Quiet lifting. How loud is your bar?

[jrrenegar]

Hi all,

I've recently moved to a townhouse, and have set up my gym in the garage. So, I'm becoming a little more noise-conscious than in the past. The main issue is deadlifts. I use a Rogue Bar 1.0 and bumper plates on stall mats. I've noticed that most of the noise comes from a fairly loud "clink" that seems to come mostly from the bar/sleeve interface, with possibly a smaller component from the end cap. This is fairly loud even with a controlled lowering of deadlifts.

I never paid attention before, but on the deadlift setup, when I take the slack out of the bar, I can hear it also, in that case, a quiet "tink", as the bar rises into the sleeve.

Can you guys with other bars comment on how loud or quiet they are and whether this bar/sleeve noise is present? I could use a second bar anyway, so I'd love to buy the quietest one I can. I've heard American Barbell bars are quiet. I wonder if it has to do with using composite bushings.

Any other tricks for quiet lifting would be great. Does anyone have experience with those 1.5 inch thick 2x2 tiles you can buy from Rogue or Titan?

Thanks!

[Wilhelm]

At least two board members are using the Titan silencer pads

SpoilerShow

They are using them for olympic lifts.
I do seem to recall seeing them built into a deadlift platform.
You could also stand on a block to get an even start position.

Then there are these. Not nearly as thick though.
https://yes4all.com/balance-pad.html

[throwinshapes]

To add to that, most of the sound a neighbor is going to be bothered with is the plates to the ground. That lower frequency will be transmitted (heard and felt) more easily than the higher frequency clink of the barbell clearances.

[iamsmu]

I'm going to test loudness tomorrow on a few different bars. But I fear that if you have to worry about this kind of thing, your walls are too thin. But that's probably not the case. This is surely much quieter than the closing of a car door. Car doors make a lot of noise and move a ton of air.

The silencer pads are too big for deadlifts, unless you can stand on a ~5" platform. It would be awkward.

Those yes4all pads look promising.

[mouse]

My neighbors and wife love when I do any stone loading work in my garage...

Rolling it off the platform to the mats is like a damn cannon going off...

By comparison deadlifting is much quieter...

So start doing some stone loads for a while and they'll learn to appreciate the lengths you already go to...


This adds nothing to your post...

[damufunman]

Titan Silencer pad user here. They work well for dropping the bar from overhead, but that's not going to help with bar/sleeve or sleeve/weight noise. There's really nothing you can do about that aside from a new bar or new weights.

I've heard that American Barbell is very quiet, I think partly due to the composite bushings (and I think the bearing bars are also very tight and quiet), and the sleeves are a little over 50mm, like 50.2mm, so the weights fit a little more snugly.

Maybe @thejosef can comment on AB (or others), he has a lot of experience with a lot of bars, and really liked the AB Precision Bearing Bar, though it's an Expensive bearing bar.

In any case, if it's just the slinking from the sleeves, then gently take up the slack before you really pull hard on it. But as stated above, the higher frequency stuff doesn't carry much through walls. Turn on some music and it'll probably drown out the bar noise.

[Allentown]

This is fairly loud even with a controlled lowering of deadlifts.

Slower lower. Free work.

[Skander]

.
The silencer pads are too big for deadlifts, unless you can stand on a ~5" platform. It would be awkward.

I also love my silencer pads, they make it possible for me to do Olympic work.

I have a theory though- wooden pallets are 6" tall, as are the silencer pads. For $5-$10, you could get a platform that makes you level with the silencers. No idea how it would stand up to weight though- I was thinking a sheet of plywood on top would distribute the weight.

You'll still have the clink, but I agree its fairly quiet in the scheme of things. Maybe OSO clamps would keep the plate-on-plate clink down?

Overall though, you're still less loud than leaf blowing, mowing, or woodworking... Or even loud music...

[thejosef]

I've heard that American Barbell is very quiet, I think partly due to the composite bushings (and I think the bearing bars are also very tight and quiet), and the sleeves are a little over 50mm, like 50.2mm, so the weights fit a little more snugly.

Maybe @thejosef can comment on AB (or others), he has a lot of experience with a lot of bars, and really liked the AB Precision Bearing Bar, though it's an Expensive bearing bar.

