Drama Fitness Thread: Lift Laugh Love

Sure. This will be a bit long but the adjustable market is kinda flooded with garbage and I've spent an absurd amount of time doing research trying to figure out wtf to buy. I'll try to give quick review of what I think are your best options. The main problem with adjustables is most manufacturers cheap out on internal components and some even have the entire system rely on a single plastic nipple that slides on a metal rail. All of them will void their warranty if they break when you drop them, even by accident if it bounces wrong. Many are non-repairable to and then you'll have a VERY expensive paperweight. There's a video teardown if you want to see what I mean for one of the more popular products called Nuobells (google it) which is shame because durability issues aside it looks great. The other problem with adjustables is they have a bunch of drawbacks like only changing in 10 lb increments which is stupid for a dumbbell, is absurdly long at all weight ranges (the cage style designs like bowflex and ezblocks), or are very awkward in some other way. You basically get two tiers of adjustables for weight ranges.

For the 80lb or higher range the best ones I have found are:

1. Powerblocks. https://powerblock.com/ These start at 50 but have expansion kits to 70 and 90 lbs. You can go higher to their """commercial""" line at 125/175 but only an idiot would pay that much money when you can just buy a full fixed set + they get unwieldy at that size. You can likely drop these as much as you want but I have used them in the past and hated how they felt. It's boxed cage like design on your hand which limits ROM on certain exercises and it feels very unbalanced, especially low weights with the adder weights. This is also being price gouged right now. I was looking into the Pro90Exp Set and post pandemic they jacked the price up to $1250 shipped to me. They're also rubber ergo handles and you'll have to dish out 210 or more if you want knurled straight metal ones from a third party. Luckily there is a HUGE used market for powerblocks and you can find some excellent deals on FB marketplace or craigslist.

2. Ironmasters. https://www.ironmaster.com/categories/dumbbells-and-kettlebells/ These are a "quick" spin lock design made completely from steel, are indestructible (they even have a permanent warranty), and will last you a lifetime. They go from 5-165 lbs with the expansion sets, feel extremely close to a regular dumbbell, and have a fully knurled straight metal handle. The only downside is while they are much faster than traditional spinlocks it can be a pain in the butt to change vs powerblocks or nuobell styles. An added bonus if you want to use kettlebells for cardio or random exercises bc of space limitations, is that their adjustable kettlebells are probably the best adjustable kettlebells on the market other than the ones from Rep Fitness. You also only need to buy the handle because you can use the same plates as your dumbbells and they go up to 80 lbs. The price on the DBs is pretty fair at $700 with free shipping for 5-75 and I'd recommend the heavy handle kit which boosts your DB up to a 20-90 range and shortens the handle to 4 inches which is a good length for most people. If you can get over the slower plate change limitations I highly recommend these.

3. Snode 80lb Quick Change. https://www.snodesport.com/products/ad-80-quick-adjusting-dumbbells These are nuobell style quick changes, except made entirely out of cast iron. They look and feel like a real dumbbell and unlike a majority of dumbbells in this style you can drop them. The price is fair at $760 with free shipping. The biggest downside of this design is the weight increments go up by 10 which sucks for dumbbell work. You can get around this by buying third party plateweight magnets for $120 or microgainz rubber inserts you can put near your wrists but what a dumb thing to have to do. I reached out to their customer service and they're going to sell discounted external doorknob style magnets which is ???. It also is capped at 80lbs so you'll have to figure out another solution if you want to go above that weight range.

4. Pepin Fast Series. https://www.dumbbellpepin.com/fast-series Ok these are cool as shit. I have seen some video reviews on them and it's basically an external rail system slider to change the weight instead of a handle based one. These are made entirely out of steel and go up to a whopping 120 lbs per dumbbell. You can likely do controlled drops at that weight and they won't ever break due to the way they are designed. The 120's cost $1700ish usd (they are a canadian company) but for 120lbs of weight that's extreme value for what you get for this style of quick change dumbbell. They do have the same problem as the snodes however and only come in 10 lb increments but I heard John(?) Pepin say he's working on magnet inserts too.

The second tier of dumbbells are anything up to 50lbs. I'm much less concerned with the amount of plastic in these because there's much less stress on the parts, are way cheaper, and a lot of them are repairable. The best ones I have found so far are:

1. Nordic Track Select-A-Weights. https://www.nordictrack.com/strength/55-lb-select-a-weight-dumbbell-set These were just on sale for 300 but they come with a fully knurled metal handle, go up increments of 2.5 and 5lbs, and looks like a dumbbell. The only plastic on them is the selector pin but I think it's repairable.

2. Core Home fitness. https://corehomefitness.com/products/adjustable-dumbbell-set Pretty nice set that looks/feels like a dumbbell and adjusts in 5 lb increments. Has an ergo rubber handle if you prefer that. 350 with free shipping.

You can't really go wrong with any of these options and it just comes down to what tradeoffs of the particular product you want to deal with. I value not having my 800 dollar product being destroyed by an accidental bump but if that's something you can deal with there's lots of cool options out there like the Nuobell.