This is a question for anyone who has a home gym. Typically a 45 lb plate doesn’t actually weigh 45 lbs, and the cheaper you go with weights the bigger the difference. Does anyone with a home gym weight their weights and mark the actual weight on them, or perhaps somehow add or shave off metal to get to a true 45?
I have never weighed any of the plates in my garage gym. I figure, as long as I am getting stronger while I use them, I am getting stronger in general.
I’ve checked a couple, and they were within a few oz. up or down. Not really worth messing with.
I’ve found standard 10s that are 9.6 and 10.5. If you get unlucky and get a few overs on one side and a few unders on the other, the bar could be a bit unbalanced. I’ve never worried about it though.
I went to this one rehab center that my friend invited me too, it’s like a gym for seniors or aging population, and they had these rubbers plates, and I was OH pressing 185 lbs for reps, which was way beyond what I could do with metal plates, like 70 pounds over what I would have normally used, so I would say that it’s possible, but not probable, given that I’ve only encountered this once.
Also, unstable training ftw
How do you know your scale is any better than your plates? I’ve been on a number of scales that don’t produce the same results when variables are the same… Let alone if position changes.
I’ve never weighed plates nor do I own a home gym. I was just thinking about it today. I saw somewhere that some 45s are off by as much as 3-4 lbs. That could start causing some pretty decent imbalances if you got the wrong configuration.
[quote]CroatianRage wrote:
This is a question for anyone who has a home gym. Typically a 45 lb plate doesn’t actually weigh 45 lbs, and the cheaper you go with weights the bigger the difference. Does anyone with a home gym weight their weights and mark the actual weight on them, or perhaps somehow add or shave off metal to get to a true 45?[/quote]
Home gym guys here…I own 2 100# ers and 10 45’s. I weighed each on a bath scale because when benching I swore one side was heavier, regardless of which side I had the wights on. What I found was I have 8 that weighed 45, one was 47 and one was 42. Yeah, 5 pounds differenc3e IF I used those plates and I only noticed the weigh discrepancy on benching and maybe OHP, but it was enough to bug me. I have marked mine with a sharpee marker and have simply dedicated them to a weighted cable machine I have, that I do rope pushdowns and pull thru with. “Problem” solved…
FWIW, When I used to train at Brute Strength Gym in Norfolk VA ( shameless plug 
) They had regular plates ( 100’s all the way down to 5’s IIRC) with drilled out holes in the sides of them makeing them “calibrated” plates.
One of the plates in my gym weighs 47.8 lbs. I use it on the prowler and nowhere else.
I found out when I got a bug up my ass one day because the bar felt way off when I was warming up on military press.