Rogue Fleck plate vs Technique plates

This is a comparison between the Rogue Fleck plate and the Technique plates including pros, cons and alternatives. Follow the links for more details

Which plates to get from Rogue?

This video discusses which plates you might want to buy for your home gym from Rogue Fitness. Good options are their bumper plates or simple cast iron plates if you want to save money. I personally own the Black training plates from rogue and like them a lot.

Overview and review of the Rogue Technique plates

The Rogue technique plates will set you back about $125 - $160 dollars. These plates are especially good to use for beginning weightlifters. This overview has originally been published in the article "Which rogue plates to buy" which you can find on this blog.

What else to consider from Rogue

Overview of the technique plates

Technique plates are special plates which have the same diameter of 450mm than regular competition plates but at a much lower weight. This is achieved by using high-density polyethylene Plastic (HDPE). These are the right plates to teach beginners, juniors or getting rehabbing athletes back to lifting. These plates combined with a technique bar can lower the weight of the bar for a beginner to 15kg to enter the sport of Olympic weightlifting. If you work a lot with children or very unfit beginners, this is a good plate to add to your arsenal.

The technique plates are available in red and white in 2.5kg, 5kg, 5lb, and 10lb versions. They have the following specs:

450mm Diameter
50.2mm Center Hole Diameter
Grooved edge for easier handling

Pros of the technique plates

Technique plates help to ease into the sport and to hone your lifts to perfection. If your gym or yourself are serious about Olympic weightlifting they will be a great addition to your arsenal to grind on technique without wreaking your body.

Cons of the technique plates

These plates have a very narrow and specialized use case. If you do not enter the realm of Olympic weightlifting you will probably only get very little use out of them.

Alternatives to the technique plates

Alternatives to technique plates are:

Fractional plates and change plates help you to work with lower denominations in work and to microload. In most cases you will get more use out of these for everyday training than out of technique plates.

Overview and review of the Rogue fleck plate

The Rogue fleck plates are Rogue's compromise between competition bumper and regular bumper plates. Here are the pros and cons.

The Rogue Feck plates are the newest edition to the line up of Rogue plates and range from $50 for a pair of 10LB plates to $625 for a 350LB set. This puts the price to $0.56 per pound. The distinguishing factors of the fleck plate are its claimed precision in weight and the fleck design. With this, these bumper plates add some color to your gym without breaking the bank as competition bumper plates would do. The specs of these plates are:

Plate Breakdown: Weight, Color & Width

10LB - Black & Grey, 0.85”
15LB - Black & White, 1.2”
25LB - Black & Green, 1.6”
35LB - Black & Yellow, 2.08”
45LB - Black & Blue, 2.76”
55LB - Black & Red, 3.02”

Specifications:

Diameter: 450mm (+/- 3mm) / 17.72 inches
Collar Opening: 50.40mm / 1.98 inches
304 Stainless Steel Inserts
Weight Tolerance: +/- 1% claimed weight
Durometer: 90
Minimal Bounce
Black + Color Fleck Finish
Imported from Chin

This is a good option if you want some color, but not spend too much money on your bumper plates.

Pros of the fleck plate

The pros of the fleck plate are:

Unique design
Value for money
Bumper

The design of the fleck plates is very unique. As long as you like you will be hard-pressed to find something comparable. I personally like them as a compromise between black bumper plates and colored competition plates.

For the color and precision, you are getting these plates are relatively cheap compared to other rogue plates available. If you insist to see easily from a distance which plates you have, this is the way to go.

As these plates are bumper plates they come with the benefit of being outdoor-friendly. You can also drop them regularly without wrecking your barbell, platform or floor.

Cons of the Fleck bumper plates

The cons of the fleck bumper plates are:

Sleeve space
Precision
Made in China

The challenge that all bumper plates have is that they take up more real estate on a bar sleeve than steel plates. If you want to maximize the amount of weight you can put on your barbell, this is not the right set of plates to get.

While these bumper plates claim high precision, I would be inclined to test that first. The reason being is that they are not manufactured by Rogue themselves and do not have inlets for high precision adjustments like calibrated plates. A blanket statement on shipped bumper plates from china with 1% is a tall order with no inlets for micro-adjustments. It won't matter if you buy them for your Crossfit gym or commercial gym, but if you are training for weightlifting or powerlifting competitions stay with the calibrated plates.

While the design and price are very tempting some might not want to support products that are made in China based on principle or legal requirements as a government agency. In this case, you might refer to other Rogue plates.

Alternatives to the Rogue fleck plates

Alternatives to the Rogue fleck plates are:

Rogue bumper plates are the same idea as the fleck plates minus the color. They are cheap, can be used everywhere and forgiving to abuse and toes.

The precision machined steel plates from Rogue are the best choice for powerlifters who want precision but do not want to break the bank with calibrated plates. These Olympic plates are slightly more costly than the fleck plates.

The Rogue Fleck plates are the newest edition to the line up of Rogue plates and range from $50 for a pair of 10LB plates to $625 for a 350LB set. This puts the price to $0.56 per pound. The distinguishing factors of the fleck plate are its claimed precision in weight and the fleck design. With this, these bumper plates add some color to your gym without breaking the bank as competition bumper plates would do. The specs of these plates are:

Summary of the fleck plates

Fleck plates are the right choice if you want colored plates from Rogue at a reasonable price.