Answer: It’s important to know the age and the strength of your athletes as well as your bar’s intended use. Our powerlifting bars are much different than our Olympic performance bars. Although many bars look alike, not all bars perform alike. A quality Olympic bar should be safe, durable, low maintenance and deliver consistent performance. Our competition and training bars have been used at the Olympic Training Center since 1996 with no bar failures and virtually no maintenance. Many purchasers are tempted to buy the least expensive bar they can find. They soon realize, after purchasing several replacement bars, they could have saved money by purchasing a quality Olympic bar from the start.

Answer: A number of manufacturers expound on their bar being a certain PSI level. PSI stands for "per square inch" and measures the pressure tolerance used in metal fatigue tolerance testing. There is no universal standard measurement used to establish either bar safety or performance. Many manufacturers would like you to believe that the larger the PSI rating, the better the bar. High PSI ratings do not necessarily tell you important information on the yield and recoverability of the bar. They also do not tell you where on the bar the stress measurements were performed. Again, knowing your bar’s intended use is important.

A powerlifting bar traditionally is "stiffer" than an Olympic lifting bar, due to the performance desires of that sport. The "stiffness" of a bar is largely controlled by the thickness or diameter of the bar. Most competition powerlifting bars are 29mm in diameter versus 28mm on Olympic bars. A stiffer bar that may have a higher PSI, may also be more susceptible to breaking due to the hardness of the metal. It is important to know how a bar has performed under continued work loads for a long period of time. We are happy to provide a list of our customers that have had our Olympic bars in their colleges, high schools and clubs and know first hand how they perform over time.

Answer: Our bumper plates are some of the highest quality plates in the world. Our competition, training, collegiate and sports series plates all carry a five-year limited lifetime warranty. Our durability is one our proudest features in the construction of our bumper plates. After seven years of continuous use, our bumper plates are still used daily at the Olympic Training Center as well as numerous Division I colleges throughout the United States. We routinely bring 3 to 5 year old plates to our trade shows. Customers are amazed that with proper cleaning, the plates look brand new. We want your facility to look great on day one and are just as dedicated to having your facility look great after five years of use.