I Bought An Olympic Bar!

In celebration of my 100^th blog post, let me tell you about my exciting new purchase... 

This weekend I went away on a family visit up north. Before heading home, we decided to visit the shopping outlet Junction 32. My cousin had her eye on the Cadbury’s shop and Next, my brother and other cousin on Nike, and me on nothing in particular. 

Well… that was until I saw there was a Fitness Superstore. I bought my dumbbells from FS a couple of years ago (we had to load them into the back of my friend’s mummy wagon, then transfer them all again into my KA – poor little egg could barely move after!) and was very happy with my purchases. However, I’ve recently found myself pining after some barbells.

The Fitness Superstore at Junction 32 is glorious - it’s well organised with knowledgeable, super-friendly staff. The man I spoke to answered all my queries – including "what even is an Olympic bar?!" (see below) – and asked me appropriate questions to determine which barbell was best suited to my needs. 

I decided to buy a 5ft bar as doing a few reps of clean & press felt very wobbly with the longer ones. The bar itself already weighs 10kg, but I also invested in four 5kg plates and, of course, two clips. The total came to £79.99 – the bar was just £49.99, down from £119.99.

An Olympic bar is like a barbell, only stronger so it can hold more weight – they are typically 7ft and weigh 20kg before extra weights are added.

While considering which bar to buy, I decided to deadlift 50kg in the middle of the shop - that's my body weight and 20kg more than I've ever done before. Not a perfect deadlift but not too shabby either! Maxx offered to video - I obviously said yes (with the agreement we would delete it if it went wrong).