Are clubs required to have the official Don Oliver BP bars and plates? I became curious when a member told me about another branch which had recently acquired "cheap" plates with lbs. instead of kgs. and thinner bars.

No. I hate the don oliver plates anyway, awful for tricep kickbacks and any shoulder work when you want to use 5kg plates.

The Don Oliver sets seem to have really dropped in quality since I started doing Pump. I bought a whole load of them from an instructor a while back when I was teaching my own version of Pump in the community and they were a really solid bit of kit.

One of the clubs I teach at recently (within the last couple of years) bought some new plates from the local agent and nearly all of them are cracking (it's not how people are using them as all of the other older DO kit is still fine).

If I was buying equipment for a studio now I'd choose something like this:

http://www.powerhouse-fitness.co.uk/bodymax-20kg-radial-studio-barbell-set.php

Much as I like the Smartbar it's a ridiculous price...

moodlesAU:

awful for tricep kickbacks and any shoulder work when you want to use 5kg plates.

I find them rather handy for kickbacks and shoulder work (ie. the plates of 5 kg)

The older ones are worse, they don't have holes if you want to upgrade your weights while doing kickbacks, mac raises..

I've tried the new ones of the Smart bar kit and they are even more handy than the Don Oliver kit.