Best Powerlifting Bar in India? Bullrock 29MM Wild Rhino 1.5 Bar Review

👉 Seeing the end of the sleeve, you’ll notice a snap ring design, which is pretty standard these days. Most barbells have it outside, maybe an ATE power bar or Challenge power bar, or a budget powerlifting bar you might get at your local sporting goods store. 

It’s an industry standard that allows you to get the sleeve on and off quickly. If you ever need to do maintenance or lube things up, which for a Powerlifting Bar, you probably don’t need to. But if you choose to, it’s very convenient. 😊

❌ Please don’t go for barbells that have bolt and screw sleeve designs, because it can be very dangerous.

When you see this powerlifting bar from sideways, a brand tag of bullrock is clearly visible on the end caps describing the specifications about the bar you look at, not much, but weight, name, and thickness of the bar can be seen here with a slogan “Lift with passion”. 👍

✔️This is helpful for most new lifters, to first identify the barbell they’re using.

Second, they can distinguish which barbell is which, because most barbells available in the lifting hall are of hard chrome. Which makes them select the wrong barbell, for the exercise they want to perform. 

Looking at the actual sleeve of the bullrock power bar India itself, you’ll notice that it’s grooved all over, which helps secure the plates from sliding off at a time or wiggle side to side when you’re doing deadlifts or things of that nature. So you don’t require adjusting the plates close to the collar every time after or beginning for your lifts.

But to be honest, it does definitely make more audible noise as you slide plates on and off. 😒 Also, this happens because of the steel inserts on the plate.

This doesn’t bother me, but if it does bother you, then it is something to take into consideration.

Sleeve Diameter & Loadable Length:

The sleeve diameter is 49.8 MM/ 2-inch, which is perfect to fit in any Olympic bumper plate, or cast iron plate you do use. But it won’t be right for cheap or budget plates with 1” inch center holes that are being sold at a price per kg. Obviously, no one would be using them if he/ she is a serious lifter. 👍

Get only a 2-inch center hole Olympic iron weight plate for any IWF or IPF approved barbell.

Loadable sleeve length is 415MM on Wild rhino powerlifting bar is significant enough to be used also by an experienced powerlifter who wants to break the next powerlifting record. (The Bar can be loaded to 440kgs easily)

👉 Shaft is where you’ll be gripping the bar. Bullrock Fitness Wild Rhino Power Bar 1.5 is a 29MM hard chrome bar that has a couple of big benefits. 

#1 You are going to get a lower price because you’re not paying for some fancy coating. 

#2 You’re also going to get a good feel on the bar because there’s thin hard chrome coating that’s going to be in between the steel and your hands. Thus, you got to introduce its true knurling. 

➡️ In this case, the actual knurling on this bullrock powerlifting bar India is not overly aggressive or sharp, but yes, it is what a 1.5 mm Volcano Knurl provides for a comfortable & secure grip. 

But given the fact that this has a 29MM hard chrome shaft, it feels good in the hands and can be used as your everyday training power bar, which won’t require you gym chalk. The knurl is just that good; it does come standard with the center knurl and single IPF-5 powerlifting knurl marks as well. 😊

The center knurl is actually as per IPF specs, so it’s going to hold better on your back. ❤️

You also wouldn’t find any inconsistencies or some of the minor finish issues on knurling that you might get on any other inexpensive power bars, available either in the offline or online market for strength equipment in India.

Speaking more of the shaft, one of the things I want to talk about is although hard chrome does have a lot of benefits, but it requires little more upkeep than ceramic/ cerakote coatings, which you see in Bullrock Red turtle Olympic barbell.

Though some rust and oxidation spots do clean up with a wire brush and some oil. But it’s just something to be aware of if you’re going to get this powerlifting bar, and if you live in an environment where oxidation happens quite easily.

This one will just require little more tender love and care. 😊

But the advantage of hard chrome over black oxide/ ceramic or any coating is that hard chrome requires NO maintenance/ or attention than the Oxide finished shaft of Sabertooth Powerlifting Bar, which makes hard chrome – Wild Rhino 1.5 Powerlifting Bar India a better choice for commercial gyms and serious powerlifters.

I have explained the difference between the two barbells coating below in much detail.

