Competitors (men only) generally wear hand protectors and go through a routine that lasts from 15 to 30 seconds. Exercises include upstarts (by which the gymnast swings himself from a hang to a support above the bar); giant circles (rotating around the bar from a handstand position with the arms fully extended) with inverted or dislocated grips and changes of direction; vaulting over the bar, releasing the grip, and regrasping the bar; movements requiring turns and changes of the position of the body and the releasing and regrasping of the bar; and finishes with straddles over the bar or forward and backward somersaults from the bar.

The horizontal bar has been an Olympic (Olympic Games) event in gymnastics since the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.