T Nation

Minimum Bumper to Regular Plate Ratio?

Olympic Lifting
#1

I’m a strongman competitor and I own an axle (fat bar, probably about 70 lbs, since it’s solid, not hollow) and a pair of 10 kg bumpers.

Could I do axle C&P w significant weight if I were ONLY using the one pair of bumpers? In other words, could I put on the bumpers and then, say, three to four 25lb (regular, iron) plates each side for a total weight of 264-314 and do C&P, drop it from overhead, etc, or would that mess up the bumpers (what with so much weight coming down on a comparatively small surface area)? Would you say that for a given amount of weight there’s a minimum number of bumpers I should be using, or just as long as the other plates have a smaller diameter I’m ok?

I’m not too concerned about bending the bar, since it’s solid (famous last words) but dont want to screw up the bumpers. Thanks all

#2

Personally, I wouldn’t put too much faith in a pair of 10’s holding up if you’re repeatedly dropping them with that much weight on the bar.

#3

The general rule I use is keep the iron to a bare minimum. NEVER more iron than rubber. We only have 10lb., 5lb. and 2 1/2lb. iron. And I hate using the 10lb.

TNT