Micro Weights - Do you have/use them?

marathonic

I'm at the start of Starting Strength and my smallest weights are 1.25kg meaning a minimum of a 2.5kg increment.

I've read about micro-weights being helpful when you start stalling. Do you have them and if so, did you find them useful?

The cheapest I've seen is the following sets which are both £22.00 for a 0.5kg set - I think that's all I'd need as I could then use 1kg increments.

http://www.gymequipment.uk.com/store/item/340bw/Olympic_Discs/0_5kg_Olympic_Micro_Plates-1pr.html
http://www.gymratz.co.uk/microloader-plates-500g


I was also thinking that, instead of paying £22.00 + postage for the above, I could probably just order a 0.5kg set of ankle weights from eBay (which are available for £8 including delivery) and slip them over the bar.

Anyone any thoughts - or are they a waste of time?

ray jay

Go to a hardware store, buy a few meters of light gauge chain, bring it home and weigh it, cut it into 0.5kg lengths, save yourself £28. Alternatively, you may be able to find pieces of scrap metal the the appropriate dimensions. Either way, those microweights are a rip off.

marathonic

ray jay wrote: »

Go to a hardware store, buy a few meters of light gauge chain, bring it home and weigh it, cut it into 0.5kg lengths, save yourself £28. Alternatively, you may be able to find pieces of scrap metal the the appropriate dimensions. Either way, those microweights are a rip off.

Thanks for the advice, that's a good idea. I supposed the micro-weights are more for gyms or gym users who need them. Now that I have the home gym, I could use anything without looking like a fool - a half kilo bag of porridge off the end of each side of the bar anyone...

newby.204

i have made the micro-chain weights, .5kgx2 and .25kgx4, get yourself two carabiners, cheap ones, its just for holding the chain on the bar and your sorted!!! oh you'll need a food scales to weigh them obviously so if you've to go out and buy that it should still work out cheaper

marathonic

newby.204 wrote: »

i have made the micro-chain weights, .5kgx2 and .25kgx4, get yourself two carabiners, cheap ones, its just for holding the chain on the bar and your sorted!!! oh you'll need a food scales to weigh them obviously so if you've to go out and buy that it should still work out cheaper

Do you find the 0.25kg ones useful? I was thinking about maybe just 0.5kg but I suppose the 0.25kg might be useful to break a plateau - or if following Starting Strength strictly, the 0.5kg reduction in weight may mean avoiding a reset.

newby.204

yea i do! you can hit any weight in the range 126, 127 , 128, 129 or 156, 157, 158, 159 etc etc

omniscient_toad

I got four 500gramme plates here cheapish http://www.strengthshop.co.uk/weight-plates/cast-iron-plates.html (they also now seem to do smaller fractional plates), I found them handy for use with olympic dumbells.

Mellor

I've been thinking of making a set for OHP, i imagine they'd be more useful there than on the squat and deadlift where the normal 2.5kg is a smaller relative increase

d'Oracle

I bought a pair of 0.5kg and 0.25 kg discs.
I keep them in my gym bag.

The Guvnor

I've never used them.

I can see a slight use for them.

Personally I am fine with currently 1.25kg being the smallest plates in the gym.

Before that in UCD we had 1.25lbs IIRC.

The plates are much better than db's where it's an 8kg jump from 46-50's and then if lucky enough to have upto 70's it's usually a 10kg jump!:)

Mellor

d'Oracle wrote: »

I bought a pair of 0.5kg and 0.25 kg discs.
I keep them in my gym bag.

Do you find them useful.

I'm think that i'll go the chain route and make a pair of .625kg, why the awkward number? Just half a 1.25kg plate

marathonic

I've been looking at the various options for making them:

• M48 Size washers would do the job but they're specialty washers which means 'expensive'
• Ankle/Wrist weights over the end of the bar - useful if you have them
• Multiple 50g weights that are used for fishing hanging from the bar via fishing line – again, useful if you have them, expensive if you don’t
• 50mm diameter piping cut to the required length(s)
• Chain cut to the required length and carabiners
• Hanging anything of the required weight off the end of the bar in a plastic bag or via a piece of string

Some of these options may not be ideal if you attend a gym as opposed to workout from home. I’ve just remembered that I have standard sized 0.5kg plates (not Olympic) which I can hang off the bar via a piece of string so that’s me sorted. I’m not sure there’s any need to go to 0.25kg because the 0.5kg weights will mean my maximum increment will be when jumping from 0.5kg to 1.25kg on each side – so a 1.5kg jump.

Hanley

I'm sure this is going to come across as me sounding bad, but I can't believe people are worrying about adding .5kg to the bar.

Just my opinion, so feel free to disregard without getting upset!

The Guvnor

I agree with you H.

Unless it's a WR attempt then I'd never bother with a small increase - therefore it'll never happen!:D

The thought of going from 140 to 140.5 or 140.25 would not be motivational to me.

Failure from time to time in the gym is acceptable.

Hanley

The Guvnor wrote: »

I agree with you H.

Unless it's a WR attempt then I'd never bother with a small increase - therefore it'll never happen!:D

The thought of going from 140 to 140.5 or 140.25 would not be motivational to me.

