bumber plates tend to have a larger diameter than iron plates. As such, I have two sets of bumbers and the rest of my collection is iron. The bumbers hit the ground, and the iron doesn't. It is the perfect combination of economy and precaution. I highly recommend it.
Hi, Michael! Thanks for your comment. I've been thinking about that very same setup lately, as I already have a set of irons and want to try out some weightlifting exercises without destroying the plates if I drop them from overhead. I was afraid that they would even crack, even with the bumpers taking the impact with the floor, but you've encouraged me to try it out!
Hey Coop, calibrated plates are guaranteed to be within 10g of the weight. I love your videos and appreciate your effort that you put in for the fitness industry! Keep up the motivation and great work!
Dude, I'm glad I've been following your channel as long as I have. You've helped me make some excellent decisions. I never expected my garage gym to turn into what it has. I've bought some things using my own experiences and then have used your reviews. Just added a Rogue Ohio Power Bar (Black Zinc), Rogue Mil Spec Echo Bumper Set (260lbs), and Rogue Aluminum collars to my gym. My Wife and adult kids bought all that for my early Christmas present.
Coop has "inspired" over $3k in garage gym upgrades, just picked up a Rep kettlebell and the Eleiko Oppen collars, those were the cheapest purchases so far 😆
Shit, Coop and Basement Brandon have 'inspired' a roughly $15,000 basement gym, built in the last year. Honestly though, the overwhelming majority of it was purchased with Pandemic Unemployment money and my rich wife buying me a bunch of stuff for christmas and birthdays lol.
For those of us with narrow space on either side of the rack, the Rep rubber coated metal plates with handles are a lifesaver for loading and unloading squat and bench. All weighed right over 45lbs too.
Seems pretty solid if youre switching exercises and taking the plates on and off a lot. Otherwise their basic iron plates are hella cheap, just over a dollar a pound.
Pretty sure a $25 Uhual and taking a days worth of time is worth it for hundreds and hundreds of dollars worth of steel. Only exception I could imagine is if you moved out of the country 😂
I bought 6 crumb rubber plates from Sorinex, to deadlift with in my carport, and use 3/4” stall mats too. I figured once I have 315 in rubber on the bar, there’s plenty of cushion and still enough space on my Rogue Ohio bar to add a couple iron plates (which are ever so Slightly smaller in diameter, so I can just slide them right on without lifting each time. It works out great!)
Gotta have all the bases covered. Iron for regular lifts, Steel Calibrated for comp preps, Bumpers for drops, and fake plates for for the Social Media clout.
I've been using Vulcan Alpha Bumpers based on your recommendation from a few years back. I like being able to lift outdoors on concrete and asphalt without risking damage to the plate. The Hi-Temps are good for that but are a non-standard smaller diameter. The Alphas are the correct diameter and bounce less, more like a competition bumper.
Hi temp, best price for longevity, and if you need more room on the bar for squat or deadlift just buy on set of 45lb iron plates. And if you lift enough that you need more than 405 for a clean you probably aren't even watching this 😂
I originally bought a lot of cheap iron plates from Nordic Fighter, and some various other small plates. These were all 25mm. I've gotten to an intermediate strength level with these, but I want to start a local powerlifting meet, and I saw one hell of a deal. I guess Eleiko was having a warehouse clearance sale, so I got 25 kg calibrated IPF powerlifting plates for $87/each, with one pair of 20 kgs for $74/each! That's incredible! It was like half price! I must have saved well over $1000. I bought 330 kg/727.5 lbs just in plates. Then I bought a Rogue Ohio Powerbar 20 kg.
Great review as always Coop. I went with Hi-Temps. They had a great BF sale, are the least likely to damage my flooring, can be taken outside and are Made in the USA (Rogue’s deep dish are USA made too, for an iron option for those looking for USA made).
I've "wasted" a lot of money climbing the plate ladder over the years but now I'm using Rogue Fleck plates in my home gym in an attempt to limit wifey aggravation :)
I'm tempted to sell all of my plates (iron and mil spec rogue) and switch to the fleck plates...are they durable? Not much bounce I see which would help be safer to not bounce too far...I have horse stall mats so not too worried about cracking the cement.
I have used a lot of different brands and styles of plates and my favorite by far is the PB Extreme Urethane plates. They are not cheap but as the saying goes, buy once cry once. The weights are pretty accurate and I love the shape of the grip handles.
Really great content here, Coop. I'm still loving my Rogue Competition Bumpers, but I do have to admit that their deep dish iron plates call out to me quite often.
