How we write and check our pages

BASALT is run by Basalt Fitness LLC. We draft pages with an AI assistant, Claude, and check each claim against a source we opened or against our own dated measurements, which our founder takes by hand. Not every guide written before this policy has been through that check yet. We sell some of what our guides mention and say so, and we log every factual correction on this page.

Updated October 31, 2026. By the BASALT editorial team.

Who is responsible

BASALT is the trade name of Basalt Fitness LLC, a Pennsylvania limited liability company, entity number 0015688021. Our founder, introduced on our About page, runs the company and takes the measurements published on this site. Email support@basaltfitness.com; our mailing address is at the foot of every page.

What we sell, and how that touches what we write

We sell Signature Fitness 1 inch standard barbells in 5, 6 and 7 ft through our eBay listing. Several of our guides mention these bars. Signature Fitness makes them; BASALT is the seller. We bought the bars we measured at retail.

No maker or retailer pays us for coverage. The site carries no ads and no affiliate links. Our rule is that a guide which mentions a bar we sell says that we sell it, and says when a different bar is the better buy, for example a 2 inch Olympic bar for anyone planning heavy squats or deadlifts.

How pages are made

We use an AI assistant, Claude, made by Anthropic, to research topics, draft pages and check them against their sources. Our founder takes the measurements by hand. Pages are published under the BASALT name, as "By the BASALT editorial team", rather than under a person's byline, because no single person writes each one start to finish.

The rules below apply to every page we publish, and to every part of a page we change, from October 31, 2026, the day this policy was first published. Guides written before then have not all been through this check yet; when one has, it carries a Sources section at the end.

1. Every factual claim is checked against a source opened while the page is written.
2. A number we cannot trace to a source is cut, not softened.
3. Before a page goes live, a separate check reads it looking only for claims that are wrong, overstated or unsourced.
4. A page has to answer a question people actually ask, with something specific. We would rather have fewer pages than thin ones.

Where our numbers come from

In order of preference:

• Our own measurements, with the date and the method. See how we measure.
• Standards and rules from the body that sets them, and government or carrier pages.
• The maker's own pages and drawings. We label these as the maker's figures. A label is a claim, not a measurement.
• Published research, linked by DOI or PubMed record, with the study type, who was studied and how many.

On a page that has been through this check, competitor pages, marketplace listings, forum posts and AI output are never the only source for a number.

How we label our measurements

Our figures for the three bars read "our preliminary check, tape and bathroom scale, 2 Oct 2026, not a Ledger entry". That label means a quick check by hand, so weights read "about". A Ledger entry is a stricter, separate standard, described on how we measure; no product has one yet. Anything still unmeasured, such as sleeve diameter or a weight rating, is marked pending and left out. Worked examples are labeled as examples.

On this site we never call a 1 inch bar Olympic, and we do not print a weight rating we have not verified.

Health and training content

Some guides cover training, such as how much weight to start with. They are general information for adults starting to lift at home, not medical advice. If you have an injury or a medical condition, or are pregnant, check with a doctor or physical therapist before starting a new program.

When we describe a study, we name the study type and who was studied, give how many when the abstract says, and say what the study does not show. Observational studies are described as links, not as proof of cause and effect. Summaries are in our own words and link to the original.

The research digest

Our research page summarizes new strength training studies each week, and the most cited strength training studies lists the most cited papers in seven topics beginners ask about. New studies for the weekly issues are found through PubMed and Europe PMC, and the most cited list through OpenAlex, a free index of scholarly works. Each summary is written from the study's abstract, and every number in it is checked against that abstract, first by a script and then in a separate review. Before an issue goes live we check PubMed and Crossref for retractions and corrections, and the separate review reads each summary looking only for claims the abstract does not support. A study appears in one weekly issue only. Study records and abstracts come from PubMed, courtesy of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Dates

Each guide and research page shows the date its content last changed, and the page's markup for search engines carries the same date; this page and how we measure show their dates the same way. The date comes from a fingerprint of the page's main text, leaving out the menu, the breadcrumb trail, the banner, the footer and the free guide box, so it moves when the page's own content changes, not when the site is rebuilt or a part shared by every page changes.

Corrections

If something on this site is wrong, write to support@basaltfitness.com with the page and what you found. When we fix a factual error, we correct the page and add a line here with the date.

Corrections log

This log starts on 31 October 2026.

• 31 Oct 2026, barbell length checker (barbell length guide). The checker could answer that a bar fits a rack when it does not. It now asks for the width across the outside of your uprights, and it has a setting for 1 inch bars.
• 31 Oct 2026, guarantee and weighing wording (banner, footer, About page, FAQ, terms). These pages said the 2 percent guarantee and calibrated, on camera weighing applied to what we sell. Both apply only to items with a published Ledger entry, and the bars do not have one yet. The pages now say so.
• 31 Oct 2026, will a cheap barbell bend (bend guide). The guide said we publish each bar's weight rating as the maker gives it. We print no rating for the bars we sell, because we have not verified one, and the guide now says that.

Changes to this policy

First published October 31, 2026. The Updated date at the top of this page changes whenever the page does.