Plates and warm-ups
Type the weight you want on the bar. See the plates for each side, in their real colors and sizes, and a warm-up ladder that gets you there.
What to do with it
Load each side the same, biggest plates on first, and put collars on. Do the warm-up ladder in order, resting briefly between the light sets and 2 to 3 minutes before your first working set. If the exact weight can't be loaded, take the lower one.
When every working set hits the top of its rep range, add the smallest step you can load, often 5 lb in all with a 2.5 lb plate on each side. How to keep getting stronger.
How it works
Take the bar's weight off the target and halve it: that's what goes on each side. It's filled with the fewest plates from the ones you have, any number of pairs. If the weight can't be loaded exactly, you get the nearest weights under and over.
The warm-up ladder is a common coaching ladder, not from a study: the empty bar for 10 reps, then about 40% of your working weight for 5, 60% for 3 and 80% for 1 or 2, each rounded to a weight you can load. The colors follow competition plates (red 25 kg, blue 20, yellow 15, green 10), with pound plates colored by their nearest kilogram plate.
Not sure what weight to aim for? Estimate your max from any set.
