if one was to move between a standard and olypmic weight set what would the weight differences be? also, i find that my home town gym weights feel like a standard set, (heavier) than the set at my university. bear in mind that my home town is pathetic and the weights look like they’ve never been used. my ego has been a little dissapointed this week because i’ve had to drop my weights since being home.
It’s probably alot like this: Which is heavier? A pound of feathers? Or a pound of gold? Actually, it probably has something to do with the balance of the weights. I haven’t used standard weights for a long time, so if I remember correctly, the weights tend to be closer together on the bar than an olympic set.
The ONLY difference of merit is the rotating collars on the Olympic sets. Why is it there? To allow the bar to rotate independent of the weights. Olympic movements all rotate the bar when throwing the weight overhead. Now, if the weights had to spin with the bar, you’d have one HUGE amount of angular momentum to overcome with your hands. Not something I’d like to attempt. With the rotating collars, you rotate the BAR, and only have to overcome the angualr momentum of the BAR, and not the weight (though you still need to hold the weight, it’s not rotating).
Otherwise, there’s no difference in the weight.