Adjustable Dumbbells Make Workouts Smarter, Better

WELLNESS | by MOLLY MARTIN

A SET OF DUMBBELLS remains one of the most useful pieces of home exercise equipment. But the hassle with dumbbells has always been changing the weight: Two handles, a bunch of weight plates and some sort of locks to keep them together means a lot of adjusting to lift the optimal weight for different exercise. Or a lot of avoidance, followed by lifting too much or too little weight.

© BOWFLEX

If you have room, you can get around this by having a set with fixed weights. But most folks don’t want a wall full of dumbbells.

The PowerBlock SportBlock was the first real alternative: Two nesting sets of weights adjusted by moving a two-pronged pin. Some found it slightly inconvenient to hit the holes with that pin, but otherwise they could easily move from 3 to 24 pounds.

Now, one downside of being an early adopter is when the second and third versions of a product feature significant improvements — especially when you’re talking not about downloaded software but dumbbells. Shortly after the SportBlock came out, rivals emerged with much easier adjustors, usually dials or switches. Very tempting. But how many sets of dumbbells do you need in your home?

Dumbbells make a great holiday gift for those with looming New Year’s resolutions. One word of caution: Buy locally, to avoid those crazy (if understandable) shipping costs.