Welcome to Gymtime Stories: Part VIII of a CCXIII part series.

Part VIII: 35 lb?

When I first started frequenting the gym, the main weight plate distributions were the following: 5 lbs, 10 lbs, 25 lbs, 45 lbs. Seems reasonable enough. I am not exactly sure why there are no 20, 30, 40, 50 lbs in there, 45 has always been the highest weight. It doesn’t convert to an even about in kgs (around 22.4 kgs) and it is not a multiple of 10. Maybe it has to do with the bench press bar being 45 lbs. Anyway, this is a constant in gyms across the land.

But I have noticed since moving to Seattle there is another weight creeping in there; the 35 lb weight.

Say what?!?!?!?!?!

Yes, a rogue 35 lb weight has been making it’s appearance to all the gyms I have been going to as of late. I am not sure if this is a PNW thing or whatever, but it is really annoying and it has to stop.

On the surface, this seems innocuous. I mean why is a 35 lb plate harmful in any way? Well, think about this:

• There is only a finite amount of plates in the gym. Having more 35 lb plates mean fewer 25 and 45 plates.

• No one really uses these plates at all. So they are piled up in the less-popular weight machines/areas. And guess who has to move them out of the way and hunt down the more proper 25/45 lb plates when you want to use one of those machines? Yeah, it’s me.

• The entire plate-shelving system is thrown off. There is usually only room for 3 denominations: 10, 25, 45. But now with the 35s, the 25s or 45s are bumped to another section. And again remember, no one ever uses the 35s so they end up taking over the entire shelving area.

They are completely unnecessary. I mean if you need 35, just use a 25 and 10. You want 70, use a 45 and 25. There is no need for these bulky discs to inhabit the lifting area.

What is even scarier is that at my gym, I counted that there are actually more 35s than 25s and almost the same amount of 45s!!! When I first joined there, this was not the case. What this means…..they are multiplying!!! NOO!!!!!! This goes with the old clothes hangers theory; leave two in a closet and in a week you have 10.

I have no idea where this 35 lb fad has started, but it needs to end fast or else the entire idea of benching with 2 plates on each side loses all meaning.

And in even worse news, there have been some 2.5 lb plates peaking their head around the gym. 2.5? This is even stupider. If you can’t lift 5 lbs, well then there is nothing at the gym that can help. And if you need to add more weight but you can’t get to 255, just 252.5, well let me suggest to you just stay at 250.

So stop with the added denominations of weights. 5, 10, 25, 45, that’s all we need. If it was good enough for Charles Atlas, it is good enough for me.