Deadlifts with Non-Round Plates

[GT5050]

I travel a fair bit, so I often find myself jumping into different gyms to train. Often times I come accross those stupid 12 sided plates instead of round ones, and want to know if this can cause an issue with deadlifts.

Friday I did my set of 5 at 315, with these dumbass plates. A few things occurred to me. I'm not sure if the starting height of the bar is the same, I think it's fractionally lower because the barbell sits on the flat side of the plate.

The main thing though, is at the end of each rep. The barbell almost never wants to return to the flat side, so on my return to the ground it initially touches then the bar path takes a dive forward or towards my shins when it settles onto the flat part of the plate. Should I be concerned about this? I mean my logic tells me to set it down until it touches, then somewhat bail on it when the bar path takes its own course at the end of the rep, so that's what I've done. It's a pain in the ass because a committed set of 5 reps takes a much more thorough reset between each rep.

Not too much of a question here actually, I'm just bitching about the fact that so much of "modern" gym equipment is quite literally in this case, reinventing the wheel into a much less useful device...

[Steve Hill]

This has been discussed extensively in Rip's section of the forum. Flat sides plates bad. You No use. Or get a pair of round 45's and put them on first.

[Carlos Daniel]

Flat sides plates bad. You No use.

LOL. It just ocurred me: is this some kind of conspiracy to stop people from doing deadlifts?

[hatmanii]

I don't see what the big deal is.

Lower the weight, let the bar settle, rest feet, pull.

It really is that simple. It only takes a little bit of practice and a few seconds between reps.

-Hat

[mstrofbass]

I discussed this in the last thread that popped up...something like three weeks ago. Yeah, it's a pain in the ass, but it's not hard.

[drewcarroll2]

I have been doing that for 5 months. Just shuffle your feet back into position. The only thing that fucks with me is that I'm wicked OCD about have the bar parallel to any nearby straight lines on the floor. It drops my deadlift like 100 pounds if I have to do it at an angle intead of parallel to a wall/line/point of reference, lol. Same for bench, I have to move it so the bar is parallel to whatever lines are on the ceiling.

[Carlos Daniel]

I have been doing that for 5 months. Just shuffle your feet back into position. The only thing that fucks with me is that I'm wicked OCD about have the bar parallel to any nearby straight lines on the floor. It drops my deadlift like 100 pounds if I have to do it at an angle intead of parallel to a wall/line/point of reference, lol. Same for bench, I have to move it so the bar is parallel to whatever lines are on the ceiling.

My training partner was benching, but when he unracked the bar was very crooked, so I told him to rack it immediately. Turns out the bench was kinda crooked, and he was trying to align the bar with the ceiling lines.

[drewcarroll2]

I always get under the bar and make sure its lined up. If not, I move the bench and look again, lol.

[MazdaMatt]

I thought I was the only one with this issue. I actually squatted with one foot crooked for months and caused myself serious knee problems because the rack was crooked. I didn't notice till someone mentioned that my foot was placed wrong.

I waste a lot of energy re-aligning the bar with the nearby rack when I deadlift... it drives me nuts.

[drewcarroll2]

Yeah, but if you don't do it you won't be able to focus on the lift, lol