Olympic Weights - Rubber or Cast Iron?

marathonic

I'm considering purchasing an Olympic Weight set in the next month or two. From reading various forums, opinions seem mixed on which is the better to buy - rubber or iron.

A lot of reviews seem to advise to go for the rubber set to help protect your floor but others say that the rubber ones don't offer such an advantage because they are only coated with a small amount of rubber.

FYI, the ones I'm looking at have a 10 euro difference in price between a 185kg rubber set and a 235kg cast iron set.

TommyKnocker

Where are you going to be using the weights? If in a house with wooden floors, then rubber may be a good way to go. However if you put down decent rubber matting, then this would negate the requirement for rubber coated weights.

Also your lifting style. Are you prone to dropping you weights from heights? Do you dead lift and drop the weight from the top of the lift or lower it slowly back down. Likewise with cleans. If you are into dropping your weights, then the rubber coating could damaged and come off you weights like you see in some gyms.

I bought rubber coated weights as I workout in a garage and I don't drop my weights. Main reason I went with rubber is because they are colour coded.

• 25kg Plates are Red
• 20kg Plates are Blue
• 15kg Plates are Yellow
• 10kg Plates are Green

Rovi

Rubber coated weights aren't designed to be dropped; the rubber coating is to reduce/eliminate the clanking noises you'll get with bare iron and to make them look prettier and perhaps eliminate/reduce corrosion if they're used/stored in a damp location. These attributes may or may not be an issue, depending on your own particular circumstances.
The rubber does offer a little protection to the floor all right, but it's minimal, and if they're being dropped it'd be pretty immaterial.

Bumper plates are for dropping, and they're a different beast altogether.

shootermacg

Buy 2 big rubber plates for ground work, the smaller iron plates will not be resting on the ground.

Remmy

TommyKnocker wrote: »

Where are you going to be using the weights? If in a house with wooden floors, then rubber may be a good way to go. However if you put down decent rubber matting, then this would negate the requirement for rubber coated weights.

Also your lifting style. Are you prone to dropping you weights from heights? Do you dead lift and drop the weight from the top of the lift or lower it slowly back down. Likewise with cleans. If you are into dropping your weights, then the rubber coating could damaged and come off you weights like you see in some gyms.

I bought rubber coated weights as I workout in a garage and I don't drop my weights. Main reason I went with rubber is because they are colour coded.

• 25kg Plates are Red
• 20kg Plates are Blue
• 15kg Plates are Yellow
• 10kg Plates are Green

I think you're confusing rubber coated plates with bumper plates.

Hanley

Remmy wrote: »

I think you're confusing rubber coated plates with bumper plates.

I think you're confusing bumper plates with being able to buy colour coded regular plates.

Remmy

Hanley wrote: »

I think you're confusing bumper plates with being able to buy colour coded regular plates.

Perhaps so..perhaps so.:o

Scuba Ste

shootermacg wrote: »

Buy 2 big rubber plates for ground work, the smaller iron plates will not be resting on the ground.

Not a good idea. All the force from dropping the bar will be on the one spot possibly damaging your bar, not to mention you'll probably damage the rubber plates if they continuously take all the force of being dropped.

FWIW I don't see the point in the rubber coated plates unless you just prefer them like Tommyknocker. I'd get some rubber matting or a platform to protect the floor and the bar and plates instead.

shootermacg

well irishlifting does the plates, good thing about the rubber plates are they are tri grip, whereas the metal aren't.
I do still think the rubber are easier on the floor, I'm not particularly a dropper by nature but my metal dumbells are leaving marks on the floor, whereas the rubber plates don't leave any sign even when I give the ground a light tap during deads.
They aren't bumper plates but if you aren't acting the yank then they are definitely easier on the floor.

As far as damaging the bar is concerned I use a power lifting bar and I prefer controlled movements, so no chance of me dropping a bar unless I get cramp or something, but even with light use the metal plates will cause some damage the floor.

Rovi

shootermacg wrote: »

well irishlifting does the plates, good thing about the rubber plates are they are tri grip, whereas the metal aren't.

Irishlifting's bare iron plates ARE tri-grip (LINKY), I'm looking at a set of them right now.

Mellor

I'd say shooter was confusing the iron oly plats with the iron standard plates (for york type 1" bars)


If you were going to spring for the rubber coated, it's not much more for coloured.
how much would you expect to pay for bumper plates (training, not competition)

TommyKnocker

I am hoping to pick up 180kg of coloured bumpers for training for about €630 - €650 ish in the next few weeks (early June hopefully) which comprises of

4 x 5kg Plates
4 x 10kg Plates
2 x 15kg Plates
2 x 20kg Plates
2 x 25kg Plates

Scuba Ste

Mellor wrote:

If you were going to spring for the rubber coated, it's not much more for coloured.
how much would you expect to pay for bumper plates (training, not competition)

These are the cheapest I've seen although the quality might not be great.

You can get a Zhangkong set for about €1k plus shipping. That's a bar and a full set of plates, fractionals included, plus collars. Excellent value imo. And then there's Eleiko which might cause you to re-mortgage your home.

Why so many 10's and 5's Tommy?
One thing I'll say for cheaper plates is that the 5's and 10's tend to be narrower and I've seen some crack. I wouldn't bother with 5's myself, they're not much use apart from warming up or technique work and you can always just lift from a hang position until 40kg (presuming they're for O lifts, if not they're less useful again). 5's aren't really made for dropping.

Bars are important too, you don't want to be dropping a non weightlifting bar from shoulder height even with bumpers.

If they're only for personal use non of the above may be an issue but I'd personally go for a decent set if your going to be dropping them a lot.

shootermacg

Rovi wrote: »

Irishlifting's bare iron plates ARE tri-grip (LINKY), I'm looking at a set of them right now.

Yes the site picture needs updating, I sprung for the rubber after Mick informed me of the fact. He actually pointed out this when I was purchasing them, so fair play to him.

And yes I have the colored ones, he didn't have the black in stock so he gave me the coloured for the same price. What a nice guy!

Also got the power bar for no extra charge, because he didn't have the chrome in stock on the day!!!

dossier

TommyKnocker wrote: »

I am hoping to pick up 180kg of coloured bumpers for training for about €630 - €650 ish in the next few weeks (early June hopefully) which comprises of

4 x 5kg Plates
4 x 10kg Plates
2 x 15kg Plates
2 x 20kg Plates
2 x 25kg Plates

Hiya Tommy,

Out of interest, where are you looking at getting these bumpers from? I've been looking to pick up some for a while.

TommyKnocker

From Irish Lifting, where I bought the majority of my gym equipment.

He has an order due in soon (hopefully) from China and he also has a source in they UK where he can get them from.

Hanley

TK - I'd echo Steve's point on plate sizes. I've seen a few of the newer style eleiko 10kg plates warp because theyre so thin - the older ones don't have the same problem really, but it's something to consider.

Rovi

Scuba Ste wrote: »

These are the cheapest I've seen although the quality might not be great.

I got 2 pairs of these (10kg & 25kg) when they were on special offer a few weeks ago (10kg ST£20 each, 25kg ST£49 each, plus shipping) and they appear to be fine for my purposes.
My gym has a bunch of them too and they're holding up fine to repeated hard use, inducing plenty of dropping from overhead.