Why the Calculated Weight Isn't Always Loadable
The calculator says 113 kg. The bar takes 112.5 or 115. The gap is small, but it recurs every session — and on the lightest lifts it is the single most common reason progress stops.
Percentage-based loading has a contradiction built into it. A percentage is a continuous number and can be anything. A bar is not: it takes only the weights your gym's plates can actually assemble.
The program says 82.5 % of 137 kg, which is 113.02 kg. No such bar exists. The question is what to do instead — and it matters more than it sounds.
The smallest step is twice the smallest plate
A bar is loaded symmetrically, so the smallest possible change is twice the smallest plate. That one fact determines everything else here.
In a typical gym where the smallest plate is 1.25 kg, the available weights on a 20 kg bar are:
20 – 22.5 – 25 – 27.5 – 30 – 32.5 – 35 – 37.5 – 40 – 42.5 – 45 …
A 2.5 kg step. If the gym has no 1.25 kg plates and the smallest is 2.5, the list becomes:
20 – 25 – 30 – 35 – 40 – 45 – 50 – 55 – 60 …
A 5 kg step — half the resolution. One pair of plates changed how finely the load can be adjusted, and this is why the plate calculator lists every achievable weight for the plates you have. That list is often more useful than loading any single target.
The same step is a different size at different loads
Here is the part that usually goes unnoticed. The step is constant in kilos, but relatively it is not.
| Load | 5 kg step | 2.5 kg step |
|---|---|---|
| 50 kg | 10.0 % | 5.0 % |
| 60 kg | 8.3 % | 4.2 % |
| 100 kg | 5.0 % | 2.5 % |
| 150 kg | 3.3 % | 1.7 % |
| 200 kg | 2.5 % | 1.3 % |
On a 200 kg deadlift, adding five kilos is 2.5 % — fine tuning. On a 50 kg overhead press the same five kilos is 10 %, which is an enormous jump. Nobody adds that in a week.
Which explains one of the most common frustrations in strength training: the overhead press and other light lifts stall first, and part of the reason is the plates rather than the lifter. They were not too weak to add five kilos — they should have been adding one and a half.
Why 5/3/1 uses two different increments
Good programs account for this. 5/3/1 raises the training max after each cycle by 2.5 kg on upper body lifts and 5 kg on lower body lifts.
That is not an arbitrary rule but the table above applied. The bench and the press move smaller absolute loads, so they need a smaller step to progress at the same relative rate as the squat and the deadlift.
The same principle carries to any program: size the increment to the lift's load, not to the calendar. As a rule of thumb, 1–2 % at a time is a workable rate once progress stops arriving on its own.
Micro plates solve it
If a lift is stuck because no increment of the right size exists, the answer is a smaller plate. Micro plates are sold in pairs, typically 0.25, 0.5 and 1 kg.
| Smallest plate | Step on the bar | Step at a 50 kg load |
|---|---|---|
| 2.5 kg | 5 kg | 10.0 % |
| 1.25 kg | 2.5 kg | 5.0 % |
| 0.5 kg | 1 kg | 2.0 % |
| 0.25 kg | 0.5 kg | 1.0 % |
A pair of 0.5 kg plates costs very little and makes overhead press progress possible again. It is probably the best value per euro in the whole gym — provided you buy your own, because commercial gyms rarely stock them.
There are other options. You can count the collars or a chain deliberately as part of the load. Some lifters spend an extra week at the same weight and add reps instead of kilos — which is the same idea implemented differently.
Round up or down?
When the calculator says 113.02 kg and the choices are 112.5 or 115, which one? It depends on what the set is for.
On heavy work sets, round down. A set near maximum is designed to land on a particular effort. Two and a half kilos over the mark at 90 % can turn a planned RPE 8 into an RPE 10, and then the session is doing something other than what was intended. Rounding down costs very little.
On light sets, round to nearest. In warm-ups and the 60–70 % range the direction makes no difference and is not worth thinking about.
Be consistent. This matters more than which direction you pick. If you round up sometimes and down other times, you can no longer tell whether the load changed or the rounding did when you compare sessions.
Plan the progression around weights that exist
The most practical way to avoid the whole problem is to plan progress directly around the weights your gym can assemble.
- Enter your gym's plates in the plate calculator. Deselect anything the gym does not have.
- Look at the list of achievable weights. That list is the complete set of options — nothing else is available.
- Pick the block's weights from the list. Write them out in advance: 100 – 102.5 – 105 – 107.5.
- Work out the percentages afterwards. Now the percentages describe what you actually lift, instead of a figure that gets re-rounded every session.
This inverts the usual order, and that inversion is the whole point. Normally the percentage comes first and gets rounded second. Done the other way round, there is no rounding at all.
Summary
The smallest change possible on a bar is twice the smallest plate: 2.5 kg with 1.25 kg plates, and 5 kg without them. That same step is relatively four times larger on a 50 kg press than on a 200 kg deadlift, which is why the light lifts stall first.
There are two fixes: smaller plates, or planning the progression around the weights that exist. Round down on heavy sets, round to nearest on light ones, and stick to whichever rule you chose.
The plate calculator's list of achievable weights will show you exactly what your gym's plates can make.