12 Great Barbells for Strength Training at Home, According to a Fitness Director

IF YOU'RE looking to equip your home gym with some great weight lifting equipment that will allow you to go ultra-heavy, then it’s time to explore purchasing a solid barbell and weight plates. They're not essential tools for your training, but if you’ve mastered your core lifts, then moving onto the barbell can help take your strength training to the next level.

"The barbell will be the heaviest-load tool in your home gym,” says MH fitness director Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S. “You can make plenty of gains without it, but when you start thinking about one-rep max lifts, you’ll need the barbell. No tool sets you up to lift heavy like the barbell.”

Read more: Best Dumbbells

Barbells might be bigger, unwieldier, and more difficult to manage than some other home equipment options, but they're an incredible tool if you want to work with heavy weight. If you have the space and the resources, you're going to want a good barbell weight set.

We found 12 of the best barbell options to keep your weight training in top gear. There's a mix of full-sized Olympic bars and some smaller standard units, so there's plenty of variety to match any type of space. (And here are our picks for the best bumper plates.)