Plates look like the simplest thing in a gym. They're a lump of weight with a hole in the middle. And yet the Jordan plate range runs from a £5 tri-grip disc to a £5,000 urethane set, which suggests there's rather more to it.

There is, and it comes down to one question: do you drop the bar? Answer that honestly and the choice narrows to two or three options immediately.

This guide covers every Jordan plate type we stock, what each is actually for, what it costs, and how much weight you should buy to start with.

Start here: do you drop the bar?

If yes — deadlifting heavy and letting go, cleans, snatches, anything where the bar comes down fast — you need bumper plates. Full rubber, all the same diameter regardless of weight, designed to be dropped from overhead. Anything else will damage your floor, your bar, or itself.

If no — you squat, bench, press and lower the bar under control — tri-grip or deep dish plates are a better buy. They're more compact, cheaper per kilo, and you fit far more weight on the sleeve before you run out of room.

Everything below is a refinement of that one decision.

Bumper plates — for anyone who drops the bar

Solid rubber, uniform 450mm diameter at every weight, so the bar always starts at the correct height from the floor whether it's loaded with 20kg or 200kg. That consistency is why they're standard for Olympic lifting.

Coloured Rubber Bumper Plates use the standard colour coding — red 25kg, blue 20kg, yellow 15kg, green 10kg — so you can read the bar at a glance from across the room. Available individually from £26, or as a complete 150kg set.

Black Rubber Bumper Plates are the same construction in plain black, from £26 per plate. If you'd rather your gym looked understated than looked like a competition platform, these are the ones.

Coloured Rubber Bumper PlatesFrom £26 per plateView product →Black Rubber Bumper PlatesFrom £26 per plateView product →

Buying bumpers as a set

Buying individually gets expensive and you'll almost always end up short somewhere. Two sets cover most home gyms properly:

The 150kg Coloured Rubber Bumper Set at £672 is the straightforward option — a full colour-coded spread that takes you from an empty bar to a loaded one.

The HG Black Rubber Bumper Set, also £672, gives you 2x5kg, 2x10kg, 2x15kg, 2x20kg and 2x25kg in black with a coloured fleck. Same weight, quieter aesthetic, slightly finer jumps at the bottom end — which matters more than people expect when you're adding 5kg to a press.

150kg Coloured Rubber Bumper SetFrom £672View product →HG Black Rubber Bumper Set (5–25kg)From £672View product →

Tri-grip plates — for controlled lifting

Three cut-out handles moulded into the plate, so you can carry and load them one-handed without pinching your fingers. Anyone who has loaded a bar for years appreciates this far more than it sounds.

Rubber Tri-Grip Plates start at £5 for the small discs and run up to full sets. Rubber-encased so they're quiet, floor-friendly and won't rust — the sensible default for a home gym that doesn't do Olympic lifting.

Urethane Tri-Grip Plates start at £7. Urethane is the harder-wearing compound: it resists tearing, doesn't smell, doesn't mark walls, and holds its colour. In a commercial gym it's the difference between plates that look tired in three years and plates that look new in ten.

Rubber Tri-Grip Olympic PlatesFrom £5 per plateView product →Urethane Tri-Grip Olympic PlatesFrom £7 per plateView product →

Deep dish plates — the traditional option

Cast iron with a deep central hub. Narrower than rubber plates, so you get considerably more weight onto a sleeve before running out of room — which is exactly why serious powerlifters use them. The Deep Dish Olympic Set from £840 gives you a full 4x2.5kg, 6x5kg, 4x10kg, 2x15kg, 2x20kg and 2x25kg spread.

These are not for dropping. Lower the bar and they'll last a lifetime.

Deep Dish Olympic Plate SetFrom £840View product →Urethane Dual Grip Olympic SetFrom £1,050View product →

The Classic sets — complete builds in one order

If you'd rather buy the whole thing at once, the two Classic sets are the cleanest way to do it.

Classic Rubber Olympic Plate Set — from £844. Rubber-encased discs across a full weight spread. The all-rounder, and what we'd put in most serious home gyms.

Classic Urethane Olympic Plate Set — from £739. Urethane construction, the buy-once option. Worth noting the entry configuration comes in below the rubber set, so if you were assuming urethane always costs more, check both before you decide.

Classic Rubber Olympic Plate SetFrom £844View product →Classic Urethane Olympic Plate SetFrom £739View product →

Competition plates — calibrated to the gram

Competition plates are calibrated: a 25kg plate weighs 25kg to within a few grams, not the ±2% a standard plate is allowed. If you compete in powerlifting or weightlifting, training on calibrated plates means the number on the bar in the gym is the number on the bar on the platform.

