I was looking for a quality but economical bar to use for training the Olympic lifts and this will more than suffice! Yes it is a "hybrid" bar which, to me, the idea of a hybrid women's bar is a bit silly. It's really just too small and light and the knurling isn't aggressive enough for powerlifting and why train with a 15k bar when, in competition, you're going to have to use the same 45lb/20k or sometimes even 50lb bar that the men use? So, at first, I balked at the idea of a hybrid bar but the price was right and I already had a 45lb bar for powerlifting and this bar fills a niche for me. So, if you're looking for an Olympic training bar or if you're not a competitor and you want to couple your Olympic lifts with a variety of high rep sorts of exercises for fitness where you're not putting hundreds of lbs of weight on the bar then I think this would be a good choice for you.