Atlas Bar

Titan bars have been made fun of as long as I've been looking into building my home gym. This is the bar I started with and I think it's one of the best starter bars out there (it's discontinued but similar to the elite series they have now). I've squatted 495 on this bar without center knurling with no complaints. I have since added goat scary tape as a diy center knurl that works fine. The knurling is too passive for a barbell connoisseur, it's just not the knurling you want to pull heavy with. But for your first bar it's decent enough, and I can still dead lift as much weight as I want to as long as I chalk up. The chrome is done well, very minimal maintenance required after 4 years, and I prefer these smooth sleeves to my badlands bar. If this knurling was improved this would be the only barbell I own. The sleeves rotate nicely for cleans but not too much on powerlifting and rows. I'm keeping this for cleans and dead lifts as I want to clean and can't justify a bar for only 1 lift. If you can find one used, I would get it.