Question on microloading

[Dabes]

Hi, I don't have micro weights at my gym neither do I have money to buy micro weights since I'm only 15. My friends say I can add those bar clips on to the bar to increase the weight a little or to rest at the bottom if I'm benching. What should I do?

[Clay Simczyk]

Make some out of chain.

[Adam Skillin]

Make some out of chain.

Or zip-ties and washers. But yeah, make something. Or buy baseball bat weights.

[veryhrm]

Resting at the bottom is not a good alternative to microloading (how would that even work ? At the bottom your muscles are still working to hold up the weight so waiting there will just make you more tired. Also SS doesn't do paused bench press, it uses stretch reflex so if you were to pause at the bottom you'd have to use less weight. (you DID read the book, right? even at 15yo you can scrape together $10 to get the kindle version from amazon... given the amount of time and effort you're putting into lifting that's not a lot of money)).

Find a way to do microload. There is no equivalent. Weight is weight. Anything that you can (relatively securely) attach to the bar is fair game. I use a pair of 1lb wrist weights ($10 from sports authority) that i do up and just slide on the bar. That allows increases in jumps of 2lbs 3 lbs 2 lbs 3lbs.

Using extra collars for weight is fine for the press, but it's not so good for the BP (where you shouldn't collar your weights). If you always have a spotter or if you lift in a power rack w/ the safeties in place then it might be an option, but it's best to just skip the collars on the BP.

Anyway, search the board (via google as described in the sticky thread in this sub-forum) for microloading and you'll see various solutions people have tried.

[lwoodroff]

I have some cheap ankle weights from Tesco (like Walmart) which have pockets with packs of weight in, so can be adjusted. A friend on another board uses socks filled with old change..

[Adam Skillin]

A friend on another board uses socks filled with old change..

Excellent!

[Nick Klemetson]

Ha ha, that's genius, actually.

I actually did use the collars for awhile. I took my food scale with me once and found that one of each type of collar combined adds up to one lb. So with one of each collar on each side it made two total pounds.

I've since gotten Dan Miller's microplates so problem solved, but it worked for me in a pinch.

[Nate]

Here is another solution a forum member came up with for microplates on the cheap:

http://startingstrength.com/resource...ad.php?t=30480

[Tiburon]

baseball donuts

[Sean Herbison]

A friend on another board uses socks filled with old change..

Why doesn't he take the change out of the socks and buy microplates with it?