I started out with Rogue’s urethane plates and they’ve held out very well. Recently acquired Rogue’s competition plates and a couple of the training plates. I think the competition ones look so pretty. Makes you want to sling them up and down everyday.
A good setup would be a pair of big 30kg bumper plates for dropping and the rest just cheap iron ones. That way the iron weights wont touch the ground.
yes iron is harder BUT the main difference is the DENSITY and the best way to protect your slab and dampen the noise is to have WOOD under the stall mats (or even better use 2+in of wood under 1+in of rubber incl slotted mats like for bars or some mud-wiping door mats) so the shock is BOTH absorbed and distributed
Was price hunting for Black Friday, in order to pull 6 plates (270-275lb) it would cost me $600 with rogue (deep dish). Saved $150 and went with Rep, who actually had a sale.
I've been building my home gym since 2003. I bought a York 20lbs dumbbells and 110lbs barbell. Over the years, I've bought more plates, a storage tree for the weight plates, a power rack, and recently, a home cable machine setup for the rack. Unfortunately all my plates are standard so no hex bar in the foreseeable future
No!!! We want a more detailed Agrro Bar review and a review on the updated Premium Textured Pad for the Rogue AB-3.0!!!! Coop said in his review he wanted Rogue to release a grippy pad for the bench. A few months later, they do....and Coop hasn't said a word about it. WE WANT TO KNOW HOW GRIPPY IT IS!!!!!!
I prefer the 100 pound ( 45 kilo ) plates. Load the squat bar up and your workout is done ! And on your light days you can just roll them around on the floor.
I had Dodecagonal Rubber Plates from CAP for 4 years until I recently got my Rogue Calibrated Plates back in February. I regret buying the CAP plates and having to live during that time with buyer's remorse and awkward deadlifts or using a bumper plate with 35lbs. My thought process at the time was worrying about my plates rolling at my neighbor's car from across the street and I thought it would be the perfect balance between rollability and storage. I used dodecagonal dumbells at my local in-shape at the time which lead me to believe that those types of plates would be perfect. I gave them away to a friend and never looked back. Don't by hex plates when starting a home gym, trust me
Strength Depot is a new one that popped up. Very competitive pricing. I was able to get a 230lb crumb bumper set for $330 - shipping is free. The owner was also really nice. I originally wanted the yellow fleck set but they were sold out, so he personally reached out to people on the waitlist and offered a lower price for the all black set. They currently have a 305lb virgin rubber set + needle bearing 20kg bar package going for $600.
Coop, I know you can’t review everything, but Eleiko’s IPF approved KG plates are cheaper than Rogue and they have free shipping for the holiday season. I was going to order the Rogue comp plates during their Matte Black Friday sale, but started shopping around and found the Eleiko plates
@@indianajonze it was free when I ordered mine. I contacted Eleiko because I don’t live far from their Austin HQ and asked if I could get an additional discount if I picked them up, instead of the free shipping, but they said nope. So the plates were cheaper than Rogue and I got free shipping
After seeing your comments, I was going to pull the trigger on Eleiko and cancel my Rogue Black Friday order. Everything you says is true except that the plates are sold individually....
@Craig Allen good choices I used Fringe bumpers are the CrossFit box I used to go to and Rogue Deep Dish are my personal favorite iron plates. -Mike, GGR Community Manager
you *think* you'd like them, until you start loading 3-4 plates on each side of the bar and realize the lack of a lip on the edge of the plate makes taking them on/off the bar/storage pin a GIANT pain in the ass. Just buy machined iron plates. It will get you close to the stated weight while also being easy to carry around your gym because they mostly all have a good sized lip for loading/unloading/carrying. it gives you something to grab onto.
I got cheap bumper plates from Rogue, because my home "gym" is outdoors and I don't have a squat rack (yet). I love being able to grind out a rep and just drop the weight.
Currently have the Rep old school iron plates and like them. The weight tolerance on the 6 pair I got were all good. If money wasn’t an issue I’d love to have the strength co cause Mercia 🇺🇸
There needs to be a plate review for olympic dummbells. Key point imo plate size (lenght?) ROM Plate thickness so you can load enough on a dumbbell Price For example, what are the best plates for a Olympic dumbbell like the Gungnir Dumbler? The most important factor being plates that maximizes your ROM , and are heavy enough. You need to be able to can get at least 50kg on each dumbbell so that you can bench press it with as much range of motion as possible. And you need to be able to get at least 100kg on each dumbbell so you can do deadlifts with it.
Hi Temps. Recycled rubber. Last long. Made in the USA. Shipped from Alabama, not shipped across the ocean in a bunker oil burning container ship. Caution though as those 45 lb hi temps are wide and with my average sized hands it’s a chore to pick one up with one hand.