Failure from time to time in the gym is acceptable.

Yup. I just think if you're scrapping that hard for a small increase, you're probably better off resetting or doing something different.

marathonic

Hanley wrote: »

Yup. I just think if you're scrapping that hard for a small increase, you're probably better off resetting or doing something different.

That's probably the case Hanley. I'm just trying to think ahead for my Starting Strength program - in particular for the O/H press.

If you're sticking to the program and are supposed to reset after X number of failed reps in an excercise, maybe it'd be better to increment in 1kg increments rather than 2.5kg and remain on the higher weight - but again, you're point that such a small increment is pointless is probably pretty valid.

I suppose there's no 'one size fits all' answer to this and it really depends on the person. A 1kg increment may help break a phsycological barrier for some as well.

ray jay

It doesn't seem unreasonable to add 2x 0.25kg for dumbbell stuff, especially if you do it consistently. Even increasing the weight once a week will lead to a 2kg increase every month, which could be quite a lot for some people.

2x 0.5kg is a kilo per increase, which would be a 12kg/month gain for squats when doing starting strength, or 6kg/month for benching.

d'Oracle

I personally found the 1 kg increases after resetting helped me sustain progress in the press.

I don't think it is pointless at all.
If it allows you to put more weight on the bar and make your reps, then it has proven its purpose.

Mellor

Hanley wrote: »

I'm sure this is going to come across as me sounding bad, but I can't believe people are worrying about adding .5kg to the bar.

Just my opinion, so feel free to disregard without getting upset!

I think that .25kg weights are pointless.
I was looking at adding 1.25kg to the bar, for OHP specifically.
Eg, 65kg x 5 is fine, but you struggle to jump to 67.5kg

I remember there was a pretty big bench press thread here when I just ventured to this forum and there was a poster who added a pretty impressive amount to his bench by addign 1kg per week/session. I think he might even have been know to the other posters who were or have been power lifting

d'Oracle

Mellor wrote: »

I think that .25kg weights are pointless.

Most gyms have 1.25kg plates.

1.25kg + 0.25kg = 2kg.
2kgx2 = 4kg

64kg = 2x20kg + 2x0.25kg + 2x1.25kg

The point is:
If you have a pair of .5kg plates and a pair of 0.25kg plates, you can load in 1kg increments with the sorts of plates you find in most gyms.

Mr Marri

The bigger tescos sell 0.5kg plates for 2.50 each (from memory)

Mellor

d'Oracle wrote: »

Most gyms have 1.25kg plates.

1.25kg + 0.25kg = 2kg.
2kgx2 = 4kg

64kg = 2x20kg + 2x0.25kg + 2x1.25kg

The point is:
If you have a pair of .5kg plates and a pair of 0.25kg plates, you can load in 1kg increments with the sorts of plates you find in most gyms.

1.25kg + 0.25kg is 3kg not 4kg
The plates you listed add up to 63kg

IMO the difference between 62.5kg and 63kg is pointless.
With .5kg plates and .25kg plates you load in .5kg increments, which is unnessecery imo.

I said I was considering .625kg so I could split the 2.5kg increments in half. but imo anything smaller than this is, is pointless. Even 1.25kg jump would be pointless once I go a bit higher - but i have to get there first.

rubadub

Dunno if they sell them, but it might be an idea to get an adaptor that would fit on an olympic bar so it could take standard plates. Like a PVC sleeve you slip on the end of the 2" bar and brings it out to 1" diameter. I expect there are loads of mini weights from those york barbell kits around the place.

Another way is to just use magnets to stick bits of metal of known weight onto them.


See the tiny magnet at the top of the picture, thats one of their weaker ones...

http://www.supermagnete.de/eng/magnets.php?group=blocks_big

d'Oracle

Mellor wrote: »

1.25kg + 0.25kg is 3kg not 4kg
The plates you listed add up to 63kg

Very good.
That was a little error of mine.

Mellor wrote: »

IMO the difference between 62.5kg and 63kg is pointless.
With .5kg plates and .25kg plates you load in .5kg increments, which is unnessecery imo.

I disagree.
The logic still stands though, if you wish to incrementally load 1kg a session, the small plates allow you to do that.
The point is that you can load 1kg a session.
If someone has committed to adding 1kg a session then that therein proves that it is not pointless.

The point of the plates is to allow 1 kilo increments.
That is the point.

Just because you don't do it, doesn't make it pointless.

Mellor

I said a .5kg increment is pointless, not 1kg?????

I don't see a huge difference between a 1kg jump and a 1.25kg, except that for the former you need 2 pairs of micro plates, the latter you need just the one pair.

d'Oracle

Mellor wrote: »

I said a .5kg increment is pointless, not 1kg?????

I don't see a huge difference between a 1kg jump and a 1.25kg, except that for the former you need 2 pairs of micro plates, the latter you need just the one pair.

You said 0.25kg plates are pointless.
I suggested that in order to make 1kg increments, sometimes you need 0.5kg plates.

Which would suggest that there is, indeed, a point to 0.25kg plates.