Why use bumper plates? 5 Best Bumper Plates India

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TOP BEST BUMPER PLATES IN INDIA 2022 1

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Rubber Bumper plates India are one of the best investments you can get for your home gym, especially if you drop weights in deadlifts, power cleans, and a whole lot more of other exercises, but exactly what are bumper weight plates? 😄

✔️ Bumper plates, also commonly called bumpers, are special Olympic weight plates constructed of a steel iron core wrapped in a dense rubber coat. They’re built to balance and prevent damage to your floor, your barbell, and, of course, your plates. 

They have a bunch of positives and negatives just like anything and, like all things that I recommend, you need to determine whether the pros of rubber bumper plates India outweigh the cons for your own situation. 🙄

Spoiler Alert⚠️: If you only do some powerlifting training, you really don’t have a need for competition bumper plates, so they’re probably not a good idea for you. 

➡️ In today’s guide, I’m going to go over the pros and cons of rubber bumper plates, the benefits of bumper plates, and the best bumper plates in India to consider, and more. 

Let’s get started.

Types of Bumper Plates India

These are some Best rubber bumper plates India options, available:

  1. Training Bumpers Top Pick: BullrocK Black Rubber Bumper Plates 2.0
  2. Competition Bumper Top Pick: Ate Competition bumper plates India
  3. Runner-up Black Bumper Plates: Cockatoo Black Bumper Plates
  4. Best Bumper on Amazon: KOBO bumper plates India
  5. Bumper Plates Budget Pick: BullrocK Coloured Rubber Coated Olympic Weight Plates

✔️  Pros of Bumper Plates India

Now the first one that everyone talks about is that 

#1 They’re quiet.

👍 Bumper plates are just going to be a lot quieter than iron plates. They absorb impact when you drop them, so they’re not going to sound like an explosion. Going off like iron plates, they are also not going to clang and bang either, so if you want to be as quiet as possible, the bumper plate set works well.

#2 Do less damage to your bar and platform

Since rubber weight plates absorb the impact, less of that impact is going to affect your barbell collars. And if you plan on doing the Olympic lifts, bumper weight plates are a must to have for CrossFit gyms or home gyms in general. 

Plus, using bumpers is going to prevent damage to your platform as well. ➡️ This is actually a solid reason to go with bumper plates if you can afford them.

#3 They absorb shocks better.

Bumper weight plates absorb force much better than iron weight plates plus because of what they’re constructed of (Rubber). They have to be more durable to handle the abuse thrown at them. 

The better the quality of your gym plates, the less they’re going to bounce. Overall, you definitely want this, but sometimes one side bounces higher than the other and it can smack you in your shins, so be careful.

#4 No problem with Rusting:

✔️ Rust is definitely an issue with iron weight plates, but with rubber bumper plates India, they aren’t completely constructed of iron so they aren’t really going to rust much at all. 😄

If you go with training bumper plates instead of competition bumper plates, they definitely aren’t going to rust as they only have an iron insert instead of that core. 

#5 Even Diameter:

This is another thing you have to consider with bumper plates, they’re wider and the diameter is greater than typical iron plates. The coolest thing about bumper plates is that the diameter is going to be the same for almost all of them, as long as you buy from the same gym manufacturer. 

Every best bumper plate from 5 kg up to 25 kg is going to have the exact same circumference. ✌️

If you’re new to the deadlift or olympic lifts, you can start with 2 * 5 kg bumpers on the bar from the same height as a bigger 20 kg iron plate.😄

This is a tremendous benefit that removes the headache of pulling from blocks or a rack to make sure the starting position with weights under 135 kg is the same. 

👉 I hope this answers your question, “Should I buy bumper plates or iron plates?” Plus, since they’re all the same diameter, they have a wider surface area over the entire collar, which makes dropping them even safer as for the width. 

What price did bumper plates come at?

Obviously, with all the cooler features that bumper plates have, there’s got to be a catch, and that catch is the PRICE.

