What's The Best Way To Hold A Grip Comp?

[Jedd Johnson]

Some other options for plates Parris is make friends with someone who has one at work or buy a postal scale and have a scale guy calibrate it.

My post office doesn't have a scale for public use and the office is too busy to weigh all the stuff behind the counter. The nearest city with an available postal scale was too much a drive and I'd have to share the thing with 150,000 other people. Sometimes living in larger cities makes things harder to accomplish yourself. Things tend to become service based, not so much DIY.

GOod point. Chris and I live in small towns, so it has helped out in that regard.

[33wes]

If you know someone at a local hospital who is well connected, you might see if they can find out for you. Some larger hospitals do so, as they have numerous regular scales and normally at least one scale for huge people.

[Mikael Siversson]

Parris,

Another alternative is to buy enough certfied plates (eg Eleiko competition plates), with all the smaller ones included (i.e., 0.25k, 0.5k, 1.25k etc) to equal the heaviest item you are going to weigh. You can buy a good quality (but non-certified) post-office type scale that can handle weights up to say 25-30k. These would cost about 1/10th of a that of a certified scale (maybe $150-200). You can now calibrate your scale using the certified weights and use the data to weigh non-certified items (plates, 2HP set up, collars etc.). For example, let's say that a 45lb (nominal weight) weighs 22.73k on your scale. You then place eg 22.75 k of certfied weights on the scale. Lets say the scale shows 22.63k. You can then assign 22.73/22.63x22.75=22.85k to your 45lb plate. Repeat with a certified 23.00k and make sure you get the same result. The advantage of having certified plates is that it makes it easier to keep track of the results (as opposed to having to remember if someone used the 19.89k plate or the 20,11k one). In the long run I think we will move towards the use of certified plates.

I wish I could afford enough Competition Eleiko (or other comp) plates to have them for a contest. We always use Andrews Eleiko comp set for Axle but the plates are too big a diameter (Bumpers) for the 2 HP - that will require Powerlifting plates for it. If you have those available - I am envious.

Eleiko's 10k plates are great for the 2HP as they are very thin. By the way, Eleiko gear is much, much cheaper in the US than anywhere else. I pay about twice as much for their stuff here in Oz. They are even cheaper to buy in the US than they are in Sweden!