I’ve always pondered the exercise value of moving weights, especially 45s, on and off the bar. Ultimately, I don’t think it affects gains for an elite lifter.

I’ve always pondered the exercise value of moving weights, especially 45s, on and off the bar. Ultimately, I don’t think it affects gains for an elite lifter. The “reps” you get moving the weights don’t conform to any reasonable pattern for making gains. Worse, they’re tiring you out. Criticizing plate optimization on your grounds sounds like a traditional conservative criticizing a progressive for changing the way things are done for no reason other than it being different. In this case, the difference is better in every way except for being too complicated for lunks.