PeteFree.comSynergee Olympic hex trap barbell — a review
© 2019 Peter Free
05 March 2019
This review is intended primarily for elderly lifters
Hex barbells (also called trap bars) reduce the deadlift pressure that straight Olympic bars biomechanically put on the lumbar spine.
Strong young folk often temporarily resort to hex bars after back injuries.
Old people (like me) use them in preference to straight bars, so as to avoid aggravating our aged states of physical being.
The biomechanical difference between the two bar forms is considerable.
A trap bar's reduction in lumbar stress is probably most acutely noticed by people, who already have significant spinal "issues".
In other words, you may already have to be injured to appreciate the magnitude of the lumbar stress difference between the two bar shapes.
A decent value
Synergee's (25 kilogram black or chrome) Olympic hex trap barbell is a good value in my experienced view.
It should appeal to young and old people who are not (already or anymore) seriously strong.
Synergee is sold at iheartsynergee.com and Amazon.
For the bar's physical dimensions, go to either link.
Dimensionally — this is not a "serious" lifter's bar
The Synergee's 10 inch (25 centimeter) sleeves are much too short to approach the weights that seriously strong lifters are routinely going to want it to carry. In my less decrepit youth, I would not have considered the Synergee trap bar as anywhere close to being adequate.
To orient yourself to the dimensional difference between the comparatively small Synergee trap bar — and a serious one — see the Rogue Fitness entry, here.
Notice that the Rogue is 88.5 inches (225 centimeters) long. It has 16 inch (40.6 cm) plate sleeves.
The Synergee is only 56 inches (143 cm) long. With 10 inch (25 cm) sleeves.
Calculating the Synergee trap bar's plate capacity
Using the inexpensive steel Weider plates that I own — the Synergee hex bar's maximum plate capacity comes to about 502 to 505 pounds (228 to 229.5 kilograms).
The Synergee's sleeves will hold five 45 pound plates per side. Mine are 4 centimeters thick at their rims.
Add a 4.5cm thick Proloc 1 collar on each side.
A caution
If you are injured or elderly, do not attempt to use a bar like this without collars.
If you lose a plate from one side during a lift, I can almost guarantee that your temporarily frail or elderly body is going further injure itself.
Probably nastily so.
Using only 45 pound plates (like mine), the Synergee's maximum workout capacity comes to 450 pounds. Plus the additional weight of the hex bar itself.
My sample of the Synergee hex bar weighs between 52 and 55 pounds. It is advertised at 55. My weighing method got me 52. But my weighing method was not ideal.
Either way, this gives us about 502 to 505 pound (228 to 229.5 kilograms) total capacity.
Your numbers will differ (but probably not by a lot), depending upon dimensions of your weight plates and collars.
Keep in mind that the larger across your plates — as 50 and 100 pound plates will inevitably be — the higher off the floor the Synergee bar will sit. That added elevation somewhat defeats the purpose of the deadlift.
In making calculations for you own plate set, consider that achieving max capacity is going to require your heaviest plates. If those are all from the same manufacturer, they will have the same cross-plate (bottom to top) diameter. Thus, their rims will touch on the bar sleeves. And the plates will not conserve sleeve space by partially nesting inside one another, as the variously heavy Weider plates are designed to do.
A warning regarding Synergee's frail packaging
My bar came in a plastic bag. Thin bubble wrap covered some, but not all of the barbell.
Both these types of packing material were badly torn and hanging, when the bar got to my house.
The positives -- decent product quality that fully serves its purpose
My chrome sample of the Synergee hex barbell is well-built and cosmetically adequate.
For its price, I have no complaints whatsoever.
The moral — Synergee's 25 kilogram Olympic hex barbell is recommended
For non-giant people:
just beginning a strength-building program
or
for those who suffer from spinal injuries and/or age's decrepitude
this sturdy trap barbell is a much-appreciated good value.