Ergonomics for loading / unloading can be a consideration as well. Do they have a good place to grab them, how do they feel in hand. Sound may be a consideration for some people. Do you like or dislike the clanging of Iron plates against each other.
I‘m planning my home gym right now. My idea was to do a hybrid setup with one or maybe two bumper plates (per side) and the rest with a little bit smaller iron plates on the barbell. The idea behind is to safe the underground with the bumpers and the iron for weight because they will don’t touch the ground.
Check out Pumphouse for N American manufactured machined steel plates. You can get them to customize them with your name, gym name, whatever, and you can get whatever colors you want.
I saw them as a long term investment. I went with the Lu Xiaojun Urethane bumper plates. The beveled edges, dead bounce, longevity of newer urethane, and price was about the same as American Barbell’s at the time.
In Canada, Bells of Steel make pretty good plates, the price is great and the shipping is the most reasonable I've seen. Squat Rack Canada (SRC) makes machined steel weight plates. I haven't tried them, but they look absolutely sick.
SRC makes some nice machined plates, even 15 pounders! Canada also has XTC Fitness which sells nice machined powerlifting plates and North American Muscle which sells full diameter machined plates, 45s, 35s, even the 25s are 17.72"/450mm.
I have a bit of a hodgepodge collection of plates but they are for different purposes. When the pandemic started I picked up a cheap set of Fitness gear plates. From there I picked up some crumb bumpers for deadlifting. Overtime I actually needed to fit more weight on the barbell so I picked up 55lb calibrated steel plates from rogue for near max deadlifts. Those plates were enough to take care of me but like any good garage gym owner I have bought more stuff because I wanted it. Now I have an outside set of crumb plates for log and axle lifts on the patio. In the basement I have calibrated plates, the fitness gear stuff, and some decent rubber plates form Wright and Rogue for deadlifts and throwing on my plate loaded machines.
Find some workshop that works with metallic structures and ask them to cut you some plates out of steel, there's no way you'll beat that price... well unless you find some secondhand seller of those kind of plates on marketplace or somewhere.
I never see these mentioned, but I have the Luxiaojun Black Bumper Plates, and I dare you to find a better black rubber plate out there. The grooves and raised lettering are very precise and well-designed, they have beveled edges that make it easy and comfortable to carry them or pick them off of the floor, and the 10 lb plates are 5mm smaller in diameter, so you can load/unload them from a barbell on the ground without using a jack.
“I don’t know why you’d have a 35 lb plate” while standing in front of a Titan Fitness 35 lb plate. and I only know because I thought it was a 45 at first glance and thought it was odd when I noticed it wasn’t lol
I have some of the Vulcan Alpha plates and love them. For my general use iron plates, I picked up a nice set from ReddStrong. Couldn’t beat the price on those, plus their shipping was nice unlike what you get from some other companies. I’ve bought some Titan stuff in the past, but I got fed up with their package and always having stuff show up beat to hell from shipping.
Bought a set of basic "contrast" bumpers from Fringe, and they are stellar. Accurate, and still as good as new after a year of consistent workouts. Needing to add some more on the bar, so I invested in Strength Co. basic plates. Great quality, and within a few ounces of stated weight (which is real good for cast iron).
👍 "UMAX" Urethane covered iron "grip" plates (hollowed sections near edge for gripping them). Relatively inexpensive & mostly noiseless; no clanking when adding plates to the bar or put on the floor. Especially I bought used from commercial gym went out of business, ~ 1 or 2 years old & I paid $1/pound for 600-lbs. Last I checked they were $3/lb new.
I have Echo bumpers HG bumpers and cast iron plates. The echo bumpers are my favorite. I tested a bunch of bumper plates at Rogue and decided the echo plates were the ones I wanted. The HG plates I got in 10 and 5 kg because they didn't have Echo's at the time. The HG plates do make noticeably more noise when dropped.
Can you do a review comparing Rogue Old School Cast Iron, Rep Fitness Old School Cast Iron and The Strength Co Iron Plates? I’m ready to buy but not sure which of these to go with. Would appreciate your guidance!
Rep iron equalizers for everything except overhead strongman movements where I use hi temps because they were cheap and available in early 2020. Hi temps are also great for farmers carry since they don’t take damage from sidewalks.
I have Rogue Deep Dish plates for my rack lifts like squat and bench press. On the other side of the home gym, I have Rogue Echo Bumpers for deadlift. I use them for Pendlay rows too.
