You'll notice in my picture above that I covered the grips in electrical tape and scotch tape. I added the electrical tape because the grip was far too aggressive, and even at 100 lbs it ripped into the fleshy bits of my hand; it was unusable. Here's what it looked like up close:
The electrical tape is a bit too smooth so my grip doesn't feel very secure, but I haven't had the time to try anything else yet. I might fill the grooves with something later.
The scotch tape is my fault. I bought a power lifting bar instead of an Olympic bar, not knowing there was a difference, and the longer knurling cuts into my knees on the squat. I use the tape to make it smoother. However, I think this was the only 5 foot long Olympic-weight bar I could find, so I didn't really have a choice.
Before finding the nice weights on Craigstlist (which took a few months), I purchased some cast iron Weider weights from Big 5 Sports. The first one I put on my bar immediately scratched it. Always up for some experimentation, I decided to try and fix it, by:
- Removing the [excessively thick] paint using a chemical peal and a wire brush attached to my hand drill.
- Smoothing the inner circle using a grinding stone attached to my hand drill.
- Painting it black with canned spray paint.
In the end, it worked okay. I didn't scratch my bar immediately, but wasn't even close to the smoothness of steal. And the diameter of the inner holes were still about 2mm too large so the weights rattled. I only used them once and it was not at all worth the effort.
And here's where I'm at in all my barbell exercises.
Deadlift: 239 lbs
Squat: 199 lbs
Standing Press: 99 lbs