Things get pretty different here.😲 Some brands’ powerlifting bars come with thick collar sleeves, while some make it with thin collar sleeves. Collars you get on Wild Rhino 1.5 Powerlifting bars are like any normal Olympic barbell. 

➡️ So, the question lies in what should be preferred?

It’s obvious that thin style collars, allow the weights to come closer so there’s less distance between the plates on either side which is going to make the bar feel stiffer. So you get less whip out of the bar. 

On the other side, when the collars are thicker, it’s becoming possible to use thicker bushes inside it & the thicker the bushes greater the strength will be, which can withstand much heavier drops.

Depending on what you’re used to training, the difference between the two can be a concern for you, especially when choosing a powerlifting barbell. 

👉 So I asked directly to the Bullrock support team, and they answered this:

Speaking more of collars, the Bullrock Wild Rhino 1.5 power bars do not spin very smoothly compared to the bullrock red turtle Olympic bar, or 28MM panther bar, any other Olympic bar.

I don’t think spin of sleeves matters much for powerlifting, and if you planned on this being an all-purpose powerlifting bar to be used for deadlift, squats, and bench press, it is helpful.

And if it has more spin than for squats when you’re lifting 2X, 3X of your body weight, this isn’t what you like. 

So this bar gives a lit bit of everything to every exercise. 

Though you would find no problem inserting this into your daily training routine, it just fits alongside your other power bars. 

✔️ As well, it’s rated at 205 K psi tensile strength, which doesn’t really mean much to me, because I’m not sure what that is but it basically equates to allowing it to be loaded up with more weight than I could ever lift. (Max load: 816 kgs/ 1800 lbs)

As discussed above for powerlifting, spin isn’t a very important factor and normally you find a bushing in most powerlifting bars.

This is similar to The WILD RHINO BAR 1.5, it has 6 bronze bushings (again industry standard👍), which provide less but optimal rotation which isn’t going to impact you when lifting 2X or 3X of your weight on deadlifts or any other exercise.  

For most of the time, with bronze bushings, what you have is because they’re self-lubricating they give a little better spin but with this Bullrock powerlifting bar it doesn’t have self-lubricating bushing and that’s also not necessary, definitely for Olympic barbell, it is.

Bearing is more costlier than bushing, and people ask why not bearing in powerlifting bars?

👉 Remember, high-quality bushing is better than low-quality needle bearing.  

Therefore, the bronze bushing will be fine here, holds up for longer, and is perfect for powerlifting bars like such which are meant for only powerlifting exercises. 

Next Question, people ask for? They don’t have a lot of play on it but it does have a little spring which is supposed to be more of a shock absorber. What is it? I don’t really see that being a pro or con either way when you’re dealing with a power bar like this.

Hard Chrome is more resistant to oxidation than Black Oxide and that’s why it ranks much higher in the Oxidation scale Rating chart.

If you prefer a mild aggressive grip feel and can’t pay much attention to the maintenance of the bar OR, you’re planning to use the bar in a not very humid environment, then The Wild Rhino Bar 1.5 is for you.

Because Powerlifters do not need to feel as connected to the bar as Oly lifters do. 

This procedure will add a coating of chromium to your bar, giving it a bright silver appearance. The benefit of doing so is increased bar strength and improved corrosion resistance.

The Black Oxide finish creates the impression of gripping a bare steel bar, making the knurl seem more aggressive and alive (compared to Hard Chrome). That’s the reason it’s liked by serious powerlifters.

But hard chrome is also present in this sabertooth bar on the SLEEVES, to provide scratch resistance where black oxide coating isn’t suitable for use.

Bullrock Sabertooth Bar is recommended for those who can oil the bar shaft every quarter or two and prefer a more aggressive knurl feel. Because the black oxide coat is very thin compared to hard chrome, that’s why knurl feels better in hands.

If you want the best bang for you, I would suggest looking at the Bullrock Wild Rhino 1.5 Powerlifting bar India i.e., 20-kilogram, 29MM variant, and IPF specs approved, it requires NO maintenance and gives fewer worries to safeguard it compared to black oxide coated shaft on sabertooth bar from chipping off/ or fading in from metal to metal contact. 😳