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Bowflex Selecttech Dumbbells Brand:BowflexFitness Type:Weight Training EquipmentSports Type:Personal FitnessWeight Training Equipment Type:Dumbbell and Weight Sets...

Reviews on Bowflex SelectTech Dumbells Well engineered, space saving selectable weight dumbbells Let me start by saying my name is not Hulk and I have no trouble finding clothes to fit me. I don't bench 350 and I don't shed my shirt in p...

BACKGROUND HISTORY

I’ve been working out nearly half my life. I was a collegiate All-American swimmer, began bodybuilding after college in very serious gyms, and then designed and bought a complete free weight home gym years later for home. We just moved into a new home and with two small children and a lakefront lifestyle, my wife and I decided to sell our home gym to our home buyers because we don’t have the time or energy to workout for 2+ hours anymore and thus couldn’t justify owning such a home based gym. Additionally, our new home doesn’t have a basement and I didn’t want a our new system taking up alot of space in true living areas. Thus, my search for a space-saving, but still multi-use exercise equipment set-up began.

I remembered from years previous a system called Powerblocks. My memory reminded me that when I tried them out years ago, the design limited wrist movement as you can’t really “roll” this design in your palm during various exercises…most noteably wrist curls.

When doing an internet search for “quick-change” dumbbells, I came across the Bowflex SportTech Dumbells. There are two models, the 220 (which adjusts from 2 to 20 lbs) and the 552 (which adjust from 5 to 52.5 lbs) My review is based on the SportTech 552 model.

SPACESAVING CONVENIENCE

What caught my interest was the claim that each dumbbell combines 15 sets of weights into one. Well, that claim is true as you simply and quickly change weight settings with a turn of dial at both ends of the dumbbell to go from 5 lbs all the way up to 52.5 lbs of weight. When changing the weight from 5 to 25 pounds on each dumbbell, the increment increase is 2.5 lbs per change and then afterwards, every change adds 5 more pounds. So, instead of having a rack with 30 pairs of dumbells, you only need two 552’s. While hexhead dumbbells are a good deal less expensive, they certainly would take up more space than the 552 as well as not looking as high tech. And forget claims of iron weights offering greater durability. I’ve seen plenty of hex heads broken off in gyms. True, they get heavier use. But they aren’t indestructable and there’s no way of telling how good they’ve been manufactured.

FAST WEIGHT CHANGES

To change the weights, you simply turn each adjustment knob at the end of each dumbbell to the number you want for a particular exercise. The selections must be notched somehow because you hear a reassuring click when you’ve made your choice. If you don’t do this properly and the knob is in between, it will lock and you will not be able to remove the dumbell from the holder. Folks, if you can’t choose your selection without fail everytime, you shouldn’t be allowed to drive, vote, or reproduce much less exercise!

PROOF IN ACTION

I used these for the first time this morning after relying on some old “star wheel” tightener dumbells for the last month as we settled into the new home. During my 45 minute workout, I was able to get in a greater variety of exercises and felt more “worked out” during the same time period. And this is without having a bench yet! With imagination and experience from hard core lifting, there’s all sorts of movements you can do, even without a bench: kickbacks, bent over rows, shrugs, at least 6 various shoulder exercises, and don’t even get me started on chest and arms!

STANDS TALL

To save your back and add some more visual wow to your system, the “ergonomically designed” stand places the weights at a great height level. I highly recommend purchasing this at the same time. However, be very careful when assembling this piece. The instructions could be WAYYY more clear/specific and be sure to use the correct bolt in the correct place. Also, the bolts, I believe, are too long and require a great deal of effort to securely and completely thread through the locknuts.

MISC. INFO & THOUGHTS

The warranty for these little gems is 2 years on the dumbbell handle part, 5 years on the weight plates, and 1 year on labor. With the solid feel of these, I don’t think you’ll need to make any claims unless you drop them or toss them around like the hexhead dumbells at a true gym. And doing that was always about show (or frustration) and not strength anyways.

Not being metal has it’s pluses. The weights are covered with an injection-molded plastic so they’re silent and wont mark or scratch the floor you’re working on. In my case, it’s our loft’s new carpeting! And unlike my previous heavy duty steel equipment, these can’t rust from sweat moisture. Not even in hand grip areas as the 552’s have a rubber grip at this spot.

BUYER BEWARE

I was trying to buy these dumbells on-line and found quite a variety of listings that I believe were meant to confuse the uninformed buyer. If you do decide to buy on-line…especially in an auction type setting, make SURE you are bidding on two dumbells and not just one. Additionally, if you want the heavier weight of the 552 model, make SURE the auction clearly states that model number. Finally, while I didn’t check this out, you may want to make sure that the seller is an authorized seller and that the warranty terms would be honored by Bowflex.

With this in mind, I bought mine at Dick’s Sporting Goods as they were running a promotion that included the stand…a $139 value. So, with tax, I paid $430 and know I bought my equipment from an authorized dealer and that it’s the real deal and not factory refurbed, damaged, etc.

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