it's kind of unimpressive that a gym is taking your money but doesn't know how much its equipment weighs. if you can't find any staff more knowledgeable than the receptionists, then my best suggestion is that you get them to show you where the scale is, and weigh yourself plus each bar, then subtract your own weight. if they object to you finding out for yourself, then they should give you your money back.

at my rec centres, the 7-foot bar that fits into the power rack is 45 lb. there's a shorter one, either 5 or 6 feet (i keep forgetting to actually check it against my own height), that's 30 lbs. and there are little curl bars around 4 feet long, with the wavy bends in the bar, which are 20 pounds. hope that helps.

sl starts out quick, but everybody is going to tell you that that doesn't last ;-) it feels like you're doing nothing at first, but resist the temptation to keep on going in the early stages. unless you've been lifting in the past, your body will need time to recover from all the new stuff it's being asked to do suddenly.

Welcome!

I cant help you with the bar question but I'm sure someone else can.

As far as being a quick workout, trust the program. It will get heavy and you will need more rest in between sets. Takes me about 45 mins now and I don't wait all 3 mins for rest yet.

This...except most gyms have standard olympic bars..which are 45lbs or 40 I believe for women's olympic.

Or they can have standard bars which are typically 20lbs...give or take.

To tell which one you used the olympic bars are longer typically and the ends are bigger....standard are like o olympic are like this O

Oh and welcome to the group.

Welcome!

I'm new to the program too, so am definitely NOT an expert. But twenty minutes does sound fast to me -- you may want to slow it down a little bit and just be sure to pay really close attention to your form as you start. From what everyone else says, the weight goes up so fast in the this program that you want to use the first few weeks to lock down form and technique. That way it becomes second nature when you're working with heavier weights.

There's a great thread in the group where people post their workouts and encouragement -- August workout check-in thread -- you should definitely check that out too.

Courtney

It's normal for the workouts in the first couple weeks to be pretty easy and go by quickly. Once you start having to rest 3 mins between sets or 5 if you fail it takes longer. Plus it becomes much more strenuous. For me, bench and row days always took longer because these exercises are harder for me and require more recovery time.