Garage Gym Reviews: The Making of the The Strength Co. Plate

[@BasementBrandon]

This was a good listen.

[@thestrengthco]

a few months old, need to update on all we've learned.

[@Relentless0neFPS]

I agree with Brandon. It was a fun story to listen to. I’m sure there was some serious stressful moments to get to this time you made this video. I hope you have great success. Thanks for sharing!

[@philsgaragegym]

I’ve watched several interviews and videos about Grant and Strength Co and I believe that this is the magnum opus. Well done, Coop and Grant!

[@simpledude9539]

This is great! This helped me see you as a person (and a team behind him) rather than some giant business that should “gimme a discount.” Thanks for doing this interview, putting in the work, and making great products - looking forward to placing my order now.

[@irongeek7933]

I love your plates and they are a perfect match to my old York plates. Whenever I add plates, you guys are the first in line. I still love York, their plates now are fantastic, but yours are just as good and made in the USA. So you get my nod when I want to buy plates.

[@MatroniFitness]

loved hearing his story and legit struggles that he faced while building up the business. highly considering getting some of his plates next time i need more over rogues deep dish.

[@Greengoat58]

Excellent company review, I myself became a Strength Co. customer just a few weeks ago. As a 22- plus year military retiree (Navy/Marine Corp Team) I believe in "Buy American" and also I support Veteran owned companies. I know this means paying more at times. keeping jobs here in America and bringing back jobs should be in everyone's mind. And, yes I was one of those guys that asked for a discount code. But, It did not keep me from making a purchase. I love quality products that are made in our great Nation.

[@thestrengthco]

Thank you for believing in our product David! And for your service! Semper Fidelis!

[@TheFirearmada]

Great story of the American get to it spirit. Glad I have picked your company to get my weights from. Actually as I was watching this video I got my shipping tracking numbers, Can't wait. Semper Fi.

[@thestrengthco]

Thanks for your order! Nassim Taleb: store.thestrength.co/collections/books/products/antifragile-by-nassim-nicholas-taleb?variant=32029371531318

[@731Woodworks]

Awesome information and those plates are SWEET!

[@aaroncarmichael8263]

Great video and story. I will definitely be getting some Strength Co. Plates in the future

[@scottcharlton129]

Fascinating story. I’m now a fan of Strength Co. Thanks Coop.

[@jonathanmcgrath6144]

I finally out-grew my starter weight set, new strength co plates come tomorrow! Stoked to get stronger with them!

[@vintageweightspgh]

Such a great personal and professional story. I coudln't agree more with Grant's views on militart readiness. Great company.

[@InvisibleHotdog]

Hoping you come out with more on the process, like the barbells that you've got now.

[@hydroaegis6658]

You've earned my support. I'll spend the extra for your plates when I reach my next 45.

[@thestrengthco]

Great to hear !

[@markhalstead2386]

This was a great interview. I love the plates and hope to place an order relatively soon. Just need to save a few more dollars. If your 45, 35 and 25 lb plates are as nice as the smaller plates, they will be awesome. I love that I can get more plates on a storage pin with The Strength Co plates versus anyone's deep dish plates (mine are Rogue).

[@thestrengthco]

Common sentiment amongst consumers. Thin is good!

[@ricklealmora]

Hey Grant. Enjoyed the video, I'm still using the first Steele squat stand and wooden bench and love them, will be upgrading to "the general" soon.

[@thestrengthco]

Early adopter! Thanks Richard !

[@chunks96ss]

Gonna buy these plates for my home gym

[@mistarmer]

Damn I’m excited for mine to show up. Great looking plates and USA made. Semper Fi!

[@Smith-re6jq]

Worth every minute

[@alrogan1038]

Great story what an experience thanks for sharing.

[@thestrengthco]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@jeffzavatsky1455]

Thanks to Basement Brandon and Coop I will be purchasing a set of Strength Co. Plates. American made Veteran company yes please

[@porkrindrob]

Great interview. I have a set of this 2.5 and 5 lb plates. Good stuff!

[@thestrengthco]

Thanks for your order!

[@LukesGarageGym]

Great listen here bro! Freakin love my garage gym so I love any of this content

[@thestrengthco]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@ClarksvilleBarbellClub]

Enjoyed the chat!

[@arymniak1]

Great story. I’m planning to be a customer

[@adambendorf828]

interesting details!

[@swimhack]

Okay, okay, I'll play

[@powerbar8991]

You are freakin awesome bro

[@scants2874]

Yeah buddy!

[@mistarmer]

A video on your barbell line would be awesome.

[@thestrengthco]

What do you want to know? They’re the best bars in America…still need us to film?

[@mistarmer]

@@thestrengthco 😂😂😂. That pretty much says it all. I’m sure you have a ton of free time to make videos 🤘🏼

[@thestrengthco]

Basement Brandon just did a pretty in depth one.

[@mistarmer]

@@thestrengthco I purchased and received both of your 45lb/ 20kg bars last week. I figured that I might as well use Brandon’s discount. Both bars are LEGIT!

[@thestrengthco]

@@mistarmer glad you like them!

[@carps_gym]

Yep!

[@JWLLMZ]

Please tell me you don't actually drive a nissan leaf

[@Rack979]

Any 55 pound plates in the future? Just add 0.1156 pounds of tape over the numbers and they could double as 25kg plates for the non-lovers of Freedom Units! Or do I need to make my own with shrinkwrap. :(

[@thestrengthco]

We never say no to anything anymore. But what is the function of a 55er?

