See my question in the headline.
Have finally decided to buy a pair of adjustable dumbbells, for training days at home due to unaccessability to the gym in periods.
Please share some good suggestions.
Primarily the best available, but priceworthy alternatives can be interesting.
I’ve got the 90lb power blocks. I really like them. They aren’t too unwieldy. Very sturdy. Hard to do goblet squats, though.
I have owned ironmasters and power blocks and have used bowflex. That is also the order I rank them in. Ironmasters feel the most like dumbbells in the hand and are super modular with lots of upgrades and modifications. Powerblocks change out weight faster but feel weird in the hand to me. Bowflex seems to run into issues with weight changes and feel weird.
I have a set of iron masters and really like them. They are fairly compact, and aside from the square shape, felt most like standard gym dumbbells. I think powerblocks are a little cheaper, and can be changed faster. But when I’ve used them, I didn’t like the feel of having my hand inside the frame of the weight.
I believe some other neat/novel designs have recently come on the market. You can find reviews of these on the Garage Gym Review web site (Coop is the host). Not sure about availability in Europe.
Thanks Al,
I had a look at the Garage Gym Review, and he surely did a thorough review of the best of all available adjustable dumbbells on the market 2021! Just what I was looking for!
The Powerblocks won, Ironmasters second followed by honorable mention to Bowflex. Very close to what @doogie and @T3hPwnisher suggested.
Availability in Europe is indeed a question these days. Especially since GB has left the EU, which was a great link to the US Amazon. I found a local (Swedish) solution through Coop’s review, which he also rated among the best - Nuobells.
I will need to investigate it further, but will probably go for them for convenience. Nice looking steel plated, with change of weights with a click. Some plastic details can mean questionable quality, which is why they weren’t ranked higher (new = untested in real life).
It just depends what’s most important to you really: ie: capacity, style, taking up space etc.
I know stuff like powerblocks in the UK are really pricy and usually stuff like that only go up to 24-32kgs.
I’ve always, personally just gone for fairly basic Oly dbs and then 7.5kg plates (if I want to go heavy on db rows etc).
I have had a set of Powerblocks (up to 90lbs) for about 15 years, and love them. Sometimes the handles can feel like they impede you from getting a good grip, but I’ve never actually not been able to do any exercise I want with them. And they are solid - I have dropped them on a floor after a set a number of times, no issues (stall mats on floor, mind you). I built my own rack for them. Works great. Love them. One of the best investments in my home gym.