Surfaces

Hi Rip. The gym i go to has those black mats as the floor. They are pretty firm, but not as firm as a hard floor like a deadlifting platform.
I noticed when i deadlifted 157kg on the matting, its a real struggle for me. But when i deadlifted the exact same weight at a different gym on a proper deadlifting platform, it felt a bit easier. I felt like i couldve lifted 5 or 10kg heavier. Do you think im just over thinking it? Or do deadlifting platforms make a noticeable difference on how much you can lift?
Thanks.

Horse trailer mats are not compressible to any significant degree under human feet at any deadlift weight.

My gym has two lifting platforms, on plywood center and the other is an all mat platform from Rogue. I actually like the all mats because of better traction in my lifting shoes.

It could just be variation in weights between gyms. Most globogyms have bad plates, calibration wise. And +/- 1kg per plate adds up.
When I was still going to one I spent a late night hauling them all to the bathroom scale and used a sharpie to make a surreptitious mark on the worst of them I wanted to avoid. Some 45s were off by as much as 5lbs. The worst one was the 2.5lb baby plates varied between 1-4lbs. No wonder I couldn't make consistent progress on my press...

Wow that is commitment

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Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe

Horse trailer mats are not compressible to any significant degree under human feet at any deadlift weight.

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And for the love of all that’s holy, moving them around is a workout in and of itself.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mmll

Hi Rip. The gym i go to has those black mats as the floor. They are pretty firm, but not as firm as a hard floor like a deadlifting platform.
I noticed when i deadlifted 157kg on the matting, its a real struggle for me. But when i deadlifted the exact same weight at a different gym on a proper deadlifting platform, it felt a bit easier. I felt like i couldve lifted 5 or 10kg heavier. Do you think im just over thinking it? Or do deadlifting platforms make a noticeable difference on how much you can lift?
Thanks.

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You are over-thinking it. I've been dead lifting more than that for years on horse mats. No issues at all. Just don't try to pull in tennis shoes--or worse--press.

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Originally Posted by johnst_nhb

And for the love of all that’s holy, moving them around is a workout in and of itself.

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I think a 4x6’ horse mat weighs ~ 100 lbs.