light exercising, it’ll be enough to involve the weight plates from one dumbbell, but for more intensive workouts, you can benefit from attaching the weights from both dumbbells. The connecting rod is sturdy enough to accommodate them all. Even when fully loaded, the bar feels ultimately stable.

Started as one of a few professional fitness companies, CAP has been producing high-quality equipment for gyms and homes for over 30 years now. The brand offers a wide variety of specialty bars for Olympic and Power Lifting, and what we have here is the lifting barbell from the Beast series. It’s been crafted from high-quality materials and finished in an extra-durable coating to provide long-lasting performance.

Being a classic option, this Beast Olympic Bar is produced from durable metal and measures 86 inches in length. The whole thing is machined extremely well and can easily take on super-heavy workloads, which makes it a perfect choice for professional weightlifters and club owners alike. The bar is carefully engineered with 110,000 PSI tensile strength cold-rolled Japanese steel and a black phosphate finish that is pleasant to touch. It also seems to provide solid protection from the elements and feels like it will grip well, especially seeing as the bar doesn't have a center knurl on it. That is to say, this bar is ideal for squats, deadlifts, bench presses, and some other exercises that don’t require a center knurl.

The side knurls here are at a nice medium depth: at 30-mm in diameter, they are not too deep and not too smooth, so the bar feels like it does its job well without cutting at all and even if you're not going to use straps or chalk, the grip will be amazing.

If you’d like to add some variety to your workouts for not a lot of money, you may be interested in the Soges Adjustable Dumbbells pair. Available for less than $100, you get a set of two dumbbells, four 4.4-lb plates, and eight 5.5-lb plates, the total weight of which makes 66 lbs and can be adjusted to try various combos for your fitness needs. Also included in the set are two black main rods (17.3" long) and one red connecting rod (4.3" long) that can be used to transform the dumbbells into a barbell when you want to add intensity and flexibility to your workouts.

Speaking of materials, the main rod is made of durable hollow steel while the plates are made of the iron sand mixture. The connecting rod is nicely knurled to ensure a firm grip and the rubber coating on handles prevent slipping. We like the fact that weight plates have an octagonal shape, meaning they won’t roll around or scroll when you’re doing exercises and that the barbell is covered with rubber, so there will be no risk of damaging the floor when you put it down. However, keep in mind that these are plastic-covered weights so you shouldn't drop them, otherwise they might crack.

If you’re after a universal barbell that will be easy to grip when performing deadlifts, bicep curls, shoulder presses, and more, the YAHEETECH 55lb Olympic Barbell may come to your liking. As the name suggests, it’s the W-shaped Olympic bar that delivers a bit more steady hold compared to traditional, straight ones. Also, it has an anti-skid diamond-textured thread on the hand holding parts, which provides a firm grip and effectively prevents sweating and skidding.

The overall quality is great too. In fact, it's nearly perfect given the price of the set and the number of weights you get in the kit. To be more specific, the set includes four 5.5-lb plates and two 11-lb plates, plus you get a pair of star lock collars that will keep them from getting loose while you lift. For an extra-secure fixation, the star lock collars include a rubber o-ring.