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Thread: Weigh Your Plates

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2020
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    Ayrshire
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    Default Weigh Your Plates

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    For a while i thought that it was just a mind trick that when lifting 100kgs, 4x 20kg plates felt heavier than 2x 20kgs, 2x 15kgs & 2x 5kgs plates.

    Today, i decided to act upon this oddity, weighed my plates with good scales, and found to my horror that 100kg using 4x of my iron 20kg plates actually equals 104.2kgs!

    Of my 4x 20kg plates, two weigh 21.3kgs and two weigh 20.9 kgs;
    Of my 2x 15kg plates, one is exactly 15kg, but the other is 14.5 kgs (which means that from now of i have to put a 0.5kg micro plate on one side when i use those plates!)

    Quite outrageous discrepancies. However, the positive is that last year when i was trying to attain a 120kg bench press, but 'failed' at 117.5kg, i actually lifted 121.7kgs - mission accomplished!

    If you bought cheap iron plates, weigh them. You might be surprised.

  2. #2
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    Yeah. I think I've mentioned this before.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2019
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    765

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe View Post
    Yeah. I think I've mentioned this before.
    How do we solve this possible issue when we're at the gym? I did put a little sharpie mark on the bar I typically use, so I can always have the same bar every workout. but that's not easily doable with plates...is it?

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2018
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    370

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    Well the good news is you can fix the 20kg plates. The 15 that is low may be harder. If your any good at metal work you could add screws or if needed screw some metal to the plate. It won't be balanced anymore but then are your plates balanced anyway? I hope you are not as anal as I am or you'll be out in the shop trying to measure balance on your plates, hahaha.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2017
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ayrsson View Post
    For a while i thought that it was just a mind trick that when lifting 100kgs, 4x 20kg plates felt heavier than 2x 20kgs, 2x 15kgs & 2x 5kgs plates.

    Today, i decided to act upon this oddity, weighed my plates with good scales, and found to my horror that 100kg using 4x of my iron 20kg plates actually equals 104.2kgs!

    Of my 4x 20kg plates, two weigh 21.3kgs and two weigh 20.9 kgs;
    Of my 2x 15kg plates, one is exactly 15kg, but the other is 14.5 kgs (which means that from now of i have to put a 0.5kg micro plate on one side when i use those plates!)

    Quite outrageous discrepancies. However, the positive is that last year when i was trying to attain a 120kg bench press, but 'failed' at 117.5kg, i actually lifted 121.7kgs - mission accomplished!

    If you bought cheap iron plates, weigh them. You might be surprised.
    I used a paint marker to mark the actual weight. Over time it really bothered my OCD so I wound up selling those weights to a friend and getting a calibrated set that is accurate to +/-10 grams. Of course now my OCD makes me wonder how altitude and latitude factors in...

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by mpalios View Post
    How do we solve this possible issue when we're at the gym? I did put a little sharpie mark on the bar I typically use, so I can always have the same bar every workout. but that's not easily doable with plates...is it?
    Weigh the plates, and write the number in sharpie in a secret place on the plate. Be sneaky.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2020
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    Default

    But can you trust your scale? How is it calibrated?

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Aug 2018
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    And how do you know the people that calibrated did it correctly? Metrology is a scary subject for the anal retentive.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Uselesscamper View Post
    But can you trust your scale? How is it calibrated?
    A 1 kilogram bag of rice has '1kg' imprinted on it. I place the 1kg bag of rice on the scales. What does the dial say? '1kg'. Seems fine.

  10. #10
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    starting strength coach development program
    The cain't say it if it's not true!

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