I've got The Strength Co iron plates and Rogue V1 Echo plates. I like both well enough, but The Strength Co are made to fit so tight on my barbell that they don't actually fit on some of the other equipment I have. The Echo bumpers, though, are awesome. The only issues I have with them is that the set I got had things like 15s in it (It had 35s, too, but I don't mind them) and they take up so much room on the bar. Not a huge thing on a barbell, but my mini farmer's handles are a different story. Still, it's a fantastic set. I haven't used the version 2s out, but I can't imagine Rogue opted to take a step backward on those.
Perfect timing, the day after I place an order for new bumper plates (rep competition lb bumpers), haha. But great video nonetheless. One topic you could talk about in the future is the nuance of mixing plates.
While they are thicker, I find grip plates to be the most ideal for me since the versatility added by the grips allows me to go way beyond the barbell when it comes to how many workouts I can get from them. I snagged mine from a fitness sales outlet on sale at 1.10 per pound and zero regrets.
After Basement Brandon's review of Luxiaojun kg plates, I bought a set and some of their change plates. I'm a powerlifter and they're great to train for competition.
The plastic hollow ones are the best for me. I can bench 700 with the hollow plastic ones. I Highly recommend them!😁
Brandon casltberry?
Lightweight!
I can’t believe people do this stuff on TH-cam lol
Dingle Castleberry?
Jeff Cavalier
bumber plates tend to have a larger diameter than iron plates. As such, I have two sets of bumbers and the rest of my collection is iron. The bumbers hit the ground, and the iron doesn't. It is the perfect combination of economy and precaution. I highly recommend it.
Hi, Michael! Thanks for your comment. I've been thinking about that very same setup lately, as I already have a set of irons and want to try out some weightlifting exercises without destroying the plates if I drop them from overhead. I was afraid that they would even crack, even with the bumpers taking the impact with the floor, but you've encouraged me to try it out!
Hey Coop, calibrated plates are guaranteed to be within 10g of the weight. I love your videos and appreciate your effort that you put in for the fitness industry! Keep up the motivation and great work!
10g is a tight tolerance, unless we’re talking drugs 😂
Dude, I'm glad I've been following your channel as long as I have. You've helped me make some excellent decisions. I never expected my garage gym to turn into what it has. I've bought some things using my own experiences and then have used your reviews.
Just added a Rogue Ohio Power Bar (Black Zinc), Rogue Mil Spec Echo Bumper Set (260lbs), and Rogue Aluminum collars to my gym. My Wife and adult kids bought all that for my early Christmas present.
Coop has "inspired" over $3k in garage gym upgrades, just picked up a Rep kettlebell and the Eleiko Oppen collars, those were the cheapest purchases so far 😆
Shit, Coop and Basement Brandon have 'inspired' a roughly $15,000 basement gym, built in the last year. Honestly though, the overwhelming majority of it was purchased with Pandemic Unemployment money and my rich wife buying me a bunch of stuff for christmas and birthdays lol.
Is your wife single?
Best weight plate? That's easy. 35lbs.
Amen Brother 💪
I have a pair lol couldn’t be picky at the start of the lockdown
Let's go Basement Brandon
No way, the 10lb plates are way easier to lift
U wot mate
For those of us with narrow space on either side of the rack, the Rep rubber coated metal plates with handles are a lifesaver for loading and unloading squat and bench. All weighed right over 45lbs too.
I have those and they’re great. Grip holes let you do more than just load onto a bar.
Yeah I find them under-rated too - so stop talking about them before you push up the price! Lol
Yeah, I got a pair of these and then really regretted that the rest of my weights were the titan bumpers.
@@steverapos3904 😂
Seems pretty solid if youre switching exercises and taking the plates on and off a lot. Otherwise their basic iron plates are hella cheap, just over a dollar a pound.
I just found this channel not long ago after deciding on a home gym. It’s great! This guy is awesome!
Perfect timing. I need all new plates. Just moved and left all my plates with the house because of mover cost. Now building a new gym in my home.
Man, I wish the scrub I bought my house from would have done the same
@BB-GAMING & HT I hope you put that into the price when you sold it.-Mike, GGR Community Manager
Pretty sure a $25 Uhual and taking a days worth of time is worth it for hundreds and hundreds of dollars worth of steel.
Only exception I could imagine is if you moved out of the country 😂
You're an able bodied person with home gym but you didn't move them yourself??? I guess you know your own story...
