This may seem really trivial, but should you include the weight of the bar when you are lifting weights? This could be the barbell weight, or even the weight of the dumbbell bar when using adjustable dumbbells.
I was inspired to blog on this topic after following a somewhat heated discussion on another website. It really amazed me how passionate some people are on this topic. Whilst the majority of people agreed that it was most beneficial to count the weight of the bar, there were a number of individuals who were against the concept.
Personally, I’m with the majority on this one. I do not see the point in not counting the weight of the bar. After all, you are lifting the weight of the bar plus all the weights on the bar.
Having said that, let’s start of with why the bar weight may not be all that important.
For the typicaly weight lifter, the mass you lift is a relative thing. In my opinion, you should generally be concerned about how many more (or less) kilograms you are lifting, rather than the total amount of weight being lifted.
One reason why many people focus on the “absolute” weight being lifted is to compare their strength to another person, or to a set of norms. This may be useful for competitive reasons, or just general curiosity. However for the typical weight trainer, there is always going to be someone stronger than you, so too much emphasis on comparison can be quite demotivating (and take the focus of the most important aspect to your training – YOU). After all, you are an individual and you should be primarily focused on your progression over time.
So based on this above point of discussion, it really doesn’t matter if you do or do not include the bar weight. But what if don’t always train with the same weight lifting equipment? How do you compare the weight being lifted each time? Sure, you can record your results as “bar + x kg”…but if the bar weight is variable then really you don’t have an objective and measurable means of comparison.
The other issue lies in communicating the weight you are lifting to another person, such as a personal trainer. If you say to a fitness professional “I bicep curled 2.5kg on the barbell today”, they are most likely going to ask you the weight of the barbell – for there is a big difference between a 500g bar, an 8kg bar, a 13kg bar or a 20kg Olympic bar.
Plus, it’s much easier to log your results as a total number (eg. 22.5kg) rather than “bar + 2.5kg”.
So in my opinion, I say include the bar – it just makes life easy.
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