Enter your target weight and see exactly which plates to load on each side of the barbell.
Plate loading refers to the process of adding weight plates to a barbell to reach your desired training weight. A standard barbell weighs 45 lb (20 kg), and plates are added symmetrically to both sides. Because the weight is split evenly, you need to calculate how much to load on each side — which can be surprisingly tricky in the middle of a workout.
Mental math between sets is a distraction. A plate load calculator removes the guesswork so you can focus on your training. It is especially useful when working with percentages of your one-rep max, warming up with incremental jumps, or using an unfamiliar plate set (for example, kilograms instead of pounds).
In most commercial gyms you will find the following plates:
This calculator uses a greedy algorithm: it starts with the largest available plate and works down, fitting as many of each size as needed. If the target weight cannot be reached exactly with the available plates, it shows the closest achievable weight and the remaining difference.