Powerlifters understand one principle that many weightlifters don’t, and that is how to use the bar bend to your advantage. 

And you don’t need to be lifting enough weight to bend the bar to take advantage of this technique and see an improvement in your snatch and clean and jerk.

In this article I’ll dive deep into how to use the bar bend to your advantage, but if you’re new to the olympic lifts, then I recommend starting here!

Bar Bend Basics

If you didn’t know, every bar is designed to have some bend to it. Some bars, like the elephant bar in Strongman, or any of the bars used on the olympic stage for weightlifting have more bend than others, like the stiff bar used in powerlifting. Even if the weight is not heavy enough to see the bend in the bar, it is still bending to some degree.

And what’s even cooler is that you can use this bend to your advantage, if you know how. 

Pulling The Slack

The first key to using bar bend is to learn how to pull the slack out of the bar.

If you were to load a barbell with 1000lbs, you more than likely could not deadlift it (Eddie Hall, I know you’re reading this, this article isn’t for you. P.S. pls text me back) , but if you pulled really hard, you would see the bar bend slightly, and move around inside of the ring of the plate. 

In your setup for the pull of a deadlift, snatch, or clean, if you create that bend on purpose by pulling the slack out of the bar and into the plates, you’ll be able to make the lift feel much easier. 

Compare this to going from a completely slack bar to pulling as fast as possible, you must first pull the bar into the plates, then pull the plates off the ground. Even in a very fast movement, with enough weight you can risk getting pulled out of position before the plates break off the ground. 

This simple mistake, which is easy to fix, can have a huge negative impact on your lift, and in the Snatch and Clean, is a mistake that could cost you the lift. 

Timing The Dip

If you understand that the bar will bend no matter the weight, then you can apply this to lifts that aren’t even pulling-based.

In the jerk, for example, this concept mostly applies in the timing of your dip and drive. 

The most common timing mistake beginners make is initiating the dip too suddenly. When this happens the bar breaks slightly from your shoulders and stays rigid. Then, at the bottom of the dip, the bar will land on you, and as you are working hard to turn around and drive up, the bar starts to bend just as it lands on you. This makes the dip and drive much more difficult as you are not just trying to accelerate, but you are also trying to resist the downward movement of the bar! 

Instead, think about initiating the dip smoothly, keeping the bar in maximal contact with your shoulders and hands. On the way down, the bar will begin to bend as you reach the bottom. As you hit the bottom of the dip and begin driving up, the bar will then bend upward, taking the plates with it! This is much easier as the bar essentially “lifts the weights itself” and makes it much easier to lift more weight. 

One way you can practice this is to use a bamboo bar or a women's bar and place the weights further out towards the end and practice some heavy jerk dips. You’ll immediately feel the bar bend, and if you’re not prepared for it, it will shock you how much harder it makes the lift feel if you time the dip incorrectly. 

Squat With A Bounce

If you’re an Olympic lifter, you should use a bounce in your squats for the majority of your training. This bounce is key for making sure you hit maximum depth, focus on speed, not just raw strength, and practice timing the bounce in your clean to save energy. 

However, it can be hard to feel the bar bend in lighter squats, even if it is happening to a smaller degree. 

The key is relaxing the hips at the right time in the descent. 

If you relax too soon, you will descend a lot faster, but so will the bar, and most people aren’t strong enough to manage the weight of the barbell as it drops on them at the bottom of the squat. You’ll hit the bottom and the bar will get a massive “bend” as it “lands” on you, and makes it much harder to change directions and stand back up. 

If you relax too late or don’t relax at all, you wont get any bar bend, but you also won’t get a bounce at the bottom. This is great if you are training for pure hypertrophy, or training for powerlifting and want to just barely hit depth. But if you are a weightlifter, it wont work for you. 

Instead, you’ll want to time the bounce just right, usually when your hips are just above or at parallel before relaxing the hips to sit into the full squat. This will make sure you can capitalize on the bar bend, without it negatively impacting you too much. When you do this, the main thing to keep in mind is that you need to relax the hips WHILE keeping your core braced as hard as possible to prevent collapsing at the bottom.

That’s all the ways I’ve found to use the bending of your bar to your advantage in weightlifting. If you discover any others, then feel free to leave a comment!

Hopefully, this clarified some things for you and maybe even gave you a lightbulb moment with your technique. If you ever need a free form check on your videos, you’re always welcome to join my free discord here and drop your video in the #form-checks channel. 

By the way, I’ve got a free beginner weightlifting guide and a 6-week program! If you’re new to the olympic lifts, then check it out here!

And if you’re looking for a weightlifting program designed to help you set PRs, improve your technique, and get strong af, then check out a FREE WEEK TRIAL of my 3 & 5-Day OlyStrong Team at the link below!