Barbells & Plates – Page 4 – Home Gym Resource

What’s the best and safest way to store your barbell? If there’s more than one barbell in your gym, you’ll want some kind of barbell holder. What’s the best one? Here’s what you need to know. The best way to store barbells is, clean, off the floor, in a horizontal rack. Storing barbells horizontally is better for the bearings in the spinning sleeves. The space it's stored in should have relatively low humidity to prevent corrosion. Coated or stainless bars are much less likely to rust. Why is storing your barbell clean and horizontally better? Find that and more below. Looking for the best barbell holder? Click here to find the best 4 options. How To Store Your Barbells You might be wondering if it matters at all how and where you store your barbells. Do storage conditions matter for something that's just a metal bar? Yes they do. The biggest reason why storage matters is because it impacts how long your bar stays in good condition. Storing them in the wrong conditions can cause the barbell to corrode, bend and degrade quicker than it should. That means that even though it’s just a piece of steel, you can still make some mistakes when storing your barbells. Here are 4 things that are important for barbell storage; Clean: Whatever else you do, make sure your barbell is clean and dry before putting it away, no matter if it's for long or short term storage. If you take away one thing from this article, let it be this point.Treat with oil: Barbells that don't have great corrosion protection should be protected with a thin layer of oil.Atmosphere: High humidity can cause the barbell and other gym equipment to rust faster. Usually not a problem indoors but can be an issue in the garage or basement. Location in gym: Just keep them somewhere where they're not in the way and at risk of being knocked down/over.Horizontal or vertical: Horizontal storage is better for the bearings in the spinning sleeves although this is really only an issue with low quality bars. Even then, most high quality barbell producers recommend storing their bars vertically indicating it could be an issue. Tip: If you want a barbell that's really low maintenance, get one that's stainless steel or ceramic coated. Those are pretty much rust proof but cost more. Let's go into those factors in-depth below. Want to know more about barbells like dimensions and which one to use for what? Click here for a full guide that will tell you everything you need to know. 1. Clean and Dry Your Barbell The most important thing you can do to keep your barbell in good condition is to regularly clean it and make sure it's dry when put away. Your sweat is probably a whole lot more damaging than you might think. Sweat can actually damage paint and coatings really quickly. And once the bare metal is exposed, sweat also causes more corrosion. That makes it really worthwhile to clean your bar after every workout session. Just a quick wipe down will remove most of the sweat and other liquids from the bar. To really get them clean you can use a tiny bit of mild soap and a soft brush to get rid of all the skin particles and grime that a wipe down won’t get rid of. Skin particles, oils and other grime from your hands get into the knurling. All that dirt is a great place for bacteria to find a home and multiply so it’s a good idea to keep your bars clean for hygienic reasons anyways. Besides cleaning, make sure it's dry before putting away. No matter if it's sweat or water, both can speed up corrosion. Barbells that don't have a good anti-corrosive coating (most wear off over time), can be protected by applying a thin layer of 3 in 1 oil. Enter a Custom Product Name Here Buy on Amazon 2. Atmosphere and Humidity The atmosphere in the room you store your barbell definitely has a big impact on how quickly your bar deteriorates if at all. Especially the humidity is a big factor. Barbells are made of steel. Steel rusts. The higher the humidity, the quicker your barbell will corrode. Of course it also depends on the finish of your barbell. Bare steel bars corrode pretty quickly, even in relatively dry situations. Most barbells have some kind of finish however. Zinc or oxide coatings protect the bar against corrosion but wear off over time. Chrome lasts a very long time so you don’t really have to worry about this. If you’ve got a stainless steel barbell, there is no coating but the steel also won’t corrode. Another option is a ceramic coated barbell. Ceramic coatings are super hard and don't wear over time which means the steel underneath stays protected. Of course you can’t always control the humidity is a gym. Some will have A/C or some other kind of climate control. This will help massively but if things are just outside of your control, try to get a barbell with good corrosion protection. Especially the garage and basement tend to be more humid than other parts of the house since they're not as well insulated. Looking for ways to improve the atmosphere in your home gym? Check out this full guide on gym air quality. 3. Safe Location One of the easiest ways to bend or otherwise damage a bar is to drop it on a sharp edge (especially if the bar is loaded) or let something fall on it accidentally. That’s why the place you store them is important. Sure, 99% of the time nothing will happen. It’s always that 1% that makes you wish you would’ve done something else. Keep your stored bars out of the way where you’re working with other weights. Maybe one day you’ll fail a rep and you drop your weights in a way that’s not normal. And now you’ve damaged your $300 barbell. Just keep them out of the way of things that can fall on them and the chances of damage go down dramatically. Usually this means to simply store them anywhere that’s not on the floor or leaned against the wall in a corner. If you use a separate barbell storage solution, make sure you have to lift the bar out of the hooks and it doesn't come off with a little tap. 4. Horizontal or vertical? This might seem like an unimportant difference but almost every manufacturer will tell you to store barbells horizontally. Why is that? Bearings More specifically the bearings in the sleeves. Some bars don’t have spinning sleeves. For that type it really doesn’t matter how you store them. There is no bearing that can get damaged. Most (Olympic) barbells have spinning sleeves however. That means there is some kind of bearing to allow for that rotation. These bearings are not designed for a sideways load. If you store this type of bar vertically, whether standing on the floor or hanging from the collar, you could possibly damage those bearings. Most manufacturers recommend horizontal storage for their barbells. That said, those same manufacturers also sell storage racks that allow you to store their bars vertically. Maybe they officially don’t recommend it but it seems that actually damaging the bar in this way is an exceedingly rare occurrence. So, officially horizontal storage is better. In practice, it doesn’t really matter all that much but there is a small possibility of something going wrong. In practice, leaving your barbell on the power or squat rack is perfectly fine, as long as it's clean. The only reason why you would need another storage solution is to get it out of the way or you've got more than one barbell you want to use in the same spot. Recommended Low Maintenance Barbells Want a barbell that can be stored in the jungle under a waterfall and not rust? Your best best are stainless steel and ceramic coated barbells. Either one will do the job. Stainless feels a bit more like raw steel than ceramic coated but you have to be a really high level weightlifter to notice the difference and for that to be an issue. It's still a good idea to clean these barbells if only for hygienic reasons. Here are some of the best barbells that can be stored for a long time without thinking about it. ImageBrandModelTypeBuyTitan FitnessMAXXUMStainless SteelBuy on AmazonSynergeeGamesCeraKoteBuy on Amazon