If I was training overseas for a long period of time I would just change my training log to be in kilos and adjust all lifts accordingly. All goals would be in kg and I wouldn’t care about the lbs anymore.
So, to 20KG plates are typically the “big ones,” which are roughly the same as the 45 lbs. plates in the U.S., which are the “big ones”? Sounds pretty easy to “eyeball” then, regardless of whether you are used to lbs. or kilos.
[quote]Triceptaurus wrote:
Australia: kilo plates, like most of the rest of the world.
It’s one of the things that really annoys me with US based sites in that they are talking in lb when the vast majority of powerlifting done on the planet is in kilos. In fact, I would hazard a guess that any decent US federation would have their comps in kilos as that is the international standard, they just report it in pounds. It might have been elitefts that had conversion tables for US lifters for some comps.
Same with the Olympics. Everything is in kilos. US commentators find it irresistable to convert to pounds, making the whole thing an annoying experience.
The kilo standard is shown in the US lb plates. I mean, why 45lb? Why not 50? Why a 44lb bar and not a 45, or even a 50 or a 40? Because they are all near equivalents to the kilo standard.
Sorry for the rant. It’s just a pisser having to deal with 18th century standards.
[/quote]
Yeah theres really no good reason for using non-metric measuring systems other than “because thats the way it is”
[quote]jjackkrash wrote:
So, to 20KG plates are typically the “big ones,” which are roughly the same as the 45 lbs. plates in the U.S., which are the “big ones”? Sounds pretty easy to “eyeball” then, regardless of whether you are used to lbs. or kilos. [/quote]
Changes as the weight goes up. The discrepancy becomes greater and greater.
Having lived in Oz for a couple of years, I am getting pretty used to the metric measures. The math for kilos to pounds is easy, a bit longer the other way around. Since all the plates are similar in size, just measured differently, it looks the same as back in the states. Since the big plates are almost identical, I can always quickly tell if someone is lifting heavy.
It did take a while and where I was thrown a few times was on the pin loaded machines. I remember when I first started going to the gym being a little dismayed with only being able to manage 70 pounds for sets of lat pulldowns. It was only on walking home that I realized I was working with 154 pounds and didn?t feel quite so weak.
Really though, it doesn?t matter unless I am going to compete what I lift. It only matters to me is that can monitor my lifts so I can program and progress on them. It does sound better to say lifts in pounds though, 440 pounds sounds heavier than 200 kilos. Once you lift it though, it weighs just the same!
I probably have progressed faster working with kilos in some ways though, because it was harder to be intimidated by a weight. I just would work up to a max and then track that.
[quote]jjackkrash wrote:
So, to 20KG plates are typically the “big ones,” which are roughly the same as the 45 lbs. plates in the U.S., which are the “big ones”? Sounds pretty easy to “eyeball” then, regardless of whether you are used to lbs. or kilos. [/quote]
the biggest kg plates back in the 70s were usually 20s …25kg plates are standard for comps now so many gyms have them. (my home gym does, my “fitness centre” does not)
20kgs are blue 25kgs are red.
note crossfitters use red 45lbers, don’t know why …
back in the 70s 80s and 90s we used Gold 45kg plates (99lbs) and there were some green 50kgs floating around, though not sure they were ever allowed for comps.
as I said in Helsinki found a great pair of 50kg (110lbs ) bumpers, exactly same size as the 20kgs bumpers
kind of makes the “bro” statement of 2 or 3 plates for the lift, kind of .uniquely American
Every place I train has 45 lbs. thick looking plates as the big plates, its funny when I go to meets and look at the bar loaded with comp plates I think “that sure doesn’t look that heavy” until its actually sitting on my back.
I trained at a gym in Southern England, I can’t remember where other than it looked like an actual real live dungeon, and they had a mix of standard kilo (1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, 15, 20) plates and standard imperial plates [aka US] plates (2.5, 5, 10, 25, 45). That was a bit tricky to make sure you were loading the right ones.
