Weight Plate

Plates are how you add weight to the bar. Round, flat, with a central hole: you load them onto the bar's sleeves and lock them in place with collars. Sounds trivial, but the type of plate you use makes a difference.

Two main hole standards exist: 25-30 mm (standard) and 50 mm (Olympic). Olympic bars only accept 50 mm plates, which are what you find in most serious gyms. Weights range from 0.5 kg (micro plates for gradual progressions) up to 25 kg for the heaviest Olympic plates.

For the material, there are three options. Cast iron plates are the classic: cheap, durable, but noisy and potentially harmful to the floor. Bumper plates are coated in dense rubber, all share the same diameter (450 mm) regardless of weight, and are designed to be dropped from height without damage: indispensable for snatch, clean and jerk and any Olympic lift. Polyurethane plates are the most durable and quietest, but also the most expensive.

Competition plates follow a standardized color code: red (25 kg), blue (20 kg), yellow (15 kg), green (10 kg). The lightest plates (0.5-5 kg) are called change plates and serve for gradual load increases. If you train for strength and want to progress consistently, having 0.5 and 1.25 kg plates available is essential for applying progressive overload.