gym: why are plates 45lbs instead of 50?

[JEDI]

5,10,25,45lbs
wouldnt 50 be more logical?

Moving this to the Health and Fitness forum as requested.

Zenmervolt - AnandTech Garage Moderator

 

[Baked]

The bar weighs 10 lbs.?

 

[JEDI]

aarrgg... wrong forum
mods, please move to health

 

[exar333]

Originally posted by: Baked
The bar weighs 10 lbs.?

I know, I know this isn't a garage question, but a standard bench-press bar weighs 45 pounds. Why it is in 45-pound increments is beyond me...

 

[Nyati13]

To exercise their minds as well as their bodies.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

20kg=44LBs maybe?

 

[Insomniator]

5,10,25,35,45

Makes sense to me.

 

[crt1530]

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
20kg=44LBs maybe?

This. Olympic barbells and plates were initially created for olympic weightlifting. All events in the olympics use metric measurements. When they wanted to create plates in pounds, it was easier to use the same mold with a slight (or no) modification.

 

[SlitheryDee]

I can't think of any good reason. You could get within 5lbs of any desired weight with 50, 25, 15, 10, 5, 2.5. Don't go changing it now that I'm used to it though.

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: crt1530

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
20kg=44LBs maybe?

This. Olympic barbells and plates were initially created for olympic weightlifting. All events in the olympics use metric measurements. When they wanted to create plates in pounds, it was easier to use the same mold with a slight (or no) modification.

That's my guess too.

 

[StageLeft]

20 kg

 

[darkxshade]

You're missing a few increments OP. It's 2.5/5/10/25/35/45. Looking at it like this, it would make more sense than to eliminate the 35's and have just 25 & 50's.

So now if someone is benching the bar + 25's one day(95 total) and got strong over time to say 115 or 135. It looks weird to start a stack with 25 + 10 + 10 when you can stack 35's or 45's. Assuming they made the bar a standard 50lbs, then going from 100 to 110/120/130/140 it also looks weird to be stacking 25 with 5's and 10's until you've reached the 150 mark where you would then switch to 50 plates.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: darkxshade
You're missing a few increments OP. It's 2.5/5/10/25/35/45. Looking at it like this, it would make more sense than to eliminate the 35's and have just 25 & 50's.

So now if someone is benching the bar + 25's one day(95 total) and got strong over time to say 115 or 135. It looks weird to start a stack with 25 + 10 + 10 when you can stack 35's or 45's. Assuming they made the bar a standard 50lbs, then going from 100 to 110/120/130/140 it also looks weird to be stacking 25 with 5's and 10's until you've reached the 150 mark where you would then switch to 50 plates.

Lol, you seem to be looking way too far into it. 20kg is around 45 pounds. 10kg is around 25 pounds (clearly a few pounds less). They're just made round for adding. Most of them are still in kilos and aren't quite what we think they are in pounds.

 

[enwar3]

It's 2.5/5/10/25/45 at my gym, which reflects the metric system, but is also handy:

5+2.5 = 7.5, one increment before 10.
25+10+5+2.5 = 42.5, one increment before 45.

How cool is that!

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: crt1530 All events in the olympics use metric measurements.

they may use metric measurements but it's pretty obvious that a lot of the track events are really imperial. 400 meter, 800 meter, and 1600 meter are 1/4 mile, 1/2 mile, and 1 mile races.

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: ElFenix

Originally posted by: crt1530 All events in the olympics use metric measurements.

they may use metric measurements but it's pretty obvious that a lot of the track events are really imperial. 400 meter, 800 meter, and 1600 meter are 1/4 mile, 1/2 mile, and 1 mile races.

Eh, lots of my college track races featured "the true mile", which started the runners back a little bit to make it a full mile. 1600 meters is short of a mile, just as 800 meters is short of a half and 400 is short of a quarter mile. Yes they are close, but not the same thing

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: nick1985

Originally posted by: ElFenix

Originally posted by: crt1530 All events in the olympics use metric measurements.

they may use metric measurements but it's pretty obvious that a lot of the track events are really imperial. 400 meter, 800 meter, and 1600 meter are 1/4 mile, 1/2 mile, and 1 mile races.

Eh, lots of my college track races featured "the true mile", which started the runners back a little bit to make it a full mile. 1600 meters is short of a mile, just as 800 meters is short of a half and 400 is short of a quarter mile. Yes they are close, but not the same thing

Perhaps you're confusing yards with meters? Yards makes a big difference, but meters is practically equivalent. One mile = ~1610 meters. Don't begrudge people their mile just for 10 meters

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged

Originally posted by: nick1985

Originally posted by: ElFenix

Originally posted by: crt1530 All events in the olympics use metric measurements.

they may use metric measurements but it's pretty obvious that a lot of the track events are really imperial. 400 meter, 800 meter, and 1600 meter are 1/4 mile, 1/2 mile, and 1 mile races.

Eh, lots of my college track races featured "the true mile", which started the runners back a little bit to make it a full mile. 1600 meters is short of a mile, just as 800 meters is short of a half and 400 is short of a quarter mile. Yes they are close, but not the same thing

Perhaps you're confusing yards with meters? Yards makes a big difference, but meters is practically equivalent. One mile = ~1610 meters. Don't begrudge people their mile just for 10 meters

Not confused. In the NCAA we begrudge people for that 10 meters :laugh: