The Rogue Bella Bar – Our Review

If you’ve been following the fitness equipment space for any length of time, you’ve probably heard of Rogue. You’ve probably even been lucky enough to give their equipment a try.

Although Rogue equipment isn’t as common in the gyms I have frequented throughout Europe, I have nevertheless been able to try out a good amount of Rogue gear. For this last 4 months, this has included getting to use my Rogue Bella Bar as one of my two main lifting barbells.

The Bella Bar can be viewed as the womens bar equivalent to the iconic Rogue Ohio Bar. This is the bar that you see in numerous events during competitions like the Rogue Invitational and even the CrossFit Games. As a “flagship” barbell, it does a good job of representing the brand with its all-around functionality and subtle aura of quality.

As someone who spends as much time performing Olympic lifts as CrossFit these days, I can’t say that I love the Bella Bar for everything, but it is definitely a bar that I would be comfortable “gripping and ripping” with on any occasion.

Sport-specific Functionality

The Bella Bar is, at its heart, a multi-use, “do everything” barbell. This makes it especially appealing to the CrossFit community, of which I am a part of, who perform a different set of exercises in almost every workout.

I appreciate this because a lot of the time when I’m looking at barbells online, I find that companies label their bars as “Olympic lifting” bars when they’re really just Olympic-size barbells that aren’t designed at all with the Olympic lifts in mind.

Instead, Rogue leaves no doubt, describing the barbell as “WOMEN’S 15KG MULTI-PURPOSE BARBELL”. I think this is a very accurate way to label this barbell.

One thing that I immediately noticed about the barbell is that it feels very durable and resilient. Unlike many other bars, I do not have any doubts that it will hold up after repeated drops, which is common in workouts where heavy singles are necessary.

Another thing I appreciate is the very particular knurling it has and how this affects my grip. It is definitely on the more aggressive side, but is closer to a “medium” grip. I find that this makes the bar comfortable to hold during high-rep cycling. I also feel that it is less likely to slip out of my hands.

Probably the last thing I really like about the bar, and it is somewhat related to my first point, is that it feels incredibly stable when I am doing powerlifting exercises, particularly deadlifts and back squats. The bar doesn’t have the most whip and doesn’t have the best spin, so I never worry about it shifting during a lift, particularly under heavier loads.

Of course, the relative lack of whip and spin hasn’t really helped during my recent Olympic weightlifting programming. I understand that the Bella Bar isn’t marketed as an Oly lifting bar and that it doesn’t have needle bearings, but I always thought that because they use the bar in a lot of high-level CrossFit competitions that it would be a little better for weightlifting.

Another thing that is more of an “oddity” more than anything else is the specific e-coating on my bar. Maybe all of the e-coated barbells are like mine, but mine feels particularly “sticky”. I feel this especially when I get slightly sweaty and particularly when I have the bar in a front rack or when the bar makes contact with my chest. It isn’t necessarily a “bad” thing, but it feels slightly uncomfortable against my body.

Overall, there are more things I appreciate about the Bella Bar than there are things that I don’t like about it and I would consider it to be a slightly above average multi-use barbell. I think I would appreciate it even more if I didn’t do as much Olympic lifting as I currently do!

Sport-specific Functionality: 85

Multi-use Functionality

The Bella Bar is marketed and mainly functions as a multi-use barbell. Because of this, we are classifying it’s “sport-specific” purpose this way and the comments from the previous section apply directly to this section.

Multi-use Functionality: 85

Tensile Strength

The Bella Bar has a listed Tensile Strength of 190,000. I would think that for the majority of women lifting with this, that this is more than enough strength to withstand heavier lifts.

If you’re a high-level powerlifter or are otherwise really strong, particularly in your squat or deadlift, there is a small chance you might experience some bending, but I wouldn’t expect this if you have fewer than 4 plates on either side of the bar.

In some ways, I actually prefer that the bar’s tensile strength score isn’t too much higher since this would likely begin to start affecting its overall whip. Since I have been doing more Olympic lifting work over the past 6 months or so, barbell whip is especially important to me. I definitely don’t think the whip is affected at the Bella Bar’s level of tensile strength in the way that many power bars (with scores over 200,000) are oftentimes affected.

Tensile Strength: 90

Coating

There are a few different Bella Bar coating options available. My specific barbell is the E-coat variation which, along with the Black Zinc offering, is the least expensive option.

I find the e-coating to be somewhat unique since it looks a little different than the increasingly common cerakote options and the more standard zinc barbells. However, I don’t find the coating to look particularly nice or otherwise interesting.

It just looks like a barbell.

I have also found that despite how Rogue describes the bar (“our black E-Coat finish provides significant wear protection, just behind that of Cerakote, without sacrificing performance”) that my bar isn’t overly resilient. I found surface-level rust forming within a few days of unboxing it. I do not keep it exposed to the elements or in a highly humid or moisture-rich environment.

I would say that this aspect has been the biggest disappointment for me with this bar. I would be slightly disappointed if this happened to another company’s barbell, but I expect a little bit more from Rogue.

Coating: 75

Price

Despite the Bella Bar being in the Rogue equipment line-up, it is actually priced pretty well in comparison to other womens barbells on the market. This is especially true if you were to opt for the less expensive E-coat (which my barbell is: $235) or Black Zinc options. These are objectively lower-quality coating options, but depending on where you lift the bar and where you store the bar, either one can be a perfectly acceptable option.