@@hamm0155 fr 😂😂😂
I bought 6 crumb rubber plates from Sorinex, to deadlift with in my carport, and use 3/4” stall mats too. I figured once I have 315 in rubber on the bar, there’s plenty of cushion and still enough space on my Rogue Ohio bar to add a couple iron plates (which are ever so Slightly smaller in diameter, so I can just slide them right on without lifting each time. It works out great!)
Gotta have all the bases covered. Iron for regular lifts, Steel Calibrated for comp preps, Bumpers for drops, and fake plates for for the Social Media clout.
Titan T-3 rack, York milled plates from Rogue and a Rogue Echo bar. Perfect setup for me without breaking the bank.
I've been using Vulcan Alpha Bumpers based on your recommendation from a few years back. I like being able to lift outdoors on concrete and asphalt without risking damage to the plate. The Hi-Temps are good for that but are a non-standard smaller diameter. The Alphas are the correct diameter and bounce less, more like a competition bumper.
Hi temp, best price for longevity, and if you need more room on the bar for squat or deadlift just buy on set of 45lb iron plates. And if you lift enough that you need more than 405 for a clean you probably aren't even watching this 😂
wait the reality is “weight is not weight”
love it
from now on i’m going to space and lifting the gravitational pull of a black hole only
I originally bought a lot of cheap iron plates from Nordic Fighter, and some various other small plates. These were all 25mm. I've gotten to an intermediate strength level with these, but I want to start a local powerlifting meet, and I saw one hell of a deal. I guess Eleiko was having a warehouse clearance sale, so I got 25 kg calibrated IPF powerlifting plates for $87/each, with one pair of 20 kgs for $74/each! That's incredible! It was like half price! I must have saved well over $1000. I bought 330 kg/727.5 lbs just in plates. Then I bought a Rogue Ohio Powerbar 20 kg.
Bought 260 set of Rogue mil spec echo bumpers and were the best priced out there with their hundo pricing.
Great info man!
For a homegym i would recommend something like REP Urethane Equalizer plates, unless you are a powerlifter or a weigtlifter..
Anyone else watches these videos even though they will never get a home gym? Just enjoy watching this guy's videos
Great review as always Coop. I went with Hi-Temps. They had a great BF sale, are the least likely to damage my flooring, can be taken outside and are Made in the USA (Rogue’s deep dish are USA made too, for an iron option for those looking for USA made).
I've "wasted" a lot of money climbing the plate ladder over the years but now I'm using Rogue Fleck plates in my home gym in an attempt to limit wifey aggravation :)
I'm tempted to sell all of my plates (iron and mil spec rogue) and switch to the fleck plates...are they durable? Not much bounce I see which would help be safer to not bounce too far...I have horse stall mats so not too worried about cracking the cement.
I have used a lot of different brands and styles of plates and my favorite by far is the PB Extreme Urethane plates. They are not cheap but as the saying goes, buy once cry once. The weights are pretty accurate and I love the shape of the grip handles.
I love the fact I live 30 minutes from york barbell the plates are awesome.
Really great content here, Coop. I'm still loving my Rogue Competition Bumpers, but I do have to admit that their deep dish iron plates call out to me quite often.
I thumbs up and will watch the video through to support the channel.
I started out with Rogue’s urethane plates and they’ve held out very well. Recently acquired Rogue’s competition plates and a couple of the training plates. I think the competition ones look so pretty. Makes you want to sling them up and down everyday.
A good setup would be a pair of big 30kg bumper plates for dropping and the rest just cheap iron ones. That way the iron weights wont touch the ground.
The Mario jump sound… 😂 😂 😂
I needed this video so bad lol. I was looking all over the place and this is perfect
yes iron is harder
BUT
the main difference is the DENSITY
and the best way to protect your slab
and dampen the noise is to have WOOD
under the stall mats (or even better use
2+in of wood under 1+in of rubber incl
slotted mats like for bars or some
mud-wiping door mats) so the shock
is BOTH absorbed and distributed
Was price hunting for Black Friday, in order to pull 6 plates (270-275lb) it would cost me $600 with rogue (deep dish). Saved $150 and went with Rep, who actually had a sale.
@_Purge very nice purchase. -Mike, GGR Community Manager
The only problem is you now have to live with REP products
@@hitleractually8180 fortunately I care about lifting weights and not worried about a brand name, unfortunate that you’re not the same way.
I've been building my home gym since 2003. I bought a York 20lbs dumbbells and 110lbs barbell. Over the years, I've bought more plates, a storage tree for the weight plates, a power rack, and recently, a home cable machine setup for the rack. Unfortunately all my plates are standard so no hex bar in the foreseeable future
can u make a vid on how far off the weight normal plates are vs calibrated?
Yes ! More in depth guides please ! That’s what we want. That’s what we need.
