New Gear Day – Rogue Hi Temp Bumper Plates – 45lb
New Gear Day – Rogue Hi Temp Bumper Plate – 45lb
With getting towards the end of the Vodka and Pickles workout and looking to do a “sort of” max attempt next week, I needed to add some weight plates. I currently max out around around 310# of iron plates and bumpers. Add in 45# for the barbell and so I’m coming up short when I look to do 405# next week.
With that, I placed an order yesterday morning for a pair of 45lb Hi Temp bumper plates from Rogue. Much to my surprise they showed up at my mailbox today so I was able to test them out during my deadlifts tonight.
These plates are huge!
Size comparison between a pair of Rogue Hi Temp 45lb bumper plates with a 16kg Punch kettlebell
Compared to my 10# and 15# bumpers these are MASSIVE! They measure in at nearly 4″ across compared to rough 1-3/4″ for a 15# and 1-1/2″ for 10# bumper. One defect, though, was the beveled edge on one of the 45s is perfect on both sides while the second one has a bevel that is wider than the other. It’s more of a visual annoyance that doesn’t affect the way it works so I’ll just call Rogue tomorrow and let them know. I also weighed both of them and neither are quite a full 45lbs – one is 43.8 and the other is 44.4.
Yes, that’s a bit annoying but these were only $75 each, not $300 PER plate for an IWF Category A calibrated bumper plate that could be used at Rio 2016 Summer Games.
Putting the Hi Temp bumper to the test
For my initial warmup I loaded up my B&R bar with the 45s, 15s, and 10s and did a quick set of 5 deadlifts. I dropped them on the last rep to check out the bounce and they were pretty dead. If you’re looking to do Oly lifts these would work fine.
Three bumpers – 45, 15, 10. Fitness Gear plates – 35, 25, 2.5. Fills up the bar pretty quickly and I’m only at 310# total.
One issue with loading up a bar with a mix of bumpers and iron plates is running out of room on the bar, as seen above. Now that I have 400# of bumpers and plates I don’t think I’ll add any more bumpers unless I get further into Oly lifting. Adding in the bar I’m at 445# so to get to 500# I’ll just need to add at least a pair of 35# iron plates. I’m getting ahead of my strength right now so until I’m hitting 450# deadlifts I should be fine.