The Change Plate

Strength is built in small steps, and the smallest bumper plates add 10 kg to a bar at a time. Going from 60 to 70 kg is a wall. Going to 61 is a step. Change plates are the small discs that make that step possible: a 0.5 kg plate on each side, and the bar is 1 kg heavier. They fit every Olympic bar, sit alongside the bigger plates behind the SlideLock, and work on their own with the Dumbler Olympic. They're polyurethane with a stainless steel hub, from 0.5 to 5 kg, and sold in pairs.

Progress, one kilo at a time.

• Use: Small load increases on barbells and dumbbells
• Type: Olympic change plate
• Sold as: Pair
• Weights: 0.5, 1.25, 2.5, 5 kg
• Smallest step: 1 kg per bar (0.5 kg each side)
• Material: Polyurethane
• Hub: Stainless steel
• Fits: 50 mm Olympic bars and the Dumbler Olympic; shaped for the SlideLock
• Warranty: 5 years

For about a century the barbell didn't change, and neither did its weak point: the collar. It's the part that holds the plates in place, and in practice it pinches fingers, slips mid-set and goes missing. In 2018, a small team in Oslo built the collar into the bar. SlideLock is a titanium slider and a magnet. You load the plate, flick the slider and lift, and there's nothing to lose. Every piece in the range is built around it. The name comes from Odin's spear, the one that never missed.