New equipment!

YES! New equipment has finally arrived! We now have EIGHT full sets of disks and change, FOUR women's bearing bars and FOUR men's bearing bars! This means that now EVERYONE will be able to use the same equipment, with no more fighting over disks, change, or the nice barbells. For those who have never used them, these new bars are WAY nicer than the old "nice" Pendlay HD bars, and WAYWAY nicer than the old Bella bars. You should instantly notice the difference in the way these bars spin, the whip on the bar (with enough weight), and a nicer knurling. These are REAL weightlifting bars, designed by and for weightlifters. Get ready to PR both lifts!

These bars are definitely tough and designed to take some abuse, but I want to establish some ground rules to keep these things in top shape and performing at their best to maximize our lifts for a long time to come.

1) NEVER put the bearing bars in the squat racks. These bars are high performance pieces of equipment designed for snatching and clean and jerking, and we want to keep the knurling of these as sharp and grippy as possible. Putting bars in squat racks WILL wear the knurling down over time, and unfortunately this happens right where more people grip the bar for the snatch: exactly where we need the most grip! If you take a look at our old Pendlay bars and the Rogue beater bars, you'll notice that the knurling has been worn smooth in these areas due to being ground in the cups of the squat racks. We don't want this to happen with our new nice (and very expensive) weightlifting bars! Grab a beater bar for your squats, presses, or jerks from the rack. We've got plenty of them now!

2) Do NOT drop an empty (unloaded) barbell. These bars are made with eight precision needle bearings in the collars to allow buttery smooth and consistent rotation. They are designed to take a beating, but they are not really designed to be dropped without bumpers on them. Bumpers greatly reduce the shock of dropping weight on the equipment, facility, and our ears. Dropping an empty barbell on the floor is laziness...don't be that guy/girl!

3) Do NOT drop a barbell loaded with technique plates after a SUCCESSFUL lift. Yes, the technique plates are designed to be dropped and not break, and not skip sideways like the flimsy 10 and 15 pound "bumper" plates are. However, they are much harder than actual bumper plates, and they are definitely harder on our ears when dropped from overhead. If you miss a lift with technique plates, that is perfectly fine, get the heck out of the way of a falling barbell and do not try to save it! However, I am not okay with dropping these things from overhead after a successful lift. Lower the weight back down until you've got a set of 10 kg plates on there at least. The extra eccentric work will probably be good for you anyways.

That's it for now! Looking forward to getting in the gym and enjoying all this AWESOME new equipment! Make sure you thank Molly and Stephen for taking such good care of us!