A squat bar is thicker, heavier and longer than anything else here: 32mm or 35mm rather than 29mm, 25kg rather than 20kg, and typically 230cm to 240cm overall. All of that is in service of one thing — keeping a very heavy bar completely still across your back.
About the photographs. Product photography on this page is illustrative. We are licensing real images of each bar and will swap them in per product as they arrive — until then the pictures show a generic unbranded bar of that type, not the product named beside them.
The same 3 bars as a table, on the figures that decide it.
Every figure is the manufacturer’s or retailer’s own published specification. An em dash (—) means they do not publish that figure — it is never a number we have guessed. “Tensile” is tensile strength in thousands of PSI. “Rotation” is bushings, needle bearings, or both in the same sleeve. No prices are listed here, deliberately: check the current price with the shop.
Including the answers that tell you this is not the category you want.
Not in IPF-affiliated powerlifting, which specifies a 29mm bar. Specialist squat bars are used in training and in some other federations and formats. If you compete, train on the bar you will compete on for at least part of your cycle.
35mm is stiffer and heavier-feeling across the back; 32mm is closer to a power bar. Neither is wrong. If this is your first specialist squat bar and you have not used one, 32mm is the smaller step from what you already know.
Check before ordering. A 2400mm bar needs the rack width plus clearance at both ends to get it in and out of the J-cups, and in a single garage that is often the constraint rather than the rack itself.
You can, and it will feel like pulling a scaffold pole. No whip, and 25kg on the bar before you add a plate. It is not dangerous, it is just the wrong tool, and the thick shaft is harder to grip.
The other 6 categories, and what each is built to do.
A 29mm shaft, almost no whip and a centre knurl that grips your back. Built for the squat, the bench press and the deadlift, and the standard diameter across powerlifting federations.
See the power bars →8 barsA 28mm shaft on needle bearings, so the sleeves spin fast enough to let the bar turn in your hands through a snatch or a clean. Marked to IWF grip spacing.
See the olympic weightlifting bars →11 barsOne bar for everything — 28mm to 28.5mm, dual knurl marks for both grip standards, moderate spin. What most home gyms and most mixed-training gyms actually need.
See the multipurpose bars →8 bars15kg, a 25mm shaft and 201cm overall — the IWF specification for women’s weightlifting. The thinner shaft also suits anyone whose hands struggle to close round 28mm.
See the women's 15kg bars →5 barsA 27mm shaft and a longer span between the sleeves, so the bar bends before the plates leave the floor. Aggressive knurl, no centre knurl. Not for squatting or benching.
See the deadlift bars →5 barsLight bars for learning the lifts, and 6ft bars for garages where a 7ft bar will not fit between the walls. Lower load ratings — check them before loading up.
See the technique and short bars →