No!!! We want a more detailed Agrro Bar review and a review on the updated Premium Textured Pad for the Rogue AB-3.0!!!! Coop said in his review he wanted Rogue to release a grippy pad for the bench. A few months later, they do....and Coop hasn't said a word about it. WE WANT TO KNOW HOW GRIPPY IT IS!!!!!!
I prefer the 100 pound ( 45 kilo ) plates.
Load the squat bar up and your workout is done ! And on your light days you can just roll them around on the floor.
I had Dodecagonal Rubber Plates from CAP for 4 years until I recently got my Rogue Calibrated Plates back in February. I regret buying the CAP plates and having to live during that time with buyer's remorse and awkward deadlifts or using a bumper plate with 35lbs. My thought process at the time was worrying about my plates rolling at my neighbor's car from across the street and I thought it would be the perfect balance between rollability and storage. I used dodecagonal dumbells at my local in-shape at the time which lead me to believe that those types of plates would be perfect. I gave them away to a friend and never looked back. Don't by hex plates when starting a home gym, trust me
What was the issue with them?
@@fryloc359 They're Hex Plates. Deadlifting is a pain
@@PowerStallionGym i was asking because I've never used hex plates.
@@fryloc359 Don't buy them
Strength Depot is a new one that popped up. Very competitive pricing. I was able to get a 230lb crumb bumper set for $330 - shipping is free. The owner was also really nice. I originally wanted the yellow fleck set but they were sold out, so he personally reached out to people on the waitlist and offered a lower price for the all black set.
They currently have a 305lb virgin rubber set + needle bearing 20kg bar package going for $600.
Coop, I know you can’t review everything, but Eleiko’s IPF approved KG plates are cheaper than Rogue and they have free shipping for the holiday season. I was going to order the Rogue comp plates during their Matte Black Friday sale, but started shopping around and found the Eleiko plates
not free shipping to the US from what i can see. still, OUTSTANDING plates
@@indianajonze it was free when I ordered mine. I contacted Eleiko because I don’t live far from their Austin HQ and asked if I could get an additional discount if I picked them up, instead of the free shipping, but they said nope. So the plates were cheaper than Rogue and I got free shipping
After seeing your comments, I was going to pull the trigger on Eleiko and cancel my Rogue Black Friday order.
Everything you says is true except that the plates are sold individually....
@@indianajonze It is free shipping and free of tax, but just that the price is for one plate.
@@sagaking9736 Currently orders over *$500* with *_free_* shipping.
How about rubberized iron plates? Less noisy than standard cast iron.
I have a set of the rubberized plates from Torque Fitness and I love them.
I have a bunch from REP fitness. They are great.
I have ivankos and they are very underrated
The ones at my gym are hella legit.
We are working on this now.
I have Rogue Deep Dish for my iron set and a set of Fringe Sport colored bumber plates.
@Craig Allen good choices I used Fringe bumpers are the CrossFit box I used to go to and Rogue Deep Dish are my personal favorite iron plates. -Mike, GGR Community Manager
I would absolutely love the competition plates. It's really easy with osb plywood and horse stall mats to make a safe for to work on
you *think* you'd like them, until you start loading 3-4 plates on each side of the bar and realize the lack of a lip on the edge of the plate makes taking them on/off the bar/storage pin a GIANT pain in the ass. Just buy machined iron plates. It will get you close to the stated weight while also being easy to carry around your gym because they mostly all have a good sized lip for loading/unloading/carrying. it gives you something to grab onto.
@@hitleractually8180 that's just free finger strength gains
You did not mention grip plates like Rogue 6-Shooter Plates or REP Equalizer Plates which are easier to hold and move around. 🙂
I got cheap bumper plates from Rogue, because my home "gym" is outdoors and I don't have a squat rack (yet).
I love being able to grind out a rep and just drop the weight.
Currently have the Rep old school iron plates and like them. The weight tolerance on the 6 pair I got were all good. If money wasn’t an issue I’d love to have the strength co cause Mercia 🇺🇸
The best weight plates are the ones that cost £1 per kg lol
There needs to be a plate review for olympic dummbells.
Key point imo
plate size (lenght?) ROM
Plate thickness so you can load enough on a dumbbell
Price
For example, what are the best plates for a Olympic dumbbell like the Gungnir Dumbler? The most important factor being plates that maximizes your ROM , and are heavy enough. You need to be able to can get at least 50kg on each dumbbell so that you can bench press it with as much range of motion as possible. And you need to be able to get at least 100kg on each dumbbell so you can do deadlifts with it.
