eli5 – Watching Olympic weightlifting. Those bars literally bend and bounce with the weights on either side. How don’t those bars ever become brittle and snap (at huge risk to the athlete)?

Question

I understand the bars are metal, which is strong, but metal can eventually get brittle too. Sure the Olympics probably can afford new bars the whole time, but what about old gyms etc.? I’m just amazed how those bars never break and hurt people. Watching that guy do the world record deadline, that bar was like a boomerang shape at points.

In: Engineering

Answer 1

The bending isn’t because the steel is struggling to cope. It bends and bounces that much by design. Skilled lifters can abuse the springy motion, the *whip.* This is most obvious in the second part of clean and jerk as they bounce the weight off their chest/shoulders.