Should I Buy Second Hand Gym Equipment in India?
Last Updated April 30, 2024
Buy Second Hand Gym Equipment in India. Why go expensive and probably have to mortgage my home, or do I go budget and potentially need a tetanus shot in the future?
When it comes to buying plates for your home gym, we have all heard that saying that weight is weight.
But if that’s true, why do so many home gym owners have ultra-expensive premium calibrated plates?
I think it’s time that we get into it.
Is weight is weight for gym plates?
In today’s blog, I want to pull back the ‘Weight is Weight’ curtain on what so many home gym influencers just refuse to talk about, and that is “weight is weight” regardless of the design, the colour, or the accuracy of your home gym plates.
This plays absolutely no part in how hard you train and how your gains are made.
I know someone in Africa, who’s essentially made plates out of concrete and crushes workouts.
Heck, there’s someone in Cameroon right now lifting cinder blocks and probably getting a much tougher, harder workout than I am down here in my pristine home gym.
But if weight is weight, why do so many home gym owners tend to lean towards or eventually get accurate calibrated plates as you see here?
Weight Plates – Second Hand Gym Equipment in India!
Let’s start at the beginning and for those of you on a budget, that want “used cast iron Olympic plates in India”. Now, you can find these on OLX, but your best chance is going to be looking at Facebook Marketplace.
The older the plates are, the more rust that’s on them, the better the deal.
You can usually find plates for just over Rs 50 per kg, and the best part about Facebook Marketplace, besides the savings, is additional savings because you don’t have to pay GST.
And if you get an old rusty plate, you’d be surprised what a can of spray paint can do for restoration purposes.
The only hassle with Facebook Marketplace is, frankly, good deals are harder to come by because most people tend to overvalue what they’re selling.
Moving up the food chain when it comes to plates, and that is new cast-iron plates.
Now, a lot of companies will sell brand-new cast iron plates in India. The nice aspect about them is that the price is relatively low, at just under Rs 100 per kg.
There’s no rust on them, which you tend to get when you buy used, and they’re delivered right to your home.
Keep in mind, that not all new cast iron plates are going to have a nice finish or feel, so do your research. For me, I do like these Bullrock Fitness ones. For the price, they deliver on the design in terms of putting them on and taking them off the bar, and the finish is nice and sleek.
One of the nice things about going NEW is that you tend to have a little bit of a warranty, and on top of that, you don’t have to have the hassle of driving to someone’s home, dealing with picking up plates, restoring them, and all that other stuff that comes along with it.
Because, as we know, your time does have a value associated with it.
Used Weight Plates For Sale!
Rolling right along, we have Olympic bumper plates coming in at about Rs 180 per kg on average.
There are some benefits to having bumper plates in India, and that is if you do Olympic lifts, these will bounce.
They’re not going to damage your floor as much, so if you do Olympic lifts and drop your weights, or if you just happen to drop your weights anyway, they will protect your floor a bit more.
Also, these tend to be a lot more quiet, whether you’re dropping your plates or whether you’re loading them onto the bar.
The side effect of these is that they will take up more space on your barbell, as well as for plate storage. When it comes to the top of the top, the cream of the crop in home gym plates, it’s going to be competition or calibrated plates.
Whether you go with a bumper or you go with metal plates, these are going to be 100% accurate.
These things are dead on. One of the other benefits of going this route is that they are thinner, and they tend to have a much nicer feel and fit when loading on and off of the plate.
However, you gotta pay the man his money.
That’s me and his money.
When it comes to these plates, you should expect to pay Rs 200 per kg, and that does add up quite quickly.
Very few home gym owners need competition or calibrated plates, and from my experience, the generic plates that I’ve bought, whether it’s bumper or cast iron, were fairly accurate.
And I have to imagine that you would need to be lifting 4 or 5 plates to even notice the small inaccuracies in those weights while you lift.
Final thoughts.
Which plates are going to be right for your home gym?
First and foremost, if you are on a super tight budget, you have to look at Facebook Marketplace.
There are a lot of good deals to be had, and used plates are going to function exactly like new plates, and they’re not going to impact your gains whatsoever.
Now, if you don’t want the hassle of trying to wait and to hunt down a deal on “Facebook Marketplace” and then negotiate and drive to go get it, you might want to consider cast-iron plates.
There are a lot of great deals online, and some of them do have some pretty decent finishes.
One thing you need to keep in mind, whether you go used, whether you go cast iron, or whether you buy the super ultra premium calibrated plates, eventually they’re all going to be used, they’re all going to have chips and dirt on them and scratches, and that’s okay.
It means that you’re actually using your weight for what it’s meant for.
In my prestigious pain palace, I do tend to lean towards bumper plates. I have never had an issue with bar space. I'm just not that strong. I find bumper plates protect my floor the most.
I try to keep things as quiet as possible, and having those bumper plates just adds a little more sound-deafening than if I were using cast iron.
Most home gym owners, at least eventually, will lean towards higher-end plates, and it’s not because they need the bar space, it’s not because they need calibrated plates to hit the CrossFit Games, they’re not Matt Frazier, they’re not Rich Froning.
No, they want the higher-end plates because they have nicer aesthetics, and frankly, they’ve got a nicer feel to them when loading and unloading the bar. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
FAQs
Q1: Are competition plates worth it compared to black bumpers?
It depends on your gym requirements. Competition plates may it be iron or bumpers are typically more accurate in weight and have a thinner profile, but they are also more expensive than others. Black bumpers are usually more affordable and suitable for CrossFit gyms/general use at home.
Q2: Do bumper plates weigh less?
No, bumper plates do not weigh less but some feel it lighter than iron plates. The reason is that iron is a much denser material than bumper rubber plates.
Q3: How many bumper plates fit on a bar?
The number of bumper plates that can fit on a bar depends on the brand of plates, the diameter of both the plates and the barbell sleeves. Typically, a standard Olympic barbell whose sleeve length is 16” inches can accommodate 4 -5 bumper plates on each side.
Q4: Does all size weight plates fit in 7 feet barbell rod?
Most standard 7-foot barbell rods come with a 2-inch diameter centre hole. Any 50mm Olympic-size weight plate can fit into it.
Q5: Should I Buy Second Hand Gym Equipment?
It can be good, only if you’re on a budget or just starting out with a home gym. It would cost you up to 80% less than new equipment. However, used equipment may need to be replaced sooner than new equipment, if you’re keeping it in a commercial gym.
Thats all for this blog on “Should I Buy Second Hand Gym Equipment in India?”. I would love your opinion, so comment down below.
Do you prefer higher-end aesthetic plates because it’s just nice to have beautiful things, or are you all about buying on a budget?
Thank you.
