Micro Gainz Calibrated Fractional Weight Plates Set, 8 Piece Olympic Weight Plates Set with Bag, Designed for Olympic Barbells for Strength Training and Micro Loading, Made in USA

Once you get past the newbie gains stage and it gets a bit harder to consistently get stronger, one of the best ways to keep progress going is through microloading. At most gyms, the lightest Olympic plates they have weigh 2.5lbs, meaning you must add 5lbs to the bar each time you want to go up in weight. While that's feasible for awhile, eventually it gets impossible to add that much weight each session and still get your reps in. These plates allow you to load an additional 2.5lbs onto the barbell (1.25lbs per side) or even less weight at a time (down to .5lbs), allowing you to keep progressing each week.The attached chart shows how this works--consistently bumping my barbell bench press up by 2.5lbs allowed me to add almost 40lbs to my closing barbell bench press sets (preceded by heavy 5x5 dumbbell work) over the course of about 3.5 months, which is something I couldn't have achieved bumping the weight by 5lbs each session. These weights are compact and easy to stash in your gym bag, and allow you to consistently ramp up weight over time without limiting your volume.For instance, if you could bench press 185lbs for 10 reps one week that's 1,850lbs of overall volume (185 x 10), but if you had to bump up by 5lbs to 190 maybe you could only get in 7 reps before failure (190 x 7 = 1,330lbs) whereas if you only bumped up by 2.5lbs to 187.5 you could probably get in 9 reps (187.5 x 9 = 1688) or even hit all 10 (187.5 x 10 = 1,875lbs). So rather than dropping from 1,850lbs of volume to 1,330 you can adapt to heavier weights with similar volume or even more volume the very next session.Getting stronger and building muscle is all about increasing volume over time, and these plates help you do exactly that. Check these out to keep the gains coming for a long, long time.

This is an excellent Olympic (2" hole) weight plate set for adding those smaller increments to the bar or dumbbells, really helps continue the forward progress each lifting session. I really appreciate that the company kept the good price during the pandemic crisis rather than jacking it up to the outrageous high prices other sellers are doing for weight training gear. The plates have a nice smooth machined finish and come with a pouch and packed in a solid box. We like them so much we just bought a second set.

Brightly-colored, tiny and reasonably-priced calibrated fractional steel weight plates that have a nice powder-coat finish and are well within the +/- 5g stated weight tolerance. I’m happy with them.Fractional weights are really useful for providing incremental weights, especially when using 5 lbs. and 10 lbs. dumbbells where the step up from 5 lbs. to 10 lbs. is 100%, and when you reach a sticking point with dumbbells or barbells and can't move up to the next largest regular weight plate.The first thing you notice about these weight plates, besides the bright colors, is how tiny they are: a uniform 3.5” outside diameter (compared to around 5” for my rubber-coated bumper fractional plates) with thicknesses ranging from 4.4mm (3/16”) to 17mm (3/4”). Then you notice that the powder coating is really smooth with a very slight texture. (It’s sometimes slightly sharp where the edges meet.)My weights were well within the stated tolerance of +/- 5g: under 1g for the two lightest weights, under 2g for the 3/4 lb., and under; 4g for the 1 lb. weights. They fit fine on 2”-diameter barbell and dumbbell sleeves and are reasonably-priced for calibrated steel fractional plates with a nice finish.They come with a small bag that's convenient for storage or for transporting them to the gym.How do I like them compared to my rubber-coated fractional bumper plates? There’s absolutely no smell (though I don’t find that my small fractional bumper plates have much of a rubber smell). They’re noisier when you put them on the bar or you accidentally bang them together. They have a nice, smooth powder-coat surface. The plates are labeled with their weight, but in small numbers in the same color as the weight; if you rely on nice, big numbers to remind you of the plate’s weight, you won’t find them on these. They don’t have the cool look of a white logo and weight in bright white letters on bumper plates. I think they look a bit odd when I have more than two on each side of a barbell because they’re so small compared to larger, heavier plates, but I think they look nice when using only one or two and on dumbbells with smaller-diameter weights. Overall, I think it’s roughly a tie and I use both.

Love these weights for fractional strength training. Fit on standard barbells with no movement. Great product!

Great qualitly plates. I’ve used other fractional plates that were not very well made. The paint chipped off within a week, they didn’t weigh what they were suppose to weigh and they felt like they would shatter if I dropped them. The Micro Gainz are far superior to what I had before. They are quality constructed, they weigh what they say they are suppose to weigh and the paint job is A+. Throwing the carry bag in is a nice touch too! Thanks Micro Gainz!

Amazon offers several different brands of fractionals, but they are all garish, bright colors I don't want in my weight room, look like they were made for clowns. These are a nice, flat dark grey, that blend in well with my other normal-colored black & grey plates. Although these are made specifically for Olympic bars, find they work fine with standard ones, too, as long as you use collars, which you normally do anyway, and don't throw them around too much. I have both, as my Powertec cable machine is Olympic, but I use standard bars on my free weights, for everything else. They come nicely-boxed and with a bag, too, if you are traveling to your workouts at a gym, etc., you can take them with you. Overall, very satisfied and recommend.ADDENDUM: They're working out so well, just ordered a second set, so I will have enough to use with a pair of dumbells, too.