The heaviest dumbbells belong on the MIDDLE rack. The current layout makes zero sense.
Go to any gym, and you will see the exact same layout: light dumbbells on the top rack, intermediate in the middle, and the absolute heaviest chunks of iron sitting on the bottom rack right above the floor. It is completely backward, ergonomically catastrophic, and I am tired of pretending it is normal.
A civilized gym should be organized, from top to bottom, like this:
Top Rack: Lightest weights (2 kg to 10 kg / [4 lbs to 22 lbs in freedom units]) You are using these for lateral raises, rear delt flies, or warming up. Your muscles are not fatigued, and you are not lifting enough mass to risk injury. Putting them at chest level means you can grab them with zero effort.
Middle Rack: Heaviest weights (26 kg to 50+ kg / [66 lbs to 110+ lbs])
This is where every gym fucks up imo. When you are racking or unracking a 40 kg (88 lb) dumbbell, the last thing you should be doing is deadlifting it off the literal floor from a deficit while your lower back is already compromised and begging to be put out of its misery. The middle rack is at perfect hip or waist height. You unrack with a straight spine, walk it to the bench, do your set, and re-rack it without playing Russian roulette with your spine.
And before someone says not to ego lift, you can easily bench press weight that you might struggle to deadlift, meaning getting the weights into position from the lowest rack is an entire exercise in itself.
- Bottom Rack: Intermediate weights (12 kg to 25 kg / [26 lbs to 55 lbs])
These are the utility weights. They are heavy enough to require some effort, but light enough that picking them up from the bottom rack won't shatter your spine if your form slips.
The only argument people have against this is that if the heavy weights fall, the rack will tip. If a commercial-grade steel rack tips over because the middle shelf is heavy, maybe your gym got its steel from a refinery that forged it in the heat of the moment. Bolting it to the floor exists. Stop making excuses for a system designed to ruin lower backs. Put the heavy steel at hip height.