How Many Plates Do You Really Need for Your Home Gym?

Building a Sensible Plate Set for Your Home or Garage Gym

Buying plates for a home gym sounds simple until you realise you’ve either not got enough weight for heavy pulls or you’ve bought half a ton of metal you never use. The trick isn’t “as many plates as possible”, it’s the right mix of sizes and pairs for how strong you are now and where you’re heading. In this guide, we break down sensible plate sets for real home and garage lifters so you can stop guessing and start lifting.

One of the easiest ways to overspend on a home gym is also one of the most boring: weight plates.

Most people guess. They buy a random bundle, end up with eight 5 kg plates, two 20s, and realise very quickly that deadlifting is a faff and bench jumps are either tiny or huge. Others go the other way and buy enough metal to kit out a small commercial gym when they’re still deadlifting 80 kg.

You don’t need guesswork. You need a simple way to decide:

• How much total weight you actually need
• Which sizes to get
• How many pairs make sense for your bar, your lifts, and your space

This guide is aimed squarely at home and garage gym lifters. By the end, you’ll know exactly what a sensible plate set looks like for you.

First Principles: How to Think About Plates

Weight plates do two jobs:

1. Let you reach the heaviest lifts you plan to do at home
2. Let you make sensible jumps between those lifts

Everything starts from two numbers:

• The weight of your bar (usually 20 kg for a standard Olympic bar, sometimes 15 kg or less for shorter bars)
• The heaviest squat or deadlift you realistically expect to hit in the next few years in your home gym, not in some fantasy version of yourself

It’s normally cheaper and less annoying to buy slightly ahead of your current strength than to cheap out now and replace everything in a year. But there’s a line between “planning ahead” and “buying enough plates for a powerlifting team you don’t have”.

The aim is to sit on the smart side of that line.

Plate Sizes and Types (Keep It Simple)

In the UK, most plate sets revolve around the same core sizes: 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 kg.

You don’t need every size to run an effective home gym.

Two basic types show up in most setups:

• Bumper plates – thick rubber plates, all (or mostly) the same diameter. Designed to be dropped, kinder to your bar and floor, quieter than bare metal.
• Steel/iron plates – thinner, usually cheaper per kilo, but noisier and less forgiving if you’re lifting on marginal flooring.

Most home gyms end up with a mix: bumpers for the main working weight on big lifts, then smaller steel plates and micro-plates to handle the fine tuning. That keeps noise and bar wear under control while still letting you load heavy without running out of sleeve space.

You don’t need to obsess over material science here. You just need enough weight, in the right sizes, that fits on your bar and fits your goals.

Recommended Plate Sets by Strength Level

To keep this practical, let’s break things into three broad categories for home and garage lifters:

• Level 1 – Beginner / General Training
  Squat and deadlift up to around 120–140 kg
• Level 2 – Getting Strong
  Squat and deadlift up to around 180–200 kg
• Level 3 – Heavy Lifter at Home
  Squat and deadlift 220 kg and beyond

Here’s what those look like in actual plate pairs (excluding the bar):

Those numbers aren’t sacred. They’re sensible, realistic targets for a home or garage gym that wants enough metal to progress without drowning in plates.

Now let’s walk through what each level actually feels like.

Level 1: The Plate Set for Most Home Lifters

Level 1 covers the majority of people setting up a home gym.

If you’re new to lifting, or you’re aiming for solid strength rather than competitive powerlifting totals, this is almost certainly plenty.

With:

• 2 × 20 kg
• 2 × 15 kg
• 2 × 10 kg
• 2 × 5 kg
• 2 × 2.5 kg
• 2 × 1.25 kg

…you can comfortably load squats and deadlifts into the 120–140 kg range, and press with lots of flexibility.

A few quick examples on a 20 kg bar:

• Bar (20) + 2 × 20 = 60 kg
• Bar + 2 × 20 + 2 × 15 = 90 kg
• Bar + 2 × 20 + 2 × 15 + 2 × 10 = 110 kg
• Bar + 2 × 20 + 2 × 15 + 2 × 10 + 2 × 5 = 120 kg

You’ve still got your 2.5s and 1.25s to make smaller jumps. That’s enough to take most people from “just starting” to “actually strong” without feeling bottlenecked.

If you never plan to go beyond that sort of loading, you can train for years on this set.

Level 2: For People Who Know They’ll Get Stronger

Level 2 is for lifters who are already pulling around 140 kg and know that 180–200 kg is very much on the cards in the near future.

The big change here is 4 × 20 kg instead of 2 × 20. That extra pair of 20s makes life much easier on heavy days. Instead of stacking 15s and 10s to chase bigger numbers, you can rely on 20s for the bulk of the load and use the smaller plates for fine tuning.

On a 20 kg bar, that plate set looks like this in practice:

• Bar + 4 × 20 = 100 kg
• Add 2 × 15 = 130 kg
• Add 2 × 10 = 150 kg
• Add 2 × 5 = 160 kg

From there, you can push up with 2.5s and 1.25s. With a bit of stacking, you’re suddenly in very comfortable territory for 180–200 kg pulls and squats without the sleeves being buried under a mess of light plates.

If you’re somewhere around intermediate level, have been lifting a while, and are committed to getting stronger at home, Level 2 is usually the smartest target.

Level 3: Heavy Lifting at Home (And Whether You Actually Need It)

Level 3 is where most home gym owners start overestimating themselves.

The set:

• 6 × 20 kg
• 2 × 15 kg
• 2 × 10 kg
• 2 × 5 kg
• 2 × 2.5 kg
• 2 × 1.25 kg

…is designed for people who really will squat and deadlift north of 220 kg at home, not just talk about it.

