From Candice:

Neil,

You gave a great recommendation on purchasing barbells. What company do you recommend for the plates?

My Brother-in-law is building his own little GPP at his office in Lehi.  He just subscribed to the website and is working on getting a good base of equipment.

OK, this is an easy one. You have to go with Hi Temp (pic)! 

We've tried most of the others. Some of you will remember, when we moved into HQ at the Centerville location, we didn't go with the High Temps, at first. We had another brand. After our first "Three Bars of Death" workout we noticed dozens of rubber pieces all over the floor. We slaughtered those things! I called the manufacturer and was like, "WTH?" The guy goes, "Yes, they are made to drop - BUT NOT THAT MANY TIMES!" We sent them all back and got Hi Temps. 

  • YES, other brands are sexier!
  • YES, those Hi Temps bounce a little higher after drops!
  • Yes, the 10lb plates "taco" a little when you try to do "monsters" on them. 

But, they are FRICKIN bomb proof. I'm quite convinced that, along with Twinkies and cockroaches, Hi Temp bumper plates will survive the Apocalypse. 

A couple of things to know about them:

  • Weight tolerances are better now. When we got ours (5 yrs ago), a 45 lb plate was only "pretty close" to 45 ACTUAL pounds. I weighed a 45 which clocked in at closer to 50LBs. The company I ordered from said I could send it back. Haha - nobody ever noticed, so I figured, "why bother?" Now they are right on. Tolerances are guaranteed to +/- .5LB.

  • These are made in USA! Alabama if I remember right.

  • They aren't pretty. They are made of crumb rubber. I think they are recycled tires. Did I mention they are BOMB proof? Plus, "pretty" and GPP don't really belong in the same sentence, unless you are talking about the bodies we put onto folk, then YES pretty applies, I guess. But ONLY in that context.

  • I wouldn't bother getting "tweener" weights. Leave the 15/35 pounders off your order. You'll do fine with 10/25/45 and a few 5LB & 2 1/2LB "steelies." 

  • If the collars (which are steel - not stupid brass) pop out of your 10s, call me. I'll tell you how to get them back in. I've had to do it thrice. Now that I know how to do it - it's easy!

  • The Hi Temps are generally cheaper per pound than most of the other rubber bumpers out there.

  • There are a lot of companys that carry them. We got ours from RogueFitness.com. Mainly because they were the ONLY place you could get stuff like this 5 yrs ago. Things have changed. You can find Hi Temp rubber bumper plates just about everywhere now. A quick Google search will net you competitive prices.

  • Careful - Shipping costs will kill you, however, a lot of "local" shippers (Colorado & Calif) are actually more expensive per unit. 

  • Please mention GPP when you make an order. I'd love to create a relationship with an equipment company that would mutually benefit us all.

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