Whether you choose standard Olympic plates or bumper plates, the bumper plates price per kg rates appears to be reasonable at first look. But when you add up the cost of a whole set, you’re now well over Rs 30000 – Rs 60000.

This makes it important to find out how many of each weight you actually require.👍

Sure, if you buy a cheap bumper plate set, they’re going to be priced similarly to iron weight plates, but you’re going to have a ton of other issues with them, as you’ll soon find out. 

➡️ But if you don’t want those issues, you’ll need competition bumper plates or at least some training bumpers which are more expensive, simple as that. 

❌ Problems with Rubber Bumper Plates

raised flanges on weight plates India
bumper plates India
1# Rubber Smell on Bumpers

Since they’re made mostly of rubber, a lot of them are going to have a strong rubbery chemical smell. I’m sure there are things you can use to make the smell go away, but some people get severe headaches from this, just something to consider.

2# Some Appear Bigger in Thickness.

I’m sure you’ve seen tons of pictures and videos of people lifting with massive bumpers that make it look like the person is lifting a ton of weight right.

But then, in reality, it’s like 225 Kg on the deadlift, which still is an impressive lift for many people, but it looks like a lot more with those wider bumpers.

If all you have is those types of gym plates, it’s going to be difficult to lift heavier weights when you literally can’t ADD more plates to the bar.

➡️ This is more a problem with cheaper bumpers that are broader rather than bumpers in general.

3# Some Bumpers Bounce Higher

👉 Overall, however, some of them have a ton of bounce and they’re going to destroy your shins if you’re not expecting the massive rebound they have. Something to be aware of if you get cheaper gym plates is that they will try to kill you occasionally. ❌

The first bumpers I got were the cheapo recycled bumper plates locally. No joke! ⚠️ These crumpled and started cracking from just a single training session. 

Just save yourself the headache though and invest in some higher quality and more durable weight plates. It’s going to be a much better idea and even SAVE you some money in the long haul. 

Olympic Weight Plates Vs Bumper Plates?

There’s a variety of differences between bumper plates and Olympic plates. The biggest ones are the feel, durability, the sound they make, and even how they smell overall. 

Though depending on which types of weight plates in India you decide to get, come down to: 

#1 Budget: 

If you plan on Olympic lifting and, of course, the diameter with the plates, the price is easy to figure out. If you have a massive budget and don’t need to worry about the money, just get the highest quality bumper plates India. 

You can and call it a day they’re going to last longer. They don’t require much maintenance and you can throw them around without any worries.

👍 Plus, if you train early in the morning and don’t want to wake up, your family or neighbors’ bumpers are just going to be much quieter than iron plates. 

➡️ On the flip side, if you have a much smaller budget and want to maximize the investment you’re making just get the iron plates they’re a great deal cheaper and they’re still going to be very durable as long as you’re not throwing them from overhead positions.  

How much should I pay for bumper plates?

I crunch the numbers of Bullrock Fitness, ATE Sports and various other equipment manufacturers for their average cost per kg for their bumper weight plates as well as their iron plates what I found is that on average training bumpers are only around 3.34% more expensive while competition bumpers are around 27.1% more expensive. That’s definitely a huge difference, so I really recommend you just get the training bumpers. ✔️

bullrock fitness black bumper thickness India
Bullrock Fitness Black Weight Plates India
What weight plates do I need?

This is something you have to ask yourself if you decided to get some bumper plates for your home gym. If you just want to do powerlifting and bodybuilding movements, you don’t need bumper plates. Try getting an olympic weight plates set of 50 MM that goes with every olympic barbell.

Olympic-Barbell-Rubber-Plates-3-Holes-Hand-Grip
Olympic rubber weight plates

Bottom line

✔️ Yes, Bumper plates are nice to have. Do they look awesome? Absolutely!! 👉 But if you aren’t Olympic lifting regularly and you want to just buy more weight plates overall, iron plates are for you. 

