How to load a barbell
Take the weight you want, subtract the bar, and halve what’s left: that is what goes on each side. For 100 kg on a 20 kg bar, that leaves 80 kg, or 40 kg a side, loaded as a 25 and a 15. Put the heaviest plates on first so they sit against the collar, then the smaller ones, then the clip. Loading the same way every time makes the bar easy to check at a glance, and it keeps the big plates from sliding outward on the sleeve.
The calculator does the same thing with the fewest plates it can, heaviest first. Untick any size your gym doesn’t have and it works around the gap: with only 20s and 15s, 80 kg becomes two 15s a side instead of a 25 and a 5. For the plates on every set of a warm-up, the warm-up sets calculator works out the whole ramp.
How much does the bar weigh?
A men’s Olympic bar is 20 kg, about 44 lb, and a women’s Olympic bar is 15 kg, about 33 lb. The standard bar in most American gyms is sold as 45 lb, which is 20.4 kg, close enough to a 20 kg bar that the two are often swapped. Technique bars are usually 10 or 15 kg. Specialty bars such as trap bars, safety squat bars and curl bars vary widely, and so does the bar on a Smith machine, which is often counterbalanced. When in doubt, look for the weight stamped on the sleeve, or use the Custom bar option.
Kilo plates and their colors
Competition kilo plates are color-coded so a judge can read the bar from across the room: 25 kg red, 20 kg blue, 15 kg yellow, 10 kg green and 5 kg white. The drawing above uses those colors and shows the smaller change plates in grey. Pound plates are rarely coded by color, so in pounds the drawing tells them apart by size alone.
When the weight won’t come out even
Plates only combine in certain steps. With 1.25 kg plates the smallest jump on the bar is 2.5 kg, and with 2.5 lb plates it is 5 lb. When your target falls between steps, the calculator shows the nearest weight you can load on either side. Microplates, such as 0.5 kg or 1.25 lb, close the gap; tick them if your gym has them.
Collars count too. Spring clips weigh next to nothing, but competition collars are 2.5 kg each, so a pair adds 5 kg. If you train with them, enter the bar and both collars together as a custom bar weight.
Plates and progression in Arclift
Arclift has no plate calculator inside the app, which is what this page is for. What it does have is a keypad built for logging sets, with buttons that add 2.5 or 5 at a tap, and, with Arclift Pro, a progression coach whose increase is set per exercise: 2.5 kg by default, or 5 lb, or 1 kg if you own microplates. Weights you actually lifted are kept exactly as logged, so a 22 kg dumbbell stays 22 kg; only a deload’s lighter weight is rounded, and to that same increment.
