How Much Weight Can a Barbell Hold Before it Breaks or Gets Bent Out of Shape
Here’s a question most gym goers have asked themselves at some point: How much weight can a barbell hold before it breaks or gets bent out of shape?
Turns out it’s a lot of freaking weight. Eddie Hall, the guy who pulled a 500kg (1100 pound) deadlift couldn’t even break the piece of crap Walmart-level barbell tested in the video above. A video of Eddie Hall’s insane deadlift is below, despite his barbell bending it bounces right back into shape after the lift. Eddie Hall, not so much, he bounced himself right into passing out and nearly died. 500 kilos though. Worth it.
The stress on the cheap Olympic bar above reveals that a straight metal bar can lift a lot of weight before it buckles or bends. So you can rest assured that you will never lift enough weight to destroy a barbell (sorry). Also important to note, barbell manufacturers who claim you need their barbell to survive heavy deadlifting are full of crap. That said, I wont argue against the true benefits of a good barbell because there is no competition between a true machined knurl and a shitty stamped one.
When lifting normal plates and the like, Beyond the Press counted added 1,500 pounds of weight without the bar breaking. From there they took it to absurd amounts of weight; one side held half a ton and the other side was heavier than that though they didn’t have an exact measurement. So, long story short, you never need to worry about breaking a barbell due to your Hulk like strength.
