How Can You Mix Bumper Plates With Iron Plates?

Building a home gym can be quite expensive. However, there are several ways that you can still get a garage gym that you have always wanted within your budget.

One of the simplest methods you can save on cost is to mix bumper plates and iron plates. When you mix the two different plates, you’ll get all the best features of bumper plates such as safety and flexibility.

Bumper plates are better than iron plates as shown below, but more expensive.

Reasons Why You Should Have Bumper Plates in Your Gym

Bumper plates are designed for safety and convenience. Their uniform size ensures that you can lift them comfortably for certain exercises such as the barbell hip thrust.

When you drop the bar, all the plates hit the ground at the same time, which helps to prevent damage to your floor. The plates are made of high-density rubber, which allows them to absorb shock and bounce when dropped. This also helps to protect your barbell and floor from damage.

Bumper plates produce less noise as compared to iron plates when dropped.

How to Combine Bumper Plates and Iron Plates?

When building your garage gym, you can buy a few bumper plates and mix them with iron plates.

But, what matters is the ratio of the bumper plates against iron plates in the mix.
The best way to mix bumper and iron plates is to ensure that you add iron plates of the same or less weight as the bumper plates on your barbell.

For example, if you have a two 45 pound bumper plate, then the iron plates should not be more than two 45 pounds.

Therefore, the ratio should be 1:1 bumper to iron plates. Using equal weight barbell plates ensures that there is minimal damage to your bumper plates, floor, and barbell.

However, mixing bumper plates with iron might cause your bumper plates to wear out a lot faster as they are designed to take their own weight. When mixed with iron plates, the bumper plates bounce and absorb shock with the extra weight of the iron plates.

It’s Okay to Mix Bumper Plates Together With Iron Plates

There is no need to worry about buying numerous expensive bumper plates when building a garage gym.

You can mix bumper plates with iron plates without worrying about damaging your plates or barbell. However, this works as long as you add iron plates with the same weight or less to the bumper plates.

Mixing bumper plates helps to protect your floor and barbell from damage. You can buy quality bumper or iron plates from Fringe Sport.