Thickness of Bumper Weight Plates

This is where things get a little difficult. The heavier the weight is the thicker it’s going to be. This is especially true for bumper plates. Here is an ATE competition plate for reference. In comparison, some of the bullrock fitness bumpers are as follows as you can see these are thicker by a lot. 

The biggest reason you need to pay attention to this is that they take up a ton of space on the bar.

A couple of Bullrock bumper plates and your bar might already be completely full of plates. (That’s why it’s important to check the specs of the weight plates you decide to get.✌️) 

FAQs on Bumper Plates for home gym

What are some best bumper plates in India?
  1. Bumpers Top Pick: BullrocK Black Rubber Bumper Plates 2.0
  2. Competition Bumper Top Pick: Ate Competition bumper plates India
  3. Bumper Plates: Cockatoo Black Bumper Plates
  4. Best Bumper on Amazon: KOBO bumper plates India
  5. Competition Bumper Upgrade Pick: USI Olympic Bumper Plates with Hub 
  6. Bumper Plates Budget Pick: USI UNIVERSAL Black Bumper Plates
  7. Bumper Plates Runner-up Pick: BullrocK Coloured Rubber Coated Olympic Weight Plates
  8. One & Only Training Bumpers: SANGUINE Elite Stripe Training Bumper Plates
Which is the best place to buy weight plates online in India?

Though there are many aggregators in India selling bumper plates, barbells, and whatnot. But few best bumper plates in India come from Bullrock Fitness, Sanguine, ATE Sports. 👍 My favourite is from ATE Sports, because they have curved edges on their bumper which is easy to hold when lying flat on the floor. 

What Weight Bumper Plates Do I Need?

A simple beginner set of Olympic or bumper plates is quite standard. The following bumper plates are usually included with the set:

2 x 25 kg

2 x 20 kg

2 x 15 kg

2 x 10 kg

4 x 5 kg

2 × 2.5 kg 

Are bumper plates necessary?

No, they’re not necessary for bodybuilders and powerlifters, but they can have it anyway. For weightlifters, and for people who do deadlifts for them, rubber bumper plates are a must to have.😄 They would produce the same amount of noise when dropped to iron plates, but your flooring and plates won’t get damaged under their influence.

What should be the gap between the barbell sleeve and bumper plates?

Barbells exist in a variety of shapes and sizes, but the normal length for men is 7.2 feet and 6.5 feet for women. The gap between the two bumper plates placed on both ends is 4.3fts for the men’s barbell. 

Are iron weights better than rubber?

👍 Bumper plates, which are constructed of thick rubber or urethane, and can be dropped from above multiple times. Metal plates cannot be dropped since they are constructed of cast iron, steel, or chromium. Rubber plates are metal plates that have been coated with a thin layer of rubber, that give them a bounce and high durability from abusive use.

Where to get weight plates for cheap in India?

There aren’t any cheap but quality products in the market, but still, you can check your local directory, do a google search or find some manufacturers on IndiaMART and negotiate a better deal.

Remember to only buy an Olympic size plate, with a center diameter of 50MM, and not confuse bumper plates with Olympic weight plates India. 

With that said, I turn it over to you. What do you think of bumper plates after reading this blog?🙄 Do you plan on getting some regular training bumpers or some more expensive competition ones?


Regardless, let me know if you think in the comment section below.

➡️ Check out the Best barbell in India blog next if you’re interested in more equipment guides. 

Stay Strong. Keep Lifting. 

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Rishabh Shrivastava

Hi, I'm Rishabh I take pride in making 'The Most Trusted Home Gym Equipment' blog for India. We are known for delivering unbiased and practical advice on fitness equipment for people with different age groups, sports, and budgets. If we recommend a product it's our trust in it, that it would serve you the best, or nothing.Please join our cause.🙌

2 thoughts on “Why use bumper plates? 5 Best Bumper Plates India

  1. That’s a perfect article i was looking for bumper plates thanks for such complete information about them👍😄

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