Everything You Need to Know About Getting Olympic Plates For Your Home Gym

Building a home gym can require a lot of planning. From making the best use of your space to making sure that you have the right equipment to reach your fitness goals, there’s so much to think about. 

Olympic plates, a type of weight plate, can be an awesome option for home gyms for many reasons, not least because they’re top quality, versatile, and don’t take up too much space.

With that in mind, it’s no surprise that so many people are choosing to invest in olympic plates when they build their home gym. 

What are olympic plates?

Simply put, olympic plates are free weights that have just under a 2 inch diameter opening. They have a higher weight capacity than standard free weights and are usually better quality.

The benefits of olympic plates

While there are different types of free weights, olympic plates can be a great option, especially for home gyms. Here are just some of the benefits:

• They can be more robust than other types of weights
• Olympic bars can often hold more weight than standard bars (320 or 750kg!)
• They’re more stable on the bar than other types of weights 
• Olympic plates are more versatile, so you can do a wider range of exercises
• You can remove the weights from the bar so you can store them easily and they won’t take up too much in your home gym

Traditional plates and bumper plates

You can buy traditional olympic plates or bumper plates (or both!) and they each have their own uses.

Traditional plates are usually made of iron and they can often be on the cheaper end of the spectrum of olympic plates. 

The bigger the traditional plate is, the more it weighs. Plus, more often than not, they have handles which makes them easier to load onto the bar and can be beneficial for other exercises, too. Our traditional olympic plates are coated in rubber, or the more durable urethane, so that they don’t rust and they’re shock absorbent.

Our Tri-Grip Olympic Plates are traditional weight plates and are less expensive than our bumper plates – perfect for training when the weights aren’t being dropped on the floor.

One of the main differences between bumper plates and traditional plates is that bumper plates all have the same diameter so that, when they land on the floor, they land together – it’s just the thickness that changes with the weight. 

Our Gym Gear bumper plates come in 5kg, 10kg, 15kg, 20kg, and 25kg. These are excellent choices for exercises like deadlifts where the plates are lifted from the floor.

We sell standard black bumper plates as well as coloured ones, both of which have been tested to 15,000 drops. Our Hi-Impact Bumper Plates are designed for crossfit and have been tested to 30,000 drops. This means that they’re excellent plates for repeat use, such as in olympic lifting and powerlifting.

They can be dropped without damaging your floor, but it’s still highly recommended that you get some good mats and gym flooring, even for a home gym. 

Our 20mm rubber floor tiles and 30mm rubber floor tiles are perfect for protecting your floor from weights but, if you’re using heavy weights, we recommend opting for the 30 mm flooring.

The bar you choose will also depend on the weights. Olympic bars have different weight ratings and diameter grips. More expensive premium bars are made from a steel alloy that allows the bars to flex with the weights and have a load capacity of 750kg or 1500lbs. 

Less expensive Olympic bars are still made from steel but they have a lighter capacity of 320kg or 700lbs. Plus, they have bushings instead of bearings.

Let your goals decide your number of weights

There’s no use in getting multiple sets of weight plates if you’re never going to be able to lift them. Set yourself realistic goals depending on how much time you can dedicate to training and how much you want to be able to lift in the future.

Ask yourself how much you’d like to be able to lift this time next year. Then, work out how many olympic plates, and at which weights, you’re going to need to train for a year to reach that goal.

Gym Gear is a specialist retailer of excellent quality gym equipment. Whether you’re looking for cardio equipment, weights, gym mats and flooring, or functional training equipment for your commercial or home gym, we’ll be able to help you. Take a look around our website.