Why You Should Pay Attention to Smooth Rings on the Barbell
Take a close look at your barbell the next time you go to the gym. Most of the surface is covered with a diamond-shaped pattern. This is called knurling and it helps you hold the bar. Near the ends of the handle, you will also see a ring or line of smooth metal on each side. (Actually, maybe two on each side.) They’re not just for decoration; They actually serve several purposes, including helping you find the right grip width for your bench press.
Here’s what these rings mean and how they can help with your exercise routine.
If there are two sets of rings on the bar, one for weightlifting and one for powerlifting.
As I’ll explain later, there are two different strength sports, each requiring their own markings at the end of the bar. Olympic weightlifting uses marks spaced 91 centimeters apart, while powerlifting traditionally uses marks spaced 81 centimeters apart.
In a regular old gym where no one is participating in anything, you may see either a set of rings or both. Typically, exercise bars have both sets of knurls (or “rings” as they are often called). This bar , for example, has both. The innermost rings are powerlifting rings; the outermost rings are for Olympic weightlifting.
When bench pressing, your hands should be on or inside the rings.
On a bar designed for powerlifting, the rings are designed to determine the widest possible arm position for the bench press. (These are the inner rings if your bar has both.) According to the International Powerlifting Federation technical rules :
The distance between the hands [for the bench press] should not exceed 81 cm, measured between the index fingers (both index fingers should be within the 81 cm mark, and all index fingers should touch the 81 cm mark if using a maximum grip). ).
These “81cm marks” are smooth knurling lines, and it is by this rule that barbells used in powerlifting are made using them.
Under these powerlifting rules, your hands can be placed inside these rings or touching these rings, but in competition it would be illegal for your hands to be spread so wide that they end up outside the rings. In addition to their use in competition judging, your preferred bench press grip is commonly described using these ratings: For example, you might say that you bench with your pinkies on the rings.
In some federations, such as the USPA , the bench press may use a different bar than other exercises (squats and deadlifts), but they all have the 81 cm mark. In other exercises, they do not matter to the rules, but the scores are the same are present for convenience. For example, you may have a habit of placing your hands just behind these marks when you squat.
What does this mean if you are not a professional powerlifter, but just someone hanging out at your local gym for fun and/or to get some exercise? Nothing major, it’s just that if you took a grip wider than the rings, some bro passing by might say, “Hey man, that’s a really wide grip,” and he’d be right.
However, you’ll probably end up using these rings just to make sure you’re tuning the same way every time. We call the rings and other elements of the bar “landmarks” because they help you get into the habit of placing your hands in the same place every time.
How to Use Barbell Rings to Position Your Hands for the Bench Press
The easiest way to use rings to position your arms for the bench press is to try different methods and find the placement that helps you lift best. If you have long arms, you’ll probably want them to cover powerlifting rings. Try touching the rings with your little fingers and see how it looks. Can you keep your forearms roughly vertical at the bottom of the movement? Once you’ve checked this, move your hands inward an inch or two and see if it gets stronger or weaker, or move them outward an inch or two. Pay attention to what feels best to you today, and be sure to remember a guideline that will help you feel the same way next time.
Through this process, you have just discovered that this is the best grip for the regular bench press. In some exercises, you can deliberately use a wider or narrower grip to change the focus of the lift. In general, a wider grip works more of your chest muscles (pectoral muscles), while a narrower grip takes them out of the equation a little so you can focus on your triceps. For the standard bench press, go as wide as you feel comfortable. For the “close-grip bench press,” performed as a complementary triceps exercise, you’ll probably want your hands to be much narrower, say a fist’s width or two from the smooth area in the middle of the bar.
The markings on weightlifting bars are intended as a guide only.
In Olympic weightlifting, there are no rules regarding where you can place your hands. But for convenience, the 91 cm long knurling marks are still standardized for all handlebars. Otherwise, there will be a large distance between the smooth center section and the end of the barbell, making it difficult to position your arms evenly and consistently.
This is especially important in the snatch, a lift performed with a wide grip. When I get ready to snatch, I position my hands so wide that the skin between my thumb and index finger touches the rings. Someone with longer arms than me might prefer to be within a thumb’s length of the rings. Someone with shorter arms may want their hands to be on or even inside the rings.
The rings, by the way, are in the same place on men’s and women’s barbells ; both of these strips are the same length and the marks are in the same place. (Their sizes differ only in the diameter of the handle and the length of the sleeves.)
If you do snatches and other Olympic lifts, the only thing you need to know about rings is that some of your training bars may have double knurls, as described above. “Your” rings are the ones on the outside. This is useful to know when you visit gyms you’re not used to, or rent a bar that’s labeled differently than the one you have at home.