A modern homage to the old school deep dish Zuver plates. If you want to add some pizzaz to your lifting, hoist a pair or two of these bad boys. They feel great, sound fantastic when racked home, and look as good as can be, especially if you give them a little paint-pen treatment to make the figure pop!

These plates are famous as the first custom plates of the York milled series and their success convinced York to start making other custom forgings. These plates were produced in the 1990s for the legendary hardcore Iron Island Gym owned by Dr. Ken Leistner, in Oceanside, NY. The plates were painted in a very unique lavender color, which was actually an error at the York factory but is now iconic. Here is some history from Dr. Ken himself: “Let me give you two answers. I had badgered Jan Dellinger of York, who in turn, teamed up with me to badger Vic Standish who was President of York at the time, to make custom plates for us. To this point in time, though it seems like a no-brainer now, York had not customized plates for anyone. I thought it was a natural for the various collegiate strength programs and Jan, of course, agreed. York was, at the time, York, and did not embrace innovation. Finally, the Univ. of Hawaii talked Vic into "trying" to make a customized 45-pound plate and they were beautiful: black York 45, lettered with the Hawaii "H" with a rainbow emanating from it as per their athletic dept. logo of the time (1992). A light bulb sort of went on and Vic and the others down there said, "Yeah, this could work" and they agreed to make a mold for us at Iron Island Gym and I had 230 "Iron Island" 45s made. With our clientele, we actually needed that many! We wound up having them painted in the York factory, up to then, limited to black or what they called "hammer-tone blue", with what they called "Dr. Ken Purple," but it was actually lavender because it was the only purple they had or could get at the time. We had asked for and expected "purple" but the plates were alas, lavender. Thank goodness all of the pro athletes and competitive lifters we had as well as the bikers and area tough guys who all called our place their training home, kept the reputation for toughness up or we could have been a laughing stock."

These gorgeous vintage plates were created by Adrien Gagnon (1924-2011) in the 1950s and 60s in Quebec, Canada. Gagnon was a pioneering Quebecois enthusiast of physical culture; starting out as a bodybuilder himself in the 1930s-40s, inspired by famous strongmen of the time, he later shifted to producing weightlifting equipment, then became a bodybuilding publisher and promoter, famously going up against the monopoly the Weiders held over the industry at the time. Later in life he shifted again and created a successful line of supplements. Throughout his life he was a diehard champion of Francophone culture and Canadian national pride. The Gagnon plate castings are clean and crisp. They were originally released in seafoam green and French blue metallic paints. This brand eventually was repackaged as Atlas Barbell, which continued to release plates in the 1970s and 80s.

Gibson vintage crosshub plates are highly sought after by vintage collectors. A pair of nice condition 45s will cost between $4500-5500. The tall crosshubs are great for hub lifting. John Gibson was an amazing man: he survived a gunshot wound to the chest sustained in WWII during the Battle of the Bulge, then came home to Arizona and starting getting involved in physical culture. He competed very successfully in weightlifting and bodybuilding competitions. He made fitness and gymnastics gear, mostly selling to University athletics programs in Arizona and on the West Coast. That is where most Gibson plates are found these days. Their value comes from the age (1960s) and relative scarcity of the plates, despite the comparatively rough casting of most when compared to similarly old plates by Jackson, Weider, Paramount, etc. Cracks, chips, and filling defects are fairly common in these plates. My pair was chrome plated long ago by a previous owner, but that plating is now eroded in many spots.

These vintage plates hail from Sweden and were made in the 1960s. They are highly prized by vintage collectors. Value is of course entirely subjective but to me these are absolutely stunning and beautiful. They are very accurate in weight and cleanly cast with crisp lettering. Differentiated from Gen 2 by the horizontal dashes at the plate equator.

I have relatively low confidence in the absolute accuracy of this inexpensive tool, but that is pretty irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. It is close enough to give a good idea of where someone's grip strength is at. I keep it in my clinic exam room, along with a chart of expected value ranges by age, and use it to spark conversations about exercise and longevity with my patients. Sometimes they surprise me and crush the thing impressively; more often than not, it highlights their evolving weakness and risk for frailty, which helps undermine my exercise recommendations and hopefully motivates them to get more active.

I have the 2 inch post version and it is a workhorse. I have it loaded to the gills and it is perfectly stable. A very economical way to organize your weights.

inexpensive to the point of nearly being disposable. These make good filler weights to round out your needs. One particularly useful feature is that the 45s are only 17 inches diameter, whereas most modern 45s are 17 1/2 inches wide. This makes them useful for slight deficit deadlifts, or if you put a pair of normal 45s on the bar first, then these can be added or removed for subsequent sets without needing a bar jack. They are not particularly accurate and can be off by a couple of pounds, but fortunately they are usually on the heavy side rather than light.