I like bumper plates because they are thicker, meaning there is visually more plate on the bar and looks better.
Hi Temps. Recycled rubber. Last long. Made in the USA. Shipped from Alabama, not shipped across the ocean in a bunker oil burning container ship. Caution though as those 45 lb hi temps are wide and with my average sized hands it’s a chore to pick one up with one hand.
I suggest using the ones that motivate you to work out. Whether that be the cheapest, most colorful, or most accurate.
Ergonomics for loading / unloading can be a consideration as well. Do they have a good place to grab them, how do they feel in hand. Sound may be a consideration for some people. Do you like or dislike the clanging of Iron plates against each other.
Finally, a video about good old fashion gym equipment. I’m tired of all the “smart” gym equipment videos.
I‘m planning my home gym right now. My idea was to do a hybrid setup with one or maybe two bumper plates (per side) and the rest with a little bit smaller iron plates on the barbell. The idea behind is to safe the underground with the bumpers and the iron for weight because they will don’t touch the ground.
Save yourself the money and build a platform.
Check out Pumphouse for N American manufactured machined steel plates. You can get them to customize them with your name, gym name, whatever, and you can get whatever colors you want.
Coop!!!!!!! Let’s see you set some PRs or do a gym review while eating the worlds hottest peppers!!!!
Trick i did get a stick welder, torch, grinder an drill + some material and you can calibrate the weights
I saw them as a long term investment. I went with the Lu Xiaojun Urethane bumper plates. The beveled edges, dead bounce, longevity of newer urethane, and price was about the same as American Barbell’s at the time.
In Canada, Bells of Steel make pretty good plates, the price is great and the shipping is the most reasonable I've seen. Squat Rack Canada (SRC) makes machined steel weight plates. I haven't tried them, but they look absolutely sick.
SRC makes some nice machined plates, even 15 pounders! Canada also has XTC Fitness which sells nice machined powerlifting plates and North American Muscle which sells full diameter machined plates, 45s, 35s, even the 25s are 17.72"/450mm.
I have Fringe bumper plates. Like them a lot but they do take up a lot of real estate on the bar especially on my trap bar
You forgot the DIY concrete plates! 10/10
I recently purchased the titan urethane competition series plates for OLY lifting and I absolutely love them. By far my favorite plate.
I have a bit of a hodgepodge collection of plates but they are for different purposes. When the pandemic started I picked up a cheap set of Fitness gear plates. From there I picked up some crumb bumpers for deadlifting. Overtime I actually needed to fit more weight on the barbell so I picked up 55lb calibrated steel plates from rogue for near max deadlifts. Those plates were enough to take care of me but like any good garage gym owner I have bought more stuff because I wanted it. Now I have an outside set of crumb plates for log and axle lifts on the patio. In the basement I have calibrated plates, the fitness gear stuff, and some decent rubber plates form Wright and Rogue for deadlifts and throwing on my plate loaded machines.
Milled or machined plates usually fairly acurate, works for most people less the Olympic lifter types.
Find some workshop that works with metallic structures and ask them to cut you some plates out of steel, there's no way you'll beat that price... well unless you find some secondhand seller of those kind of plates on marketplace or somewhere.
I never see these mentioned, but I have the Luxiaojun Black Bumper Plates, and I dare you to find a better black rubber plate out there. The grooves and raised lettering are very precise and well-designed, they have beveled edges that make it easy and comfortable to carry them or pick them off of the floor, and the 10 lb plates are 5mm smaller in diameter, so you can load/unload them from a barbell on the ground without using a jack.
And I just bought 640lbs of Rogue Competition Training Bumper plates for my basement gym on 18mm PLAE flooring !
I have the complete urethane set from Rogue. It's awesome
Eleiko plates are always the correct answer. I sold my house to buy them.
I now live in a stack of reds.
@lhavecat You do what you gotta for Eleiko. 😂-Mike, GGR Community Manager
“I don’t know why you’d have a 35 lb plate” while standing in front of a Titan Fitness 35 lb plate.
and I only know because I thought it was a 45 at first glance and thought it was odd when I noticed it wasn’t lol
I'm disappointed that your DIY concrete ones wasn't included.
I have some of the Vulcan Alpha plates and love them. For my general use iron plates, I picked up a nice set from ReddStrong. Couldn’t beat the price on those, plus their shipping was nice unlike what you get from some other companies. I’ve bought some Titan stuff in the past, but I got fed up with their package and always having stuff show up beat to hell from shipping.
I received a quote for Eleiko Competition Bumpers, can't wait to get my freak on!
