When you start searching for a high quality olympic weight set, there are a number of factors to keep in mind to make sure you can find one that is worth your investment. Whether you should buy steel weight plates or bumper weight plates is the first factor, and the second factor is the quality of the bar.
The very first factor to take into account is whether the weight set comes with metal weights or rubberized bumper plates. Metal plates tend to be less expensive, and for that reason you will likely only need to think about bumper plates in the event you plan on doing a great deal of Olympic training.
Bumper plates allow you to drop the barbell without causing harm to the barbell or the floor. Therefore, they’re ideal for Olympic strength training. Whenever you see the Olympic lifters on television, they’re using rubber bumper plates. Additionally they make use of the type of bumper plates which have a big metal disc in the middle, surrounded with a covering of rubber. These are higher quality than the bumper plates which are mainly rubber with a small metal band in the middle. The reason for that is that this large metal disc helps to ensure that they last longer, while the small metal ring inside lower quality bumper plates can deform over time and become worthless.
The second factor to look at in an Olympic weight set will be the craftsmanship in the barbell. Some Olympic weight sets will incorporate a barbell that doesn’t possess collars which spin very well, and thus will be completely useless for Olympic lifts. An excellent Olympic weight set will include a high quality barbell which you can use for Olympic lifting. If you’re really serious about executing movements such as the snatch or perhaps clean and jerk, you need to probably buy bearing barbell, that should spin much easier compared to the regular bushing barbell. If you will probably largely be performing deadlifts, squats, and presses, then a bushing barbell will probably be fine weight lifting equipment.
The actual difference involving a bushing barbell and a bearing barbell has to do with the rotation of the sleeves when they are loaded with weight plates. A bearing barbell can rotate much easier and therefore much quicker when you whip your bar up and over your head. This is important since the easier the sleeves rotate, the less tension is put on your wrists. A good bushing barbell, nonetheless, is fine for mixed use between the faster Olympic lifts, and the slower power lifts.
The mixture of a great pair of bumpers and a high quality barbell will help you to build muscle mass and power quicker than you believed achievable.