Weighed my plates - they're all light

tomcornhole
tomcornhole Posts: 1,084 Member
edited February 13 in Fitness and Exercise
Got a burr up my butt and decided to weigh all my plates. I bought a cheapo set from Play it Again Sports a year ago. The oly bar that came with the set weighs a whopping 32.4 lbs. I never use it because I use the good oly bar I got with my squat rack (it weighs 43 lbs). And all the heavier plates (25lbs and up) are an average of 1 lbs light. Two are 3 lbs light. None of them were heavier than they were supposed to be and only 1 (ONE) out of the 12 heavy plates weighed what it said on the plate. Hate to pick an opener based on these plates and struggle to hit it because I thought I was trying to lift 405 when in reality it is 427. Ouch.

Irks me because these places charge $1 / pound and then short you a pound or more. Add that up over all the plates they sell and they are ripping off a lot of people. Next time I buy plates I'm taking my scale with me.

Tom

Replies

  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    I guess you do get what you pay for...

    Mind you I would be complaining to the store and the maker of the weights...but are you sure the scale is correct?

    And the "good" oly bar is 2lbs lighter than it should be....
  • tomcornhole
    tomcornhole Posts: 1,084 Member
    An oly bar is supposed to be 20kg or 44 lbs. Mine is 43.2, so it is a tad light, too.

    I calibrated my scale with 2 different BodPod scales that I would accept as accurate as they are calibrated to a standard weight.

    Tom
  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,219 Member
    You'd be surprised at how common this is. I weighed the dumbbells at a local gym. The 75's were closer to 70 and the 80's were almost 90.
  • Rachelc1992
    Rachelc1992 Posts: 246 Member
    Shame about the weights! Atleast you now know :)!

    1 question, how can you be lifting heavier than you thought if your weights are lighter? "I thought I was trying to lift 405 when in reality it is 427. Ouch."
  • obsidianwings
    obsidianwings Posts: 1,237 Member
    Maybe it's like vanity sizing.
    We all think we're smaller and stronger than we are lol
  • tomcornhole
    tomcornhole Posts: 1,084 Member
    Shame about the weights! Atleast you now know :)!

    1 question, how can you be lifting heavier than you thought if your weights are lighter? "I thought I was trying to lift 405 when in reality it is 427. Ouch."

    I lift at home with my weights and DL 425x2 fairly easily. I could actually have been lifting as little as 403 lbs. Then I go to a meet where the weights are accurate. I put in an opening lift of 425 lbs thinking that is well within my capability. I go up to the bar and try to lift it and can't get it off the floor because it actually weighs 425 lbs vs. 403 lbs. That's a huge difference.

    I guess as long as I keep adding weight, the absolute value is not as important as the relative value. Glad I know this because if I do ever compete, I'll put my first lift in at a very conservative weight. Or I could get all new plates.

    Tom
  • tapirfrog
    tapirfrog Posts: 616 Member
    *kitten*. And they charged you by the pound? That's infuriating.
  • tomcornhole
    tomcornhole Posts: 1,084 Member
    *kitten*. And they charged you by the pound? That's infuriating.

    Not a big deal for one person. I paid for 500 lbs and got 475 lbs. Won't break my bank. But if they sell 1,000,000 lbs a year and that only weighs 977,777 lbs, that's 22,222 lbs short. :noway: Great googly moogly.
  • DopeItUp
    DopeItUp Posts: 18,771 Member
    I want to weigh mine too, but who knows if the scale is accurate. Maybe one of those beam-type scales, and then calibrate it? Hmmmm.
  • LiftAllThePizzas
    LiftAllThePizzas Posts: 17,857 Member
    I had the plastic cement-filled ones and they were all light. I wrote their weights (and paired totals) on them with sharpie and made a spreadsheet to come up with configurations that were close enough to each 5 lb increment.:laugh:

    I later bought some 2.5, 25, and 50 lb metal (cap, I think) weights, and the metal gold's gym weights they have at wal-mart in 5, 10, and 25 lbs and every single one of them (365 lbs in total) is within 0.2 lbs of the specified weight. (They are for my non-oly 1" bar.)

    I was very surprised to find that they were so consistent.
  • GiddyupTim
    GiddyupTim Posts: 2,819 Member
    I've always been told that the bars and plates have variable weights -- and obviously, different bars have different stiffnesses. So, it probably is not like you would have done better had you bought a different brand.
    But, I guess you know that or you would not have bothered to weigh yours to begin with.
  • vanguardfitness
    vanguardfitness Posts: 720 Member
    So I'm not the only weirdo who weighs plates and bars at the gym...
This discussion has been closed.

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