It isn’t too difficult to find womens barbells for less than $150 (and even some under $100) on popular retail websites, but you have to ask yourself if the likely quality differences are worth the ~$100 in savings. These barbells definitely win on total price, but I’m not confident that they are better value.

Price: 85

Customer Reviews

It isn’t very easy to find Rogue products for sale in places other than their official website. This makes it necessary to source all of the customer review information directly from Rogue. Thankfully, a lot of people have reviewed many of their products, including the Bella Bar.

…and most of those reviews are really good! Of the 86 total reviews for the E-coat Bella Bar, only 8 of them rated it less than 5 stars (there was only 1, 2-star review and 1 3-star review).

For those who were actually somewhat critical of the bar, the complaints seemed to be based on personal preferences more than anything.

“Good All Around Bar

Quality is great and I love the E-coating. The Knurl is a little rough for my liking, so Oly lifting is a slightly painful on the shins. Hoping this will dull down a bit. Great for any crossfit style WOD.

Yes, I recommend this product“

Customer Reviews: 98

Warranty and Returns

Rogue has a few different levels of warranty policies for its barbells. Unfortunately, the Bella Bar is in the lowest level offering a “Lifetime Warranty – Construction Only“. This means that Rogue only covers the bar for problems associated with how the bar was actually made and doesn’t cover problems incurred by use (whether this is normal use or if problems occur due to abnormal use, which likely wouldn’t be covered by any warranty policy).

Rogue allows you to return any product within 30 days of purchase. However, the item cannot have been used and, in almost all cases, must be in its original packaging to be accepted for a refund. I understand that it isn’t a good practice to accept used equipment, I think it can be a little difficult to determine whether an item is acceptable or not while it is still in its packaging.

Warranty and Returns: 80

Customer Service

I have never dealt directly with Rogue and didn’t have any experience with them directly in relation to the Bella Bar. However, at the end of 2023, Tom had a back-and-forth conversation with one of the representatives about an order he had made that he unfortunately had to cancel.

The Rogue rep was incredibly gracious, both in explaining the process and in his willingness to quickly check the status of our order and to cancel it before it got too far along in the process. It was also a “no questions asked” type of conversation and we didn’t feel any pressure to explain why we needed to cancel the order or to request a refund.

The refunded amount was quickly credited back to Tom’s credit card and the rep actually reached out a few days later to see if we needed further help or if we had questions. Overall, this was one of the best experiences we have had with fitness gear customer service representatives!

Customer Service: 100

Who is The Rogue Bella Bar really for?

I understand that Rogue’s products, rightfully so, get a lot of attention based on the company’s reputation. However, not all of their barbells are going to be the most appropriate for every type of athlete. Let’s look at who I think would most appreciate the Bella Bar

CrossFit “Generalists”

The first words on Rogue’s product description page for the Bella Bar are:

“(d)esigned for versatility, the Bella Bar 2.0 stands out across various strength movements, including bench press, squats, deadlifts, cleans, snatches, and everything in between.”

If you want a bar you can do everything with, the Bella Bar fits the bill.

Women who love Rogue

Rogue is synonymous with fitness and training. The company is especially well known for its development of products for less traditional fitness sports (like CrossFit and Strongman). If you appreciate Rogue as much as I do, getting your hands on their flagship women’s training item is probably high on your list of priorities!

Not for those with specialized lifting preferences

The Bella Bar is average-to-good at everything, but isn’t great at anything. It doesn’t have needle bearings and the bronze bushings facilitate a moderate, but unimpressive spin. Powerlifters who appreciate the presence of a center knurl might be upset that the Bella Bar does not have one.

How we reviewed The Rogue Bella Bar

As the weather has gotten warmer, Tom and I have actually split our training time between a local gym and our outdoor home gym. The Bella Bar has “lived” at home and it has been my exclusive training bar for our outdoor sessions for the last 2 months.

I mentioned before that I have been working with an Olympic weightlifting coach for roughly 6 months. I probably do 2 sessions each week where I only do weightlifting exercises. 2 days where I do both CrossFit and weightlifting, and another day where I use the bar for non-weightlifting movements like bench pressing.

Rogue Bella Bar Alternatives

The Bella Bar is a great choice for women who want a bar to do CrossFit with and is also very suitable as a general purpose training barbell. For those who are slightly more serious about their Olympic lifting or are interested in a non-Rogue version of the Bella Bar, we have some alternative options here:

Frequently Asked Questions

Can You See Yourself with the Bella Bar?

The Bella Bar is undoubtedly a nice bar to lift with. If you compare it to most of the bars you have at your gym, and this includes the nicer bars at your CrossFit gym, it is definitely a few levels above the norm.

I like it as a general training bar and feel comfortable cycling it and repeatedly dropping it in ways that I wouldn’t with my dedicated Olympic lifting barbell.

For low-rep sets (1-3 repetitions) of Olympic lifts, I find it to be adequate, if not “nice” to use, but it wouldn’t be my first choice for this type of work. As someone who is currently in the middle of an extended Olympic lifting phase, I understand that this makes me a little biased against the Bella Bar at the moment.

If you’re content with a bar that is pretty good for snatching, cleaning, and jerking with while at the same time being designed for the rigors of CrossFit, the Bella Bar is likely a better bar than what you’ve grown accustomed to lifting with.