How to Place Plates on and Off the Deadlift Bar
Hope everyone enjoyed the deadlift! Even if you are an experienced free weights specialist, the deadlift can be difficult to set up because the bar is on the ground, not on a rack, and soon you will be dealing with weights that are heavy enough to be cumbersome.
It should be simple: just slide the cymbal onto the barbell. But friction arises between the plate and the floor when you try to push (or remove) it, so this is easier said than done. Here’s how to put on and take off your plates like a pro.
Find a place to lean on the bar
From time to time, you’ll find the holy grail of deadlift preparation: a ledge, possibly attached to a power cage, on which you can set the barbell at about shin height and easily load and unload plates. I’ve only seen one (1) of them in the wild. I can’t even find a picture.
There are other equipment that can do the same job, such as a deadlift jack , which you slide under the bar to lift it slightly off the ground. You can also set the strength cage hooks low enough to the ground to load the barbell, and then carry it away, freeing the rack for someone who will be using it for actual squats.
Use the tiny plate trick
This is not the first plate, but it helps with the rest. This is easiest to understand when unloading a barbell: place a small plate (like 5 pounds) on the floor and roll the barbell onto it . Most of the plates are now ripped from the floor an inch and you can slide them easily.
You can use the same loading trick: once you have your first large plate, roll it up onto your tiny plate and load the rest.
Take a plate and pull
But how do you put that first plate on (or turn off the last one)? The trick is not to hold the top of the plate, which you probably do instinctively. Instead, do what this guy does near the end of the video:
It looks something like this:
- Bring the plate to the end of the bar and align the bar with the hole in the center of the plate.
- Saddle the barbell facing the plate.
- Take the plate with both hands, right at 3 and 9 o’clock, and pull! to you.
The first time a brother taught me this trick was in the gym, who saw me wrestling, and I’ll tell you how he gave his advice because he did it politely and respectfully. (When he first approached, I thought he was just lifting it up and shoving the plates on me, which is not useful unless the person asked you to do it.)
First, he paused to see if I was going to figure it out myself. Then when I didn’t, he asked if I wanted advice on loading cymbals. I said yes and then he showed me how to do it and after that I was able to do the other side on my own.
So how did your deadlift go this week? If you’re new to the barbell, do you feel more comfortable with it? Mute in the comments and we’ll be back with others next week.