Looking for an Olympic weight set.

I'm leaning towards the starter set at fitness town. I realise the bar with these sets are not the best, so I'll look into upgrading that at a later date. Any one know of any deals at a fitness store local to them? If the deal is right I'm willing to drive any where within the lower mainland to pick it up.

Mike.

I would love to be proven wrong on this, but I don't think you're going to find any deals anywhere.

I've always kept my eyes out for a 'good-deal' but have never come across it. I suspect the kicker is moving a thousand pounds from some warehouse to your home factors into the equation.

That said, if you do strike gold on your own and not here, please let me know.

every once in a while able auctions has fitness equipment up for auction - they had one about a month ago.

otherwise, fitness town typically has the best deals on free weights.

Now is there any reason to buy "better" quality plates, other than tolerances? ie is the $350 set at fitness town that much worse than a set of plates from Rogue for example?

I'm looking at iron, not bumpers.

Now is there any reason to buy "better" quality plates, other than tolerances? ie is the $350 set at fitness town that much worse than a set of plates from Rogue for example?

I'm looking at iron, not bumpers.

imo there's no reason to spend the extra cash. if you're worried about tolerances bring a bathroom scale to the store with you to make sure that your matching plates are the same weight, or at least within 1/4 pound of each other.

if you're going to spend extra cash, quality bumper plates are the place to put it.

• If you are interested in Oly lifting, then yes, go Eleiko. They're all the same diameter so it's easier to go up in weight, and they are high quality shit. Just make sure to tell me where your gym is because I'm coming over.

• If you are interested in Oly lifting, then yes, go Eleiko. They're all the same diameter so it's easier to go up in weight, and they are high quality shit. Just make sure to tell me where your gym is because I'm coming over.

get in line bub.

to a competitive lifter a good bar is worth its weight in gold , when i was training one of the gyms i would frequent had bars under lock and key same with the weights , only those on the team could use them . the rest of the gym had the cheaper weights and bars

Keep an eye on craigslist and kijiji, you may find used sets or just iron plates for cheap on there. If you are just squatting/deadlifting/pressing then quality isn't a huge deal. One thing to watch out for is cheap bars sometimes have a wider bar diameter (30/31mm instead of 28mm IWF standard) which makes gripping them harder for pulling exercises.

If I was buying for a home gym and not olympic lifting, I would just get whatever is cheapest on Rogue. Those bars take a lot of abuse at CrossFit gyms and seem to do OK, so they should last forever in a home gym.

Costco? Picked up a full set up about 10-12 yrs ago for stupid cheap compared to anywhere else. Not sure what they have now tho…and I think their online price is shipped to your door

For iron plates, Ivanko makes a great product and guaranteed to be no more than 2% over and 0% under. Have a look at their Olympic Machined iron.

York also makes decent iron, and within 2% tolerance +/-.

Rippetoe just put out an informative video all about barbells, worth watching before you make your purchase: http://startingstrength.com/site/barbell_basics_starting_strength_equipment

Thx for the link PC…I certainly learned some bar deets.
Maybe 50%, or less, of it matters to anyone who doesn't compete tho…

Well Fitness Town is all sold out chain wide. I'm talking to Pumphouse Fitness about ordering in a set of York plates. Waiting for them to email me a price list.

This will be the final piece for my garage gym so I'm ready to shell out some cash for my last pieces. I have a half rack, tread mill, dumb bells and rack, and my soon to be retired standard weight set. I'd like to order everything from Rogue but their shipping quotes are ridiculous.

i thought i seen one online company offereing free shipping , and what set thru Rogue where you looking at , they have some nice stuff , anyone local carry them