XMark Olympic Bar Curl Bar, Purchase Bar Only or with an Olympic Weight Set, Option of TRI-Grip or Texas Star Olympic Weight Plates with EZ Curl Bar, Black Manganese 28mm Chisel

This bar would be damn near perfect if the sleeves were not so slippery. Most barbells have a rough surface or even a subtle groove that is parallel to the plates so that they resist sliding around and falling off. Obviously you want to use clips most of the time, but these are way too slippery. Considering it requires more effort for them to polish them to this appearance, I'm surprised. Function trumps form in this regard.Other than that, it's an Olympic curl bar. What more can you ask for? It works well with my crappy CAP/Standard plates as well as my vulcanized Rogue ones. The knurling and finish are decent. No frills, a cold matte finish and good grip. If they'd fix the sleeves this would be perfect.

Very impressed with the quality of this barbell. The packaging was a heavy cardboard tube inside a heavy cardboard box with nylon strapping to keep it all together. By the way, the tube end caps are secured with nylon rivets that can be pulled out with pliers. They don't unscrew.The knurling of the bar is fairly aggressive but not cheese grater sharp. The spindles spin with just enough resistance so as not to be distracting.The overall fit and finish is much nicer than expected. Overall weight is 22.5 lbs. With plastic cam lock clamps (Clout Fitness) total weight is 23.0 lbs. The overall length is a bit over 47" and doesn't safely fit my rack.The barbell arrived with just a light coating of oil on the spindles and some other type of treatment on the barbell proper.All in all, I'm pleased with the product.

I don't want to steal the thunder from much more qualified individuals for such a review, so I will share my first impressions.First, the "meh". It's not bad, but the sleeves are not long enough to support the advertised weight capacity of 400 lbs. The most I could see anyone putting on this bar safely (with lockjaw clamps) are two 45 lb. plates and a 10 lb. plate on one sleeve. On the other hand, if you can curl more than the total weight of 223 lbs. (total 4 x 45 lb. plates, 2 x 10 lb. plates, weight of lock jaws plus the 23 lb. weight of the bar), you probably should have ordered the Convict bar instead. Another thing are how slippery the sleeves are, but I say this with a caveat. It's not safe to lift weights without clamps of some kind, even with perfect form/technique. All curl bars have sleeves that are slippery to some extent, but these feel like there's some kind of built in lube (could be the quality of the chrome which is a little softer than most other models). Just be aware that clamps of some kind are a must with this bar.The awesomeness of the bar. It actually does what it says it will. The sleeves will spin for days, which does transfer more weight to dedicated muscle groups, which gives better results for time spent. To me, the tactile feel of the grip is a bit aggressive, which might be an issue if the sleeves did not rotate as well as they do. I am really enjoying it, but I would not advise using this bar without gloves. The 28mm diameter is bigger than most other grips I've used, but it seems to work better as well. This is a very well designed bar.Overall, my first impression is great. I can't say whether it is better than XMarks other curl bars, but if this truly is a maintenance free bar, I would say it is worth 10 extra dollars.

The bar looks really nice and the bearings and coating make it feel high quality. It was packed really well. It's very comfortable to use and I don't have any grip issues. The chrome and manganese phosphate coatings have showed no signs of wear after several weeks. If you want to curl with the inner grip you have to do it without knurling. I definitely need to use collars with this. The sleeves are short and very slick, so the weight can slide off quickly and easily. I'd recommend a set of the plastic clamp down ones.

I’ve used this set regularly for a couple months and it does the job perfectly. The bar has bends in the right spots and has great grip without being too rough. Not that it matters a lot, but the bar looks cool, too. Plates slide on and off easy. The plates work and look great. I like the spoke design because it makes them easy to grab and perfect for holding during weighted ab exercises. I got the 115# set, which should be good for a while. If I get more plates, I’ll definitely get more of these. Highly recommend.

This barbell exceeded my expectations. The black coating is great, it competes with the best in the industry, seriously. The knurling is more aggressive that I expected also. It's got knurling more similar to that of a powerbar, less similar to an olympic lifting bar.The ONLY drawback is that I wish the sleeves were ribbed like the to pof the line competitors, as it is now, the sleeves are slippery. Using clamps is an absolute must.But overall, I'm really impressed.

First off if you already have a good curl bar this probably isn't a worthwhile upgrade, but if you want a smooth bar for tri extensions or curls using an arm blaster this thing is very smooth and probably reduces stress on wrists in skull crushers, but I doubt I would buy it for that alone if I already had a good bar. If you sweat a lot then I'd invest in some 3-in-1 and wipe the bar down weekly or risk surface rust.

Having used a few different curl bars in the past and switching from a cheap Big5 standard sized curl bar, this "Chisel" Olympic EZ curl bar is amazing. First impressions on shipping and packaging was great. Once I pulled the bar out of its great packaging I threw some Olympic plates on it and gave it a Go. The bearings do an amazing job and the bar itself is a must Buy. I'm no Pro or fitness guru just an average guy trying to get in some workouts with some better handling equipment and this does the trick.