How to Add Weight When You Lift the Barbell
Popular quiz: You want to lift 185 pounds. How many plates do you put on each side of the bar, and what size? If you didn’t immediately answer “45 and 25, of course,” then you may need a little math textbook on plates.
Yes, you count the bar
Let’s start with the basics. When you tell someone how much weight you have lifted, this includes the total weight you had in your hands. The bar is part of it.
In most US gyms, a typical barbell is seven feet long and weighs either 45 pounds or 20 kilograms (which is 44 pounds). If the rest of your weight plates are in pounds, assume that is 45.
If your gym has different sizes of barbells, check the end on the weight label or ask someone. Olympic-style weightlifting is performed using a 20kg barbell for men and a shorter and narrower 15kg barbell for women. (The main advantage of the female plank if you are a woman is that it is easier to grip.)
Your gym may also have smaller bars – one total weight is five kilograms. Home machines sometimes use a one-inch barbell without the wider collars you see on Olympic or powerlifting equipment; these rods are lighter and you should weigh yours or check the packaging to see what you have.
If you are lifting on a Smith machine or any other machine, do not try to figure out how much the machine or its barbell weighs. All machines are different, they are almost never labeled, and the weight will not necessarily be the same as on the barbell. Just write down the total weight that you have loaded on it – that’s enough for keeping records.
What about clamps or collars to hold the load? They are usually not heavy enough to add to your calculations, but if they are large and you know their weight, feel free to include them.
Add them
This may be obvious, but I want to make sure this information is easy to find: find the total weight you put on the barbell, fold the plates at one end, double that number, and add the barbell weight. …
So, if you have 45 and 25 at each end, add 25 + 45 to get 70, double that (140) and add the bar weight (140 + 45 = 185).
More often, however, you start with the number you want to lift and then have to load the bar accordingly. Start practicing and you will soon be able to load the bar properly without thinking too much about it. Here’s how:
Remember common combinations
Let’s say we are working with a 45 pound barbell. You will end up using the same combinations over and over, and these numbers will start to seem really familiar:
- 55 pounds: 5 pounds each side
- 65 lb: 10 lb plate on each side
- 95 lb: 25 lb plate on each side
- 135 pounds: 45 pounds each side
- 225 lb: two 45 lb plates on each side
- 315 lb: three 45 lb plates on each side
When you warm up before getting up, you can do maths by donning your cymbals. Suppose you do a set with only an empty strip, then 10 on each side (that’s 65), then the second pair of tens (85), then change them both to 25 (now we have 95), and you want to do the next set to 100. You know you need five more pounds, so look for a couple of 2.5 pound plates and you’re done.
Learn and kilograms
In some gyms, plates are listed in kilograms rather than pounds. (Some have both, so be careful!) The principles are the same: count the bar and memorize common combinations.
On the female barbell 15 kg:
- A pair of 10 kg plates = 35 kg.
- Pair 15 = 45 kg
- Pair 20 = 55 kg
- Pair 25 = 65 kg
Or, if you are using a 20kg male barbell:
- A pair of 10 kg plates = 40 kg.
- Pair 15 = 50 kg
- Pair 20 = 60 kg
- Pair 25 = 70 kg
Switching between pounds and kilograms helps to be able to convert them in your head. Multiply kilograms by 2.2 to get pounds, or divide pounds by 2.2 to get kilograms . Some numbers are nicely symmetrical:
- 5 kg = 11 lbs
- 10 kg = 22 lbs
- 20 kg = 44 lbs
- 30 kg = 66 lbs
- 40 kg = 88 lbs
- 50 kg = 110 lbs
- 100 kg = 220 lbs
- 150 kg = 330 lbs
I go up in one gym where everything is in kilograms, and in another where everything is in pounds. Luckily, I do different exercises at each location, so I just keep my Olympic records in kilograms and my powerlifting records in pounds. I recommend this approach instead of trying to convert the units on every climb like you do.
If you are not used to working with kilograms, start by memorizing just one number: your own weight in kilograms. This allows you to quickly draw conclusions, such as “This is heavier than me” or “This is about half my weight,” without having to take out a calculator.
Help apps and calculators
Yes, there are calculators that will do the job for you. I track my workouts on an app called Strong, and it has a little button that tells you how to load the barbell for your exercise. RackMath (free for iOS and Android) looks like a good option for a standalone application.
An online counterpart of this calculator from ExRx . Note that you should tell any calculator how heavy your plank is, what cymbal sizes you have and how many there are. In the gym, the number of plates can be unlimited, but in the home gym there may be certain numbers that you simply cannot achieve because you don’t have the right plate combination.