Weight is Weight… Right? – Why Olympic Weights Aren’t All Equal

If you’ve ever looked around the internet for recommendations on Olympic Weights, you’ve probably come across at least a few people uttering the words “weight is weight”. The concept is that your muscles can’t tell the difference between the nicest, shiniest 45lb plate, and the dirtiest and grimiest 45lb plate. Lift 100lbs of concrete, steel, iron, or rubber… it is still 100lbs. In other words, weight… is weight.

As powerlifters and home gym owners there are other things to consider however when looking at purchasing weights.

Sanctioned Competition

If you currently do, or plan to compete in a sanctioned powerlifting meet, they will use calibrated powerlifting discs. This is important to consider because calibrated plates are often MUCH thinner than your typical iron Olympic Weights. This doesn’t impact Squat or Bench much. But with more and more plates loaded on a bar it can impact a deadlift pretty dramatically. The thicker Olympic Weights push the weight farther from the center of the bar, creating more whip potential, which creates a beneficial starting position. What this means is that the strongest lifters could basically be doing a rack pull with thicker plates due to the way they distribute the weight differently. I’ve seen a number of people state that their competition deadlift is lower than their gym deadlift because of this.

Accuracy

The other consideration, and this might be your biggest concern, is that cheaper plates can be drastically off in terms of their stated weight. A 45lb plate from certain manufacturers has been weighed in at almost 40lbs and up as high as 50lbs. Again, we are talking extremes here and mostly for those loading multiple 45s on a bar at once. But do the math with me. If you loaded 5 plates per side on the bar where 5 on the left were 40lbs, and 5 on the right were 50lbs, you’d have 200lbs on the left and 250lbs on the right. That is a drastic difference and could very easily lead to injury.

You can also just be entirely off in terms of what you think you are lifting.

Aesthetics and Others

Less of a concern, and more of a want, the more aesthetically pleasing plates on the market tend to come from more reputable companies regardless of the make, model, and construction of the plates. Plates can come with handles, laser engraving, custom color sets, and a ton more.

Ok… what Olympic Weights should I buy?

Always go back to your goals as a lifter first. Then make sure to buy from a reputable company. I’ll make recommendations from our sponsors to keep things simple since we know they are doing things right:

If you lift under 200lbs on your biggest lift and don’t plan to compete, pick the plates you like aesthetically and that fit your budget the best. Bumpers, iron, steel, it doesn’t matter a ton. Grab some iron with handles from Intek or Bells of Steel or grab some quality bumpers from Crandall Fitness.

If you are lifting (or plan to) in the 400+ range, I’d skip bumper plates unless you plan to grab ones from Kabuki Strength or Intek. Their Urethane bumpers are slim enough to fit enough on the bar for everyone but the biggest and baddest lifters. I’d still lean towards grabbing iron plates, which again you can do from Kabuki or Intek.

If you are competing in sanctioned meets, to me, it makes sense to practice how you compete. Grab yourself a set of the Ghost Strong calibrated plates.

If you want some kind of hybrid of them all with handles, accurate, thin, but not budget breaking, with customization options, I’d without a doubt check out Weight It Out.

Of course, if you are looking to round out your plate set with some micro plates, don’t forget about Micro Gainz.

And no matter what you pick, you can customize the crap out of them with some Plate Snacks.

A number of our sponsors offer discount codes up to 15% off, so if you are looking to grab any new plates make sure to check out our page with full details.

Wrap Up

At the end of the day, weight definitely is weight. But as home gym owners, and powerlifters, we likely should spend a little time considering our purchases before just splurging on the first set of plates we see. Assess your lifting goals, make some choices around aesthetics and budget, and purchase from a solid company.