Good video. Thanks for making it. When I was a kid, York barbells and plates were popular. What is your take on York today?
Bought a set of basic "contrast" bumpers from Fringe, and they are stellar. Accurate, and still as good as new after a year of consistent workouts.
Needing to add some more on the bar, so I invested in Strength Co. basic plates. Great quality, and within a few ounces of stated weight (which is real good for cast iron).
+1
I have super cheap cast iron plates with air bubbles in them. But I love them.
I have the Eleiko's and they are Top! ✌💪
Why no love for York Barbell plates???
Bought a set of high temps over 10 years ago. Cost a little more, but totally worth it, and still going strong
@x72821 Same, I bought mine years ago and they are still like new even after taking a beating.
I’d say best looking bumper plates gotta be the Rep Fitness Sport plates
Why does he give us a cheeky middle finger at the end?
I feel like since the centers of the hi temps falling out is a common issue, they can't be THAT durable ya know?
👍 "UMAX" Urethane covered iron "grip" plates (hollowed sections near edge for gripping them). Relatively inexpensive & mostly noiseless; no clanking when adding plates to the bar or put on the floor. Especially I bought used from commercial gym went out of business, ~ 1 or 2 years old & I paid $1/pound for 600-lbs. Last I checked they were $3/lb new.
I have Echo bumpers HG bumpers and cast iron plates. The echo bumpers are my favorite. I tested a bunch of bumper plates at Rogue and decided the echo plates were the ones I wanted. The HG plates I got in 10 and 5 kg because they didn't have Echo's at the time. The HG plates do make noticeably more noise when dropped.
"I don't know why you'd have a 35 lb plate" *has 35lb plate on table behind him* 🤣 Great Video! Love the review!
Hey Coop, what type of material is that sweet stache you’re wearing? I bet the weight tolerance on those handles is within a milligram..
X-Mark texas star... rubber coated steel plates are the best for me. I love them!! AND FREE SHIPPING
Can you do a review comparing Rogue Old School Cast Iron, Rep Fitness Old School Cast Iron and The Strength Co Iron Plates? I’m ready to buy but not sure which of these to go with. Would appreciate your guidance!
While pure steel is good, hard to not upgrade when the delta of a pair of 45s for deep dish versus Echo Bumpers at $10 per.
Rep iron equalizers for everything except overhead strongman movements where I use hi temps because they were cheap and available in early 2020. Hi temps are also great for farmers carry since they don’t take damage from sidewalks.
@robocop55555 I have beat the snot out of my high temps and they are still holding up.
I have Rogue Deep Dish plates for my rack lifts like squat and bench press. On the other side of the home gym, I have Rogue Echo Bumpers for deadlift. I use them for Pendlay rows too.
I've got The Strength Co iron plates and Rogue V1 Echo plates. I like both well enough, but The Strength Co are made to fit so tight on my barbell that they don't actually fit on some of the other equipment I have.
The Echo bumpers, though, are awesome. The only issues I have with them is that the set I got had things like 15s in it (It had 35s, too, but I don't mind them) and they take up so much room on the bar. Not a huge thing on a barbell, but my mini farmer's handles are a different story. Still, it's a fantastic set. I haven't used the version 2s out, but I can't imagine Rogue opted to take a step backward on those.
which bars don't fit your strengthco plates?
@@MetalsForBrunch In particular, the Titan mini farmer's handles. They just won't go on.
Perfect timing, the day after I place an order for new bumper plates (rep competition lb bumpers), haha. But great video nonetheless. One topic you could talk about in the future is the nuance of mixing plates.
While they are thicker, I find grip plates to be the most ideal for me since the versatility added by the grips allows me to go way beyond the barbell when it comes to how many workouts I can get from them. I snagged mine from a fitness sales outlet on sale at 1.10 per pound and zero regrets.
After Basement Brandon's review of Luxiaojun kg plates, I bought a set and some of their change plates. I'm a powerlifter and they're great to train for competition.
Don’t forget about Sorinex Bosco Bumpers (crumb rubber), living in the northeast those shipped are very affordable
Very informative. Good stuff.💪🏽👍
What about plates with grip holes? Seems to me that would add versatility to their use. Major omission.
Good job on intro music and sound effects 👍 per usual
I have iron bumper and concrete since I been building my gym
Dude great video. Honestly good shit.
Sometimes just can't watch the videos. But I know damn well it'll be a great review.
Rogue HG 2.0 Bumpers. Pretty good quality - pretty good price.
Great comparison video, Coop! 👍🏼
Good stuff! Would have been cool to see some fake plates as well. I always wanted to try them far a lark.