Weight plate sizes

T

tjl

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In stores in the US, weight plates are typically 5, 10, 25, 35, 45 pounds, instead of a more sensible binary sizing of 5, 10, 20, 40 pounds.

From what I have read, in other countries, they are typically 2.5, 5, 10, 15, 20 kg, which is binary sized (except for the 15 kg plate).

Binary sizing allows making the most combinations with the fewest number of plates. For example, a 5, 10, 20, 40 pound set can make any weight from 5 to 75 pounds in 5 pound increments. In contrast, the usual sizes found in the US require having an extra 5 or 10 pound plate to be able to make 25 pounds.

In the US, is it possible to get 20 or 40 pound plates, or to get a set of metric (kg sized) plates (without paying for expensive shipping of heavy weight plates from a foreign country)?
 
I dont know why the US still work in imperial units. I think everyone should work in metric now a days. When posting in my journal i have to convert the kg's i lift in to lbs because most people on here work in pounds.
 
I will be honest about them tough. Whenever we have them on the bar I don't know what is going on, and I have trouble figuring out what the weight is.

I know pounds off the top of my head and I know KG off the top of my head. The pound zero (or binary sizing as you call it) makes no sense when it is on the bar.
 
tjl said:
In stores in the US, weight plates are typically 5, 10, 25, 35, 45 pounds, instead of a more sensible binary sizing of 5, 10, 20, 40 pounds.
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The weight plates in the UK and Europe are almost exactly the same weight. If you convert our 2.5, 5, 10, 15 and 20's you get 5.5, 11, 22 & 44. I image that the plates in the US were made in those denominations so they were consistant with European plates

So I guess my point is that ease of use wasn't a consideration when weight denominatons in the US were chosen, you just used the European plates as a template (I'm assuming the European ones came first because as you pointed out the US ones don't make practical sense)
 
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Which plates came first? Were the US plates "made from" European, or the other way around?
The answer will decide the epic battle of who is right and who is wrong.

Stay tuned for the next episode of Kilos vs Pounds.
 
Karky said:
Which plates came first? Were the US plates "made from" European, or the other way around?
The answer will decide the epic battle of who is right and who is wrong.
Click to expand...

Lol, I think the Kg plates had to have come first, what other reason could there be for making the heaviest plate in the US 45lbs?

I'm horrified that we use KG plates in the UK though, we use lbs for everything else, including weighing ourselves, yet we lift in Kgs?

Was it Eddie Izzard that said the UK are the only country that switch automatically between imperial and metric to suit their needs?
Like if it's hot we measure temp in farenheit and if it's cold we measure in celsius :confused:
 
^^^^ Weird.

Everything is based off of kilos because all the world records are in kilos.

Here in the US powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting contests are done in kilos.
 
BigTomW said:
I dont know why the US still work in imperial units. I think everyone should work in metric now a days. When posting in my journal i have to convert the kg's i lift in to lbs because most people on here work in pounds.
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I can't understand why Brits, who gave us the pound system, bitch about us using the pound system?

And, technically, the US doesn't use the original British imperial units.

I'm just messin' with ya...
 
Moaning about stuff is all we can do to take our minds off our crippling social awkwardness and sexual repression ;)
 
Karky said:
seriously.. you use farenheit for + and celcius for -? That's weird :p
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Yeah, as a nation we like to exaggerate stuff so if it's hot people will use farenheit and say "Wow, it must be 90 degrees out there" but in the winter they'll use celsius and say "it's only 2 degrees outside, we might get snow".

Anyone British here can back that up, we mix and match when it suits us :)
 
I think lbs will of been the first weights, due to the fact that the imperial units of measurement is much much older than the metric units of measurement. Europe never used to use kg's etc. All my older relatives barely know how much a kg is, they only know lbs and stones etc..
 
BigTomW said:
I think lbs will of been the first weights, due to the fact that the imperial units of measurement is much much older than the metric units of measurement. Europe never used to use kg's etc. All my older relatives barely know how much a kg is, they only know lbs and stones etc..
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You're confusing the UK with mainland Europe, the metric system has been the measurement used in Europe since before the modern Olympics started so it makes sense that the first Olympic lifts were recorded in Kgs
 
Tom, UK is that small island (ok and the small islands around it) and Europe is the big one! That's the rule I use to remember the difference ;) :p :D
 

Hmmm, expensive, and the sets that they offer are not binary sized, although one can buy individual 20 and 40 pound plates to add to the usual 5 and 10 pound plates from anywhere to make a binary sized set.

I know pounds off the top of my head and I know KG off the top of my head. The pound zero (or binary sizing as you call it) makes no sense when it is on the bar.
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Actually, pound zero is different from binary sizing (it just so happens that pound zero plates of 20 and 40 pounds can be used to make a binary sized set with the usual smaller plates). Binary sizing is just that each bigger plate is twice the size of the smaller one before it, in order to maximize the possible weight amounts with the minimum number of plates. So binary sizing could be done with, for example, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 pound (or kg) plates.
 
Yea, I mean with the things the way they are you have all the plate combinations memorized after a couple of weeks of training anyhow.

Yea we use 25's 35's and 45's in the US. But a multiple of 5 is just as easy as a multiple of 10. :D

People like to change things, but the binary, or pound zero idea. I mean, adding is pretty simple, and having different weights is not going to change results.

I say leave it with what people know.

The bar is 45lbs (or 44 :)) no matter where you go. So that makes all the different plate stuff unnecessary.

I would be just as happy using KG as pounds. Weight is weight. No matter what is says on the plate.
 
how unpatriotic of you, G, I'm truly dissapointed.

FOR THE KILO!! THE BEST WEIGHT MEASURING UNIT IN THE WORLD!!!
:p
 
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