Calibrated Colour Rubber Competition Set — £1,140 for 2x10kg, 2x15kg, 2x20kg and 2x25kg. IWF colour coding, calibrated tolerances, rubber construction.

Urethane Competition Set — £1,350 for the same spread in urethane. The step up for a facility where they're used daily.

For everyone who doesn't compete: this is a genuinely lovely thing to own and completely unnecessary. Buy bumpers and put the difference into a better rack.

Calibrated Colour Rubber Competition SetFrom £1,140View product →Urethane Competition Plate SetFrom £1,350View product →

Rubber or urethane — which should you actually buy?

The honest answer for a home gym: rubber. It performs almost identically, costs less, and in a gym used by two or three people it will never wear out.

Urethane earns its premium in three situations: a commercial floor where plates are handled hundreds of times a week; a gym inside your house where the faint rubber smell of a new set would bother you; or a build where you want the plates to still look immaculate in a decade.

What urethane does not buy you is better training. Don't let a spec sheet talk you out of spending that money on plates you'll actually use.

How much weight should you buy?

The most common mistake we see is buying exactly enough for today. You will out-lift a 100kg plate set faster than you expect, and topping up piecemeal costs more than buying properly once.

Whatever you choose, buy plenty of small plates — 1.25kg and 2.5kg. Progress on a press comes in 2.5kg jumps, not 20kg ones, and running out of small change is what stalls people.

What else you'll need

A bar that deserves them. Match the plates to a bar built for the load — our Jordan Olympic bars guide walks through the range.

Somewhere to store them. Plates left on the floor get tripped over, damage the floor, and make the room feel like a building site. A weight tree fixes it for £228.

Flooring underneath. Non-negotiable if you're buying bumpers. Rubber flooring is what stands between a dropped 100kg and your concrete.

JORDAN Olympic Weight TreeFrom £228View product →Gym & Studio FlooringFrom £56.50View range →

If you'd rather have the bar, the plates and the storage specified together, The Olympic Lifting Setup packages them as a working whole.

The Olympic Lifting SetupFrom £2,500View package →All Weight PlatesFrom £26View range →

Frequently asked questions

Which Jordan weight plates should I buy for a home gym? If you drop the bar — deadlifts, cleans, snatches — buy bumper plates; the 150kg Coloured Rubber Bumper Set at £672 covers most home gyms. If you lower the bar under control, rubber tri-grip plates or the Classic Rubber Set from £844 are a better buy: more compact and cheaper per kilo.

What's the difference between rubber and urethane plates? Urethane is the harder-wearing compound — it resists tearing, doesn't smell, doesn't mark walls and holds its colour for years. Rubber performs almost identically and costs less. For a home gym used by two or three people, rubber is the sensible choice; urethane earns its premium on a commercial floor.

Do I need bumper plates? Only if the bar leaves your hands. Bumpers are built to be dropped and are all the same diameter so the bar always starts at the right height. If you squat, bench and press without dropping the bar, tri-grip or deep dish plates give you more weight on the sleeve for less money.

What are calibrated competition plates for? They're manufactured to within a few grams of their stated weight, rather than the ±2% a standard plate allows. That matters if you compete, because the number on the bar in training matches the number on the platform. For everyone else they're a luxury, not a requirement.

How many kilos of plates do I need? Around 100–150kg for a newer lifter, 150–200kg once you're squatting and pulling over bodyweight, and 200kg or more if you deadlift heavy. Buy plenty of 1.25kg and 2.5kg plates whatever your level — that's where progress actually happens.

Are Jordan plates good quality? Yes. Jordan has supplied commercial gyms since 1989 and the plates are specified for facilities where they're dropped and handled all day. Our Jordan Fitness review covers where the brand is worth the money and where it isn't.

The bottom line

Drop the bar? Buy bumpers. Don't? Buy tri-grip or deep dish and get more weight on the sleeve for less. Choose rubber unless you're fitting out a commercial floor. Buy more small plates than you think you need, and buy enough total weight to progress for a year rather than a month.

Browse the full weight plate range or the wider Jordan Fitness collection. If you're not sure which set matches your bar and your lifts, tell us what you're training for and we'll spec it — it's a lot cheaper than getting it wrong.

Building the whole thing from scratch? Start with our complete home strength gym guide.

The Full Jordan Fitness RangeSee range for pricingView range →All Olympic BarbellsFrom £140View range →

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