do you include the bar in your total weight

[decade]

noob question lol.. are you supposed to include the weight of the bar to your total amount?

I have never included the weight of the bar until i found out that some ppl do. If this is the case then I will be adding an extra 20kgs (olympic bar) to my total weight which will make my lifts quite respectable.

[thatwaslight]

Do you live under a rock? Yes you count the bar!

[decade]

since day1 for some reason i just assumed you werent supposed to and never really thought much about it, haha thanks tho!

[Gasp]

Assuming this is a serious question it looks like overnight youve just increased all your PBs by 20kgs!!!

...still its a bit hard to figure out why you werent already adding it in when you knew; a) it weighed 20kgs and; B) you were.... um....lifting it!! :roll:

[Monarchking]

some of the collars are 2.5kg each also depending on the design

[hhhh1]

some 'olympic' bars weigh less than 20kg

[Gym rat]

I also include the bar when I doing ezy bar curls,plus when I am using the smith machine for squats,lunges and shoulder press.

[Shutupandsquat]

You shouldn't include it on Smith Machine. The bar is completely stabilized which just makes it nothing

[HarryB]

You shouldn't include it on Smith Machine. The bar is completely stabilized which just makes it nothing

Not all smith machines are counter balanced. But yeah generally you don't count the bar as weighed on these. And alluding to someones comment earlier, a lot of "Olympic" bars are 15k.

[Growth]

You shouldn't include it on Smith Machine. The bar is completely stabilized which just makes it nothing

Some smith machines don't use counterweight. The ones that do use counterweight, will have the counters attached via a chain or something, and when you unhook the bar it will literally feel weightless, in which case it's literally zero.

I've only come across one gym that used counterweighted smiths. The other ones definately have some weight, but it's unlikely to be 20kg. The ones i use feel like 5kgs maybe? But so negligible i dont include it in lift number, plus it will vary machine to machine by way of drag and such.

As for the OPs question, im pretty sure other than smiths, people always include the bar. As was already said, your lifting it after all!

[crazyfacials]

You shouldn't include it on Smith Machine. The bar is completely stabilized which just makes it nothing

in my gym the smith machine's bar is heavier than the others due to a lack of a counter weight and a lot of random shit bolted on to it lol...strong engineering design on that one

[Shutupandsquat]

Okay, my bad. The one we have though is weightless. And since it's the only one I've ever used, it's a natural conclusion for me to come to. I'll take back my previous statement in that case.

[cruxis]

I generally say "on the bar", as the bar can be of unknown weight, eg,

Q.How much you lift

A.80kg on the bar.

[hhhh1]

I generally say "on the bar", as the bar can be of unknown weight, eg,

Q.How much you lift

A.80kg on the bar.

just weigh yourself with the bar on the gym/bathroom scales and subtract your bodyweight. bars seem to range from about 5kg to 20kg so '80kg on the bar' could mean 85kg-100kg, which is a bit ambiguous

[Shutupandsquat]

I generally say "on the bar", as the bar can be of unknown weight, eg,

Q.How much you lift

A.80kg on the bar.

just weigh yourself with the bar on the gym/bathroom scales and subtract your bodyweight. bars seem to range from about 5kg to 20kg so '80kg on the bar' could mean 85kg-100kg, which is a bit ambiguous

Could just weigh the bar?

[hhhh1]

Could just weigh the bar?

if the scales are accurate with relatively small amounts, and its not awkward to do so then yes. but its possible (especially for bathroom scales) that they have a significant zero error or something, and in that case the way i described is better

[Shutupandsquat]

Could just weigh the bar?

if the scales are accurate with relatively small amounts, and its not awkward to do so then yes. but its possible (especially for bathroom scales) that they have a significant zero error or something, and in that case the way i described is better

yeah that makes more sense. In a gym though, the scales they would use would be able to get an accurate reading.

[Pseudonym]

Back when I actually kept a workout log, I tended just to write down the weight per side. It was easier than trying to calculate 42.5 x 2 + 20 after a hard set.

But that was just my quirky record-keeping, and I'd always have to make the conversion when talking to other people.

[crazyfacials]

I feel ya Pseudonym ... the other day I was meant to do a set of squats @ 110kg but like a retard I put 55kg on each side of the barbell...

[olympia]

Pretty lucky at our gym , all our bars are 20 kg so dont have to do a lot of thinking, just load up the bar and go hard

[takis]

no,i dont include the bar in my total weight

[Cameron_R]

the actual number value for weight I'm lifting is irrelevant to me because I'm not a competing lifter, so I have the habit of using colours.

eg. working set for bench is 1 blue plate and a green plate each side.

Works for me, but makes me sound crazy when talking with others at the gym :pfft:

[singular]

I never included the bar weight in my count out of convenience; I was under the mistaken impression everyone else desired the same convenience. Now I've moved to the states and have to deal with pounds so it's all screwed up anyway.

[holdenman]

Some of you guys must be really fuckin' bad at maths if you don't count the bar because it's too hard to do so :pfft:

Why wouldn't you include it? It weighs something and you're lifting it, right?

[pter1]

:nod: :nod: :nod: :nod: :nod: