As a some-time lifter, the idea of totally optimizing plate changes begins to feel a bit like taking the escalators up to the gym entrance where there are stairs right there[1]. After a couple of years of attempting what the author does here, it finally occurred to me that moving around heavy weights was the whole point of the exercise, and plate-switching was just a different move. Efficiency didn't matter, I was using my body and building strength. Shout out to people who are pressed for time and want to get their workout done in a small window: You do you, just don't hog all the weights and not put them back on the racks.
Agree, moving the weights inefficiently will end up working the muscles you don't necessarily target in your main workout. It's less efficient, but probably gives a (very slightly) more well-rounded workout. If you're pressed for time, it could make sense to have a basic understanding of how to avoid dilly-dallying during your workout. If you go to a public gym, there will be other factors that affect your total time much more, like having to share equipment, which introduces a lot of uncertainty. Maybe these micro-optimizations are worthwhile if you have a private gym.
From a well-being/philosophical standpoint, maybe it's better to live life relaxed, and not one where you have to micro-manage every minute of your day to squeeze out every inch and penny of efficiency you can. That sounds like a horrible lifestyle, but I guess to each their own :)
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.
If moving the plates around tired me out to the point of impacting the session and/or my recovery I'd conclude that my work capacity needs improving, not that I need to minimise extraneous effort in the gym.
I typically load the bar so that I get my desired weight with the fewest number of plates. This keeps the weight slightly closer to the center of the bar and slightly more stable, also light plates have a tendency to wander around more than heavy plates (Except for deadlifts, I typically don't use clips in case I need to dump the weight).
Optimizing the changing of plates is not really of any interest to me, like you said the whole point of being at the gym is lifting weight, and as far as warmup sets go I never use anything but 45 and 25 lb weights until I get to my working set weight.
In exercise science there's a concept called specificty: training is more useful the more similar it is to the thing you're training for. If you're just training to make some parts of you bigger and others smaller, moving plates is still poor exercise because it's a variable movement that can lead to asymmetries or overuse injuries and can't be progressively overloaded.
Absolutely, if you're training for sport-specific things. Maybe you want to find a way to target your serratus anterior for more opposite-field power or something. But if you're just a 30- or 40-something who doesn't want to be a frail 68 yo with osteoporosis, a titanium hip joint, high blood pressure, and sarcopenia, just move, lift, and stretch. Anything works.
In particular, picking up plates by "pinching" them is a great way to build grip strength, which is often a limiting factor when lifting heavy. So it is directly beneficial to the main exercise, not just a side-exercise.
1 https://medium.com/@nessasaurus/only-in-america-fe7d2d5d461e also, I understand there are legitimately people going to gyms to exercise who may not have full use of their legs.