Thanks for letting me know about this thread @damufunman.

Yeah I've owned an American Barbell SS Oly Comp bearing bar that was dead quiet. It was crazy how well made and tight the build on that thing was (I sold it b/c I'm an idiot). You would almost hear zero noise from the bar. I also use an American Barbell Super Power Bar w/ composite bushings that is also very quiet (that model is discontinued now, but similar to their current Mammoth bar). I think they're your best bet as far as bar brand to buy to try to eliminate noise. I've used a ton of Rogue bars, a few Eleiko, Vulcan, Ivanko, etc. and AB has then all beat on build quality in regards to building a quiet bar. I'm not sure if ALL of AB bars are quiet, but the few I've owned were very nice. Their knurl is awesome too, as a bonus.

Bumpers are also important, but it looks like you're covered there. Decent Collars, OSO or Rogue HG 2.0 (or anything nice), will also keep the weights from moving around too much.

I also lift on 3/4" thick 4'x6' horse stall mats from Tractor Supply and they help with noise as well. Those things are Tough!

[mbasic]

My two cents:

Bearing bars seem quieter to me (then bushing bars)

Bumper plates that have the cheap pressed in tinny bushings seem quieter than the ones with solid metal in er discs.

You can build a platform out of 2x4s or 2x6s that have recessed "wells" where plates lands....you fill those areas/voids in with old carpet, carpet padding, foam, and then rubber on top.....

http://mulliganfitness.com/how-to-make- ... -platform/

[jrrenegar]

Thanks for the ideas everyone. I'm sure I'm probably worrying more than necessary, but it's easier to avoid problems to begin with than to address it later once someone has become hyper-aware and annoyed.

@Allentown, yep, deadlift eccentric has definitely slowed down since moving here. It just stinks to see subsequent sets' RPE go up because of it.

[Allentown]

It just stinks to see subsequent sets' RPE go up because of it.

I bet if you repeat one block of training with a focus on a very controlled eccentric, you'd adapt to it and it wouldn't have a noticeable impact on training. But it might have a nice QoL impact on people who might be woken up by "hands-on-bar" dropped DL?
(trains after toddler goes to bed)
(doesn't really deadlift anyways)

[Wilhelm]

I finally saw again who is deadlifting with the Titan silencer pads, @jrrenegar.
It's @anniemichael

[iamsmu]

I finally saw again who is deadlifting with the Titan silencer pads, jrrenegar.
It's anniemichael

Note the deadlift jack. It would be a huge pain to try to load it on the pads. The jack solves that problem.

[SROhlms]

The Rogue bar 1.0 was indeed quite loud. I use the stainless steel Rogue Ohio bar (not the Power Bar) and it still has a little of that noise, however, my American Barbell Elite Power Bar is almost whisper quiet.

[iamsmu]

I have a mere American Barbell Training Bar. It has nearly no sleeve noise. I checked earlier, but didn't record a video. . . And it's a beautiful cerakote red.

[anniemichael]

Hey y'all, owner of those Titan pads. They are incredible.

We we forced to get them after neighbors complained about deadlift noise and "house shaking." We've got two pairs, as you can see. And yeah, obviously the jack is necessary and makes the whole operation very smooth.

Currently (as seen in the video), the center "platform" is 6 pieces of OSB and then some nice wood on top. They are just stacked at the moment -- we haven't gotten our shit together enough to actually construct the thing... whoops...

As for the bar itself, it's a B&R 2.0.

Neighbors haven't uttered a peep since we changed the set-up. And it's virtually impossible to hear from elsewhere in the house.

[Skander]

I finally saw again who is deadlifting with the Titan silencer pads, jrrenegar.
It's anniemichael

Note the deadlift jack. It would be a huge pain to try to load it on the pads. The jack solves that problem.

Yeah they're really fun on top of my jerk blocks...

[mbasic]

I have a mere American Barbell Training Bar. It has nearly no sleeve noise. I checked earlier, but didn't record a video. . . And it's a beautiful cerakote red. Red ... red like a sea of blood from a thousand dead co-workers.

fixed

[iamsmu]

Red ... red like a sea of blood

It doesn't stay red for long. It goes almost black when pools dry.