image: The experimental setup used to determine the vibrations of barbells used in Olympic weightlifting.
Credit: Joshua Langlois
PHILADELPHIA, May 13, 2026 — In Olympic weightlifting, a single kilogram plate can be the difference between gold and silver. As much as possible, elite athletes must use everything they can to their advantage.
One of these variables is known as the barbell’s “whip,” the bouncy bendiness of a bar under dynamic movements. Joshua Langlois, a graduate student at Pennsylvania State University, will present his work studying these Olympic barbell vibrations Wednesday, May 13, at 11:20 a.m. ET as part of the 190th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, running May 11-15.
“Weightlifters use the bar’s whip to assist in the upward acceleration by timing the oscillation of the bar so that they drive upwards into the bar when the vibration in the bar is already moving the weight upwards,” Langlois said.
Though Olympic barbells are constrained to a specific weight, diameter, and length, the rest of their properties vary by brand. This means the steel alloy the barbell is made of, its coating, and how it connects to its sleeve — the area that holds the weights — can be inconsistent from barbell to barbell, and all these properties affect the bar’s whip.
Langlois’ work compares both the vibrations of different barbells and the vibrations of one barbell with different amounts of weight. One major variation he uncovered so far is due to the bars’ sleeves: Vibrational modes primarily rely on geometry, so the difference in sleeves between bars has a larger effect than their different materials.
The studies are still exploratory, and more work remains to be done to understand how these changes affect a lifter’s performance.
“Performing modal analysis on one barbell under several different loads and across several barbells under the same load has given us the initial data needed to begin answering the questions of ‘How much does the barbell matter?’ and ‘What makes a good barbell?’” Langlois said.
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ABOUT THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
The Acoustical Society of America is the premier international scientific society in acoustics devoted to the science and technology of sound. Its 7,000 members worldwide represent a broad spectrum of the study of acoustics. ASA publications include The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (the world’s leading journal on acoustics), JASA Express Letters, Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, Acoustics Today magazine, books, and standards on acoustics. The society also holds two major scientific meetings each year. See https://acousticalsociety.org/.
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