[@Rack979]

@@thestrengthco "But what is the function of the 55er" I had to think about this for a while, not because it was hard to find one, but there was so many aspects to choose from. I think my main goal was to get a cost-effective set of accurate plates that would span every 5 pound increment (probably half or a quarter of that, but for this post, we'll go with that), with cost-effective expansion. Here's my scenario. I want 545 pounds (there's a reason) in plates. What should I get that fulfills the above criteria? I'll lay out two sets and pick one. But first, what affects the cost of plates? I don't really know on the input side, but I can see that Strength Co. plates, like most accurate plates cost more per pound the smaller they get. So our chooser would want to take that into account, and pick heavier plates when possible. The ideal would be to save plates by picking bigger ones, or clever combinations so that you eliminate a pair of plates needed entirely. First, why not by "off-the-shelf"? Surely the 175 pound Strength Co. set will do! Well, besides being under the target weight total, it doesn't meet one other criterion, it doesn't cover every 5 pound increment (I'll spoil it, try to put 20 pounds on per side). So you have to pick another plate. What do you add? You could pick 2.5, but that's expensive per pound, and you miss 22.5 pounds per side. 25 doesn't even address the issue. So you're left with either an extra 5 (like every 300 pound department store weight set) or an extra 10 (like the bigger Strength Co sets). Let's see what we can do with the sub-450mm plates. Sub-set #1 is {2.5, 5, 5, 10, 25} or 47.5 pounds per side. It covers everything, but there's a thing, that 2nd 5 pound plate is only used to make 20 and 22.5 pounds. Since this pile is 47.5 pounds, the biggest plate I'd ever pair it with would be 50 pounders, but those aren't popular in the 2" hole variety, so it gets paired with 45s. Since it's paired with 45s, 5,5,10,25 is redundant, just use another 45 pound plate! At least 35s can be used for 205, 210, 215 and 220 (the poundages right before 2 plates per side plus bar)! The 2nd 5s end up only being used to make 2 weights every 90 pounds, even more useless than the useless 35s. Sub-set # is {2.5, 5, 10, 10, 25} or 52.5 pounds per side. It also covers everything, and the 2nd 10 is used to make 20 and 22.5 pounds in addition to 45, 47.5, 50 and 52.5 pounds per side. Since everything up to 52.5 pounds per side is covered might as well go with a 55. Okay, time to buy these sets! I'm going to use the prices from "Hill Benniger Fitness", I'm sure you know it. Okay, I have a lot of the same things in each set, so the 2.5s, a pair of 5, pair of 10s and 25s that are common to both, won't even have to be priced. I just have to compare what's different between sets. So set #1 would need 5 pairs of 45s and a pair of 5s to hit the target weight. That's $58 for the 5s and $218 for one pair of 45s, comes out to $1148. Set 2 is already off to a bad start, 10s are $87, almost $30 behind after 1 plate. It gets worse. "Hill" sells his 55s for more than his 45s, $7 more! After 4 pairs of plates, that's another $28 in the hole for $57 behind. How many more of these 55s do we need? What's that, we're at 545? Really? 440 + 20 + 85 is indeed 545. As is 450 + 10 + 85 (set #1). So I don't have to buy a whole pair of big plates, saving $218 - $57 or $161 compared to set #1 (they had to pony up for that 5th pair of 45s, set #2 had to buy more expensive 10s and more expensive 450mm plates.) As for expansion, for $7 more my set gets 20 pounds bigger compared to buying 45s, enough said. Not only was it much cheaper, set #2 eliminated the 45 in addition to the 35, not too shabby! As for other functions, that's up to you. It could be the better option for pounds per inch of sleeve, deep dish, coated red, whatever! My favorite function is that it, the 55 pounder, is a "good enough" replacement for a 25kg plate. With a minimal {1.25, 2.5, 5, 5, 10} kg pile (I'm sure "Hill" has some in stock), and the 55s, you now have a "kilo plate" set. Though I much prefer lifting in Freedom Units.

[@thestrengthco]

@@Rack979 this is almost the amount of thought and detail used when Massenomics makes Lift Shorts and tries to price fairly! I hear your analysis. We find that FOR MOST people, an extra set of 10s gets the job done! Thanks for your interest in our products!

[@Rack979]

@@thestrengthco Only almost? I should have posted the unabridged version, with the Wolfram Alpha queries! Here's a taste for the 175 pound set: expand (1+x**5.0)(1+x**10.0)(1+x**20.0)(1+x**50.0)(1+x**90.0) Which gives an output of: 1 + x^5. + x^10. + x^15. + x^20. + x^25. + x^30. + x^35. + x^50. + x^55. + x^60. + x^65. + x^70. + x^75. + x^80. + x^85. + x^90. + x^95. + x^100. + x^105. + x^110. + x^115. + x^120. + x^125. + x^140. + x^145. + x^150. + x^155. + x^160. + x^165. + x^170. + x^175. I see some holes at x**40 and x**45 and symmetrically at x**130 and x**135! You can add a pair of 5s by changing (1+x**10.0) to (1+x**10.0+x**20.0) or a pair of 10s by changing (1+x**20.0) to (1+x**20.0+x**40.0).

[@markhalstead2386]

@@maggiekay7426 The do make 35s now.

[@Massenomics]

First??

[@thestrengthco]

Indeed. You get a pair of 45s. Or do you want 100s? Also, this might now seem rigged.

[@Massenomics]

@@thestrengthco lol we might have to pass the honor to the next lucky contestant out of a show of character. Just happy to know we won.

[@thestrengthco]

@@Massenomics Okay okay. EDGAR IS THE WINNER