There is a reason why there are so many different variations of benches in virtually any gym. Even if you go to the poorest and most torn apart gym there is a very big chance that you will find one or two benches in there and the reason is simple, they are a great tool in building muscle mass and strength. If you watch the shopping programs on television you have probably seen how producers create a new and “revolutionary” workout bench every single week.

These fancy designs are not necessary and will not give you any advantages if your only goal is to build muscle and strength, just take a quick look at professional bodybuilders and strength men, I will guarantee you that you won’t see them on a fancy and “ergonomic” bench in a million years.

Olympic weight benches

If you are buying the bench for your own house one of your main concerns might be where to keep it. You shouldn’t worry about this challenge too much as most benches today take up almost no space and as soon as you are done training you can simply flip them over so they stand vertically in the air instead of horizontally where they take a lot of space.

If you buy a quality weight bench you will get a lot of different benefits and advantages with the greatest one being flexibility and saving a lot of money. The high quality benches don’t just enable you to perform one single exercise like the low quality ones, this takes both too much space and it will cost you a fortune to have enough machines for a full body workout.

The high quality Olympic weight benches combine up to a dozen different exercises in the same bench and save you a great deal of money and space while giving you flexibility in your workouts. Furthermore you can change the incline of the bench in order to hit your chest and other muscles from different angles instead of just the regular flat and parallel to the floor angle.

Make sure that the bench you buy is sturdy and not just some plastic type bench that will not only last for a very short time, but will put you at serious risk when you perform the various exercises. It is simply not worth it to save a little money, but having to worry about the barbell landing on your head every single time you train, due to the low quality of the bench.

You also want to look around on sites of the different retailers to find one that offers you the best deal, warranty and customer support. A lot of times the price difference is significant and if you are lucky you can even find retailers who offer free shipping and handling on your new Olympic weight benches.

As long as you maintain relatively good technique and have spent at least a couple of months priming your tendons for heavy lifting you should be fine. Not only is lifting heavy a lot more fun and challenging, it is essential if you ever want to gain muscle or strength.

You only get stronger because your muscles feel that they are not strong enough for the weight you are lifting and therefore try to compensate by building more muscle and getting stronger in this way. If however, your muscles already think that they are strong enough because you are not pushing yourself, they will see no reason to get stronger and bigger.

Barbell weights

When starting your search for the weights that are going to fit your needs the best it is very important to take a couple things into consideration in order to get the best results with both your training and your new purchase.

First of all you want to see what your ambition levels are and whether you are counting on seeing a lot of improvement and strength increase over the next 12 months or whether you are training more in order to stay in shape and don’t necessarily have the need to lift a lot more in 12 months time, it is essential that you stay brutally honest with yourself when answering this question.

If your situation is the latter, you won’t need a lot of heavy plates, if however your goal is to really push yourself and get significantly stronger over the next couple of months, you will need as many plates as possible so you can have a constant weight progression.

Make sure you are decide how much you are willing to spend on your new barbell weights and promise yourself that you won’t exceed this amount no matter what! It is very easy to exceed your budget with thousands of dollars on training equipment if you don’t make a serious decision from the get go.

The most important thing is to see how wide the holes of your barbells are, there are usually two types with the most common one being 25 mm (one inch) wide. Obviously you want your weights to have the same measurement as your barbell.

The following is a list of the Olympic plates; these are also the most common barbell weights:

• 25 kg: red
• 20 kg: blue
• 15 kg: yellow
• 10 kg: green
• 5 kg: white
• 2.5 kg: red
• 2 kg: blue
• 1.5 kg: yellow
• 1 kg: green
• 0.5 kg: white

Make sure you get a couple of the heavy ones and as many as possible of the lighter plates. Good luck in finding your new barbell weights.

Either it’s a machine on tv shop or some new fat burning pills that are going to take you to a whole new level. What usually happens when actually following through and purchasing these modern and “Revolutionary” products is that you get severely disappointed and kick yourself for being scammed.

My wrestling coach always used to tell me that no matter what I did, I should always make sure to stick to basics. The basics are the foundation for acquiring a new skill set and achieving results in any endeavor and when it comes to weightlifting and strength building the Olympic barbell is as basic and old school as it gets.

The Olympic barbell is also the single most ever used piece of equipment in almost all the greatest mass and strength building exercises. Deadlift, squat, bench press, bicep curls, bent over rows and military press are the most popular ones just to mention a few.

Olympic barbell

The men’s barbell is special in the way that the sleeves actually rotate. By having this rotation it makes it a lot easier for the lifter to get in and under the barbell without damaging himself and the barbell falling on his head. The bar itself is 2.2 meters (7.22 ft) long and weighs exactly 20 kg (44.1 lbs). The grip area usually has a special criss cross pattern that gives you a better grip and makes it harder for the barbell to slip while performing various exercises.

There are a couple of things you should consider when starting your search for your own barbells. First of all you want to be very clear about what kind of quantities you are looking to purchase, are you looking for just a single bar and a couple of weights or do you want a whole set including benches and racks?

This will make a huge difference as you will make the purchase from different retailers according to what quantities you are going for, this will ensure you that you save the largest amount of money. The next step is to decide how much you are willing to spend and what your overall budget is.

After you have decided all of the above mentioned things, it is time to start your search and find the highest quality Olympic barbell set. One of the best tips I can give you is to look around online and see if you can find a great used set, the used sets usually save you up to 50% of the brand new price. If you can’t find a high quality used set or simply want to buy a completely new set it is very important to see what kind of warranty policy and customer support the retailer you choose offers.