I am fast outgrowing my york cast iron plates and spinlock bar, mainly as the max weight for the 6ft bar is 125kg and my deadlift is 128kg (138kg 1RM @ 70kg bodyweight).

So thinking I can either get the York beefy bar which is rated to 150kg or think about getting an Olympic bar and some rubber plates, So I can drop them.

So whats good York, or other? would probably need to start with bar, collars and 4 x 25kg plates, and maybe some smaller plates what would the bar weigh?

PS this is mainly for deadlifts, will keep the cast iron & spinlock for squats etc.

or do I not need to bother? “Your not doing it right if the bar isnt bending” etc etc

These chaps were very helpful and seemed like good guys when I went to pick up my home gym stuff at their warehouse: https://www.strengthshop.co.uk/
Seem to do a good range of rubber plates. You’ll need something for your floor as well. Plywood and horsemats seems to be the order of the day.

This message comes from a position of complete ignorance cause I bought the stuff and am struggling to get started! ho hum.

Whatever you get – thats a bloody good lift in my book.

If you’re doing the Olympic lifts over 60kg (Clean & Jerk / Snatch) then you’ll need a bar which spins well under load, so not a cheap one. If you’re just doing power lifting stuff, Deadlifts, Squats etc, then this doesn’t matter and for £80 or so you can get a decent bar rates to 200kg or more. The cheap bars spin fine at low weights, but they become sticky once you load them up and this will make a tidy Clean / Snatch quite hard as you get to heavier weights.

I’ve got the Apollo Olympic Plate set, but it’s the same price as the Strength Shop starter kits and everyone highly rates them, so I’d go for their kit and then upgrade to a decent bar later on (if you need it). You’ll probably have to spend £400 or more to get a bar which spins freely under load though…..

My set up:

Olympic Weight Platform Complete by brf, on Flickr

So whats good York, or other? would probably need to start with bar, collars and 4 x 25kg plates, and maybe some smaller plates what would the bar weigh?

Rather than 4×25, I’d get a proper set 2×25, 2×20, 2×15, 2×10 and then cast iron 5s,2.5s etc.

I didn’t bother with the 2×25 as I can get to 140kg without them, which is heavy enough for now…..