But all other gyms I’ve trained at in the UK use standard kilo plates. It is about 50/50 whether they also lift a US equivalent (20 kg = 44 pounds). they never round the pounds “up” to the imperial unit (aka a 20 kg plate is NOT listed at 45 to make us happy).
When I go there for a while Ill usually just plan my workouts out in Kilos and record them as such in my training log. Really confusing though when I look back and see that I was less than half as strong as I thought i was.
Interestingly a lot of the treadmills I used in the UK were miles per hour instead of km/h.
[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:
Interestingly a lot of the treadmills I used in the UK were miles per hour instead of km/h.[/quote]
yup, we tend to mix metric with imperial quite easily. we dont get confused by it. if you are under 20 years old or so in the uk you may be more metric and less imperial.
distances are in inches, yards and miles
weight in ounces pounds and stones
liquid is in pints apart from petrol which is in litres
a persons height is in feet and inches
weights at the gym are in kilos
What I don’t like when pounds are used is that there seems to be alot rounding up or down and a general disinterest toward knowing how much it is what people are lifting. How can I take Benny’s 1015 pound deadlift seriously when things like accurate weight announcements and plate calibrations don’t mean a thing?
One raw bench video was posted a few days ago and the title said “700+”. How stupid is that? Yeah, we don’t care if it’s 701 or 730 pounds. Same thing I guess. In my old gym there used to be a pair of those green 50 kg bumper plates, and on one of them was written “-15 gr”, meaning that it weighed 15 grams under 50 kg. That shows commitment to lifting and to fair play.
[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:
Interestingly a lot of the treadmills I used in the UK were miles per hour instead of km/h.[/quote]
Slightly off topic but there is a good reason for this. When the UK converted to metric, there were 2 exceptions due to the supposed effort involved in the conversion: road signs and pints of milk/beer. Thus distances/speeds tend to still be thought of in miles and mph.
On topic, all plates in the gyms I have trained in are kg, it’s just stubborn Americans who refuse to adapt 
You try getting 314,462,010 people to adapt.
[quote]gorangers0525 wrote:
You try getting 314,462,010 people to adapt.[/quote]
You also forgot to include the population of Burma.
Im from Australia, and one of the gyms I frequent on holidays is still using lbs, oldest gym around, doesn’t even have proper oly bars. All solid with solid collars too. The occasional 20kg plate though. All db in lbs too.
Gym on base, is all kg though. All new gear, courtesy of the Army. With both gyms, the plates only have their respective weight - lb or kg, marked.
I can eyeball a bar and know what weight is on it even with a mixture of plates 20/15/10/5s etc. I dont have any issues very quickly converting kg/lb or vice versa.
Man, I am an American currently living in Sweden so I know all too well the confusion over this metric thing. I am getting kind of used to it, but I still have to do a rough calculation in my head to get a reference. The famous barbell company, Eleiko, is HQ here so of course all serious gyms are outfitted with Eleiko plates.
There is a standard color code system of the plates for easy and idiotproof loading of the bar and quick recognition. Red=25kg, Blue=20kg, Green=15kg, Yellow=10kg, White=5kg.
Pounds? naw man, no one over here in Europe talks about no pounds, man…not even the British. Besides, arent all top contests in Kg’s anyway even in the US?
So, you mean to tell me those York Olympic bars I grew up with were only 44lbs!!??
^arent the greens 10kg and the yellow 15kg?, in my gym they are.
Yeah, you are correct…I got my greens and yellow mixed up. Good call.
I’m not even an overseas lifter but the only time I ever use pounds anymore is if I train at my school gym normally if people ask ill give it to them in kilos it’s a pain in the ass when you plan in kilo and have to train with pound plates
I train at two gyms. One has all the plates in lbs and the other has all the plates in kilos. I am outside America, but since I use both systems fairly often, I’m pretty much like zimdude, but sometimes I tend to split hairs b/c 2 plates per side in kilos is 100kg total but 2 plates per side in lbs is 225lbs. 225lbs =/= 100kgs.
I actually find it easier to add up a kilo bar than a lb bar, but that’s b/c multiples of 20kg are easier too work with than 45lbs.