What goes on the bar?
Type a weight and see the plates on each side, drawn on the bar in competition colours. Pounds or kilograms, any bar, and only the plates your gym actually has.
About the barbell plate calculator
A plate calculator answers the question you ask at the rack: which plates go on each side to make this weight? Type a target, pick your bar, and it shows the plates for one side, drawn on a barbell in competition colours.
It works in pounds or kilograms with a 45, 35 or 15 lb bar (20, 15 or 10 kg), and only uses the plates you say your gym has.
How it works
Take the bar off the target and halve what’s left: that is what goes on each side. The calculator then finds the heaviest weight it can make at or under the target with your plates, and the fewest plates for it, heaviest first. It solves this exactly rather than greedily, so a gym with no 10s still loads 30 a side as 25 + 5.
If the exact weight can’t be made, it tells you how far short you are and offers the next weight it can make. The default plates are 45, 35, 25, 10, 5 and 2.5 lb, or 25, 20, 15, 10, 5, 2.5 and 1.25 kg. Untick any your gym doesn’t have; the list is remembered on your device.
The colours are the competition ones: in kilograms 25 red, 20 blue, 15 yellow, 10 green and 5 white. Pound bumpers usually follow 45 blue, 35 yellow and 25 green.
A worked example
315 lb on a 45 lb bar: (315 − 45) ÷ 2 = 135 lb a side, which is 3 × 45. 140 kg on a 20 kg bar is 60 kg a side: 2 × 25 + 10.
Now try 232 lb with ordinary plates. The closest you can get without going over is 230 lb (2 × 45 + 2.5 a side), 2 lb short, and the calculator offers to go up to 240 lb instead.
Questions
How much does a barbell weigh?
A men’s Olympic bar is 20 kg (44 lb), and most American gyms call it 45 lb. A women’s Olympic bar is 15 kg (about 33 lb). Technique and training bars vary, so check yours and pick the matching bar in the calculator.
Do collars count?
The calculator doesn’t add them. Spring clips weigh next to nothing, but competition collars are 2.5 kg each, so if you use them, take 5 kg off the target before you load.
Why can’t it make my exact weight?
Every plate goes on both sides, so a weight is only loadable in steps of twice your smallest plate. With 2.5 lb plates that is 5 lb; without them, 10. The calculator gets as close as it can under the target and says how far off it is.
My gym is missing a plate size. Does that matter?
Tell the calculator. Untick the plates you don’t have and it works out the loadout from what’s left, using more of the smaller plates if it has to.
Can I load a kilogram weight in a pound gym?
Switch the unit to kg and enter your target; the plates shown will be kilogram plates. If your gym only has pound plates, convert the target to pounds first (1 kg ≈ 2.2 lb) and load that.
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