A plate has two properties that decide whether it is any use to you: the hole in the middle and what it is made of. The hole has to match your bar, full stop. The material decides how it treats your floor, how loud it is, and whether it can be dropped. Get those two right and the weight is just a number.
The hole comes first
Standard plates have a 29mm bore, listed as 28mm on a few pages, and fit standard bars with 28mm ends. Olympic plates have a 50mm bore, listed as 50.8mm or 2 inches on some, and fit Olympic bars with 50mm sleeves. The plates for the aerobic bars have a 30mm bore and fit only those bars. None of the three goes on either of the others. If you are not sure which bar you have, measure the end of it.
Cast iron, rubber-coated or bumper
Cast-iron plates are the cheapest per kilogram and the thinnest, so more of them fit on a sleeve. The standard cast-iron plates run from 0.5kg to 20kg, and the Olympic ones from 1.25kg to 25kg. Iron on a hard floor is loud and it marks, so it wants a rubber tile under the bar.
Rubber-coated plates are the same iron under a rubber skin. They are quieter, they do not chip, and they are easier on a floor and on the other plates. They cost more and take a little more room on the sleeve. They come in the same standard and Olympic sizes, from 1.25kg to 20kg standard and 1.25kg to 25kg Olympic.
Bumper plates are solid rubber with a steel insert, and they are the only plates made to be dropped from overhead. The 10kg and heavier bumpers are 45cm across regardless of weight, so the bar sits at the same height off the floor with 10kg or 25kg a side, which is what lets a deadlift or a clean start from the same position every time. The coloured singles run from 5kg to 25kg, the black pairs from 2.5kg to 25kg, and the JFIT bumpers are marked in pounds from 10lb to 45lb. All are Olympic bore. The coloured set follows the competition colour code, grey for 5kg, green for 10kg and yellow for 15kg, so a loaded bar can be read from across the room.
Single or pair
Read the quantity on every listing. Most cast-iron and rubber-coated plates are sold as one plate, so a pair is two orders of the same line. The black bumpers are sold in pairs, the coloured bumpers singly. The sets, such as the 150kg black bumper set, state the mass of plates in the set, and the sets that include a bar say so.
Storage
Iron plates on the floor chip each other and everything near them. The plate trees hold standard or Olympic plates on pegs by size, and the Olympic Bumper Plate Rack stores bumpers upright in open bays at floor level, rated to 350kg.
What to check on the product page
- Bore. 29mm standard, 50mm Olympic or 30mm aerobic, matched to the bar you own.
- Material, and whether the plate can be dropped.
- Quantity. One plate, a pair, or a set.
- For bumpers, the diameter, so the bar height stays constant across weights.
- Total mass in a set, and whether that figure includes a bar.
The RooFitness plates compared
| Family | Bore | Sizes | Sold as |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard cast iron | 29mm | 0.5kg to 20kg | Single plates |
| Standard rubber-coated | 29mm | 1.25kg to 20kg | Single plates |
| Olympic cast iron | 50mm | 1.25kg to 25kg | Single plates |
| Olympic rubber-coated | 50mm | 1.25kg to 25kg | Single plates |
| Olympic bumper, coloured | 50mm | 5kg to 25kg | Single plates |
| Olympic bumper, black | 50mm | 2.5kg to 25kg | Pairs |
| Aerobic-bar plates | 30mm | 1.25kg to 10kg | Single plates |
Related
All weight plates · Plate trees and storage · Barbells · Olympic barbells · Collars