With six 20s, you’re less reliant on stacking lots of smaller plates to build big weights. That’s useful because bumpers are thick and sleeves are only so long. If you want, say, 240 kg on the bar, having more 20s makes it doable without half the load being 10s and 5s.

The key question is simple: will you honestly use that much weight in your garage, consistently, or will your very top-end heavy work still happen in a commercial gym?

If you’re a competitive powerlifter, very strong already, and determined to train almost entirely at home, Level 3 makes sense. If not, Level 2 is usually more than enough and far better for your budget and floor space.

Bumpers vs Steel in a Home or Garage Gym

Once you know how much weight you need, you still have to decide what kind.

Bumpers are the go-to when:

• You’re lifting over concrete but have decent rubber flooring down
• You care about protecting your bar and floor
• You’re doing Olympic lifts or you regularly drop deadlifts from the top, even if it’s only occasionally

Purely steel or iron plates make sense when:

• Noise isn’t a big issue
• You need thinner plates to fit more weight on the bar
• Budget is tight and you’re not dropping bars from height

Most home setups work well with a hybrid approach. For example:

• Bumper 20s and 15s as your main working plates
• Steel 10s, 5s, 2.5s and 1.25s for topping up and finer jumps

That way, the bulk of the load is rubber (kinder to everything), but you still have thin plates to keep higher loads manageable on the sleeves.

Small Plates and Micro-Plates: Don’t Skip Them

The least glamorous plates in the gym are sometimes the most important for long-term progress.

The 1.25 kg and 2.5 kg pairs matter more as you move beyond the beginner stage. Pressing jumps are where you feel this most. Going from 60 kg to 70 kg on bench is a big leap. Going from 60 to 62.5 kg is manageable. Your joints are far happier with the latter.

Micro-plates (0.5 kg or 0.25 kg) aren’t mandatory, but they’re handy once you’re strong enough that even 2.5 kg jumps feel chunky. At that point, slow, steady progression is your friend, and tiny plate increments let you keep chipping away.

If you’re tempted to save money by skipping the small plates entirely, don’t. Big jumps look macho; small jumps actually get you stronger.

Common Home Gym Plate Mistakes

A few patterns show up over and over when people buy plates for garages and spare rooms.

One is too many light plates, not enough 20s. You don’t need four pairs of 5s and 2.5s if you only own one pair of 20s. Heavier lifts will feel like you’re building a Lego tower on each sleeve.

Another is ignoring small plates entirely. That pushes you into 10 kg or 5 kg jumps on pressing movements, which is fine for about two weeks and then stalls you.

A third is going all bumper, all the time, then discovering you can’t physically fit enough plates on the bar for where you want to go. Bumpers are thick. That’s part of the point. But think ahead if you know you’ll be chasing big numbers.

Finally, there’s the classic of buying way beyond your realistic strength level. If your current deadlift is 100 kg, you probably don’t need 260 kg worth of plates in the garage tomorrow.

Buy in Phases, Not All at Once

You don’t have to nail your “forever” plate setup on day one.

A smarter approach is to buy in phases:

• Phase 1: Get enough plates to cover your current lifts plus one strength level above. That usually means starting at something like Level 1 or a light version of Level 2.
• Phase 2: As your lifts genuinely push the top end of what you own, add another pair or two of 20s or 15s. Don’t just grab more random sizes; expand the backbone of your set.

This spreads the cost, lets you see how you actually train at home, and stops you filling shelves with plates you never touch.

If you know you’re serious and committed, you can aim slightly higher from the start. Just keep it honest.

Plates That Match Your Reality (Not Your Ego)

Weight plates aren’t exciting. Nobody brags about their plate maths on Instagram. But in a home or garage gym, getting them right quietly decides how far you can go.

You want:

• Enough total weight to cover your heaviest realistic lifts
• Plate sizes that let you make sensible jumps
• A mix of plates that fits on the bar, fits your space and fits your budget

FAQs

1. How do I know how many plates I actually need?
Start from your heaviest planned squat or deadlift at home and work backwards. Add your bar weight (usually 20 kg), then build a plate set that comfortably reaches that number with room to grow and allows small jumps in between.

2. Is it better to buy a big bundle or build my plate set gradually?
For most home lifters, it’s better to buy in phases. Get enough plates for your current strength plus one level above, then add extra 20s or 15s later as you genuinely need them instead of overbuying upfront.

3. Do I really need 25 kg plates for a home gym?
Not usually. For most home setups, multiple 20 kg plates are more practical. They’re easier to handle, stack well on the bar and work with standard plate trees and storage. 25s are only really useful if you’re lifting very heavy and short on sleeve space.

4. How many 20 kg plates should I buy to start with?
For beginners and general lifters, two 20 kg plates is enough to start. If you’re already reasonably strong or plan to hit 180-200 kg deadlifts at home, four 20s makes life much easier. Six 20s is typically only needed by genuinely heavy lifters training almost entirely at home.

5. Are small plates like 1.25 kg and 2.5 kg really that important?
Yes. Small plates are what let you make sensible weight jumps, especially on pressing movements. Going up by 2.5-5 kg total is far more manageable (and joint-friendly) than jumping 10 kg at a time.

6. Should I buy only bumper plates for my garage gym?
Not necessarily. Bumpers are great for noise control and protecting your bar and floor, but they’re thick. Many lifters do best with a mix: a few pairs of bumper 20s/15s and thinner steel plates in smaller sizes so you don’t run out of sleeve space.