Heavy bars vs light ones, differences ?
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Afternoon chaps. <br />
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When I inherited my weight bench a few years back I initially only had the light bar on it, you know the type of bar that basically weighs nothing. Due to putting a few weights on it it kind or bent a bit in the middle one day and I invested in another bar ( not quite a 20kg olympic one but I chucked it on the scales and it weighs 10kg ) <br />
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Now when benching a few reps with the light bar say I'd chuck 70kg on there ( 2 x 20kg, 6 x 5kg ) I lifted that ok, BUT when I changed to the heavy bar ( longer as well ) I found if I did reps of 70kg ( 2 x 20 kg, 4 x 5kg and the bar 10kg ) I found I had much more control and could get quite a few more reps out. This obviously did wonders for my ego as well <img src='http://www.daimenhutchison.com/invision/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' /><br />
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If I was to shell out for an olympic bar ( even on trade me these are bloody 200 bucks ) does anyone think that the 20kg spread over the whole bar would result in more reps ? I know that it is the same weight but obviously spreading it over the whole bar helps. <br />
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Thoughts ? -
i don't know if it does make any difference at all to be fair, your two contact points with the bar will still be loaded up to the max weather the weights are at each end of the bar, or if they were all in the middle, if you know what I mean??
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[quote name='BartMan']i don't know if it does make any difference at all to be fair, your two contact points with the bar will still be loaded up to the max weather the weights are at each end of the bar, or if they were all in the middle, if you know what I mean??[/QUOTE]<br />
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Yeah not having a 20 kg bar I can't test it but can assure everyone that a rep of say 80 kg on the light bar ( 20kg x 4 + bar = 80 ) is definitely harder than ( 20kg x 2, 5kg x 6 + 10kg bar = 80kg )<br />
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I'm sure its cos 10 of those kg are spread out along the whole bar as opposed to being on the ends. Kind of like tackling a guy who is 100kg may be easier if he is 6 foot 10 as opposed to 5 foot 5. This may not make sense written down but it does in my mind, unfortunately no one can see my hand gestures.
