Since we bought a travel trailer 2 years ago we have been struggling with how to work out on the road. I used to bring a set of dumbbells and bands but that just wasn’t enough for me. My husband brought a product by Altus which was adequate but not great. Bowflex SelectTech Dumbbells are the answer to our dilemma. Having said that my husband and I don’t totally agree on my purchase! I am a personal trainer so these purchases are usually left to me.

What are these and how do they work?

As soon as I saw SelectTech Dumbbells advertised I knew I had to have them even at the hefty price of $400.00. Dumbbells sell for about $1.00 per pound. For about $110.00 I could have bought dumbbells and added weights to them. Along with the weights go a clip so the weights do not slip off. However the convenience factor and the mess all those individual pieces would be to travel with made the purchase an easy one for me.

My husband calls these the lazy person's dumbbells. He acknowledges that on the road the SelectTech will be great but being one who likes to save money I know he wonders why I didn’t buy two dumbbells and weights. I am convinced that the convenience factor is worth the money. I am standing by that conviction. I love these and I know he will come to love them as much as I do. I do understand that if you are a healthy person working out at home these may be a frivolous purchase.

We got two dumbbells that allow us to go from 5 pounds to 52.5 pounds. If you are curling or pressing considerably more weight than that these will not be for you. Using two dumbbells for a dumbbell bench press (for the pectoral or chest muscles) give my husband 115 pounds of weight which is just about right for him.

These are truly amazing. This is how they work. The dumbbells sit on a base. I turn a dial to the weight I want. So let’s say I am doing dumbbell curls (An exercise for the biceps which are the muscles on the upper part of the front of your arm.) and want 25 pounds. I just turn the dial to 25 and when I lift up the dumbbell all the plates or weights that I don’t need stay behind!

Answering questions you may have:

I have an autoimmune disorder. Sometimes my fingers are tight and don’t bend as well as I would like them to. It never has stopped me from lifting weights but you may wonder how difficult the dial is to turn. It is easy. If you are lifting any weight at all you will have the strength to turn the dial. Thinking about the convenience factor I must add that when my fingers are bothering me it is easier to just turn a dial then put weights on and take them off and put a clip on to hold them in place.

The mechanism locks into place. So when I turn the dial I actually feel the knob sort of rest in a notch and I hear a slight noise. This is how I know that I have the right weight in place. In fact if, for example, I want 20 pounds but haven’t turned the dial to 20 and it is just shy of 20 (think of a combination lock), the SelectTech locks and I won’t be able to take the dumbbell off the base.

The dumbbells are covered with plastic. This means that they make very little noise when I put them back on the base. For us it will be great because if I do a flye (Another chest exercise where I lie down and bring the weight to the side being careful not to bring them below shoulder height.) I often hit the dumbbells together. Since we are in close quarters in the trailer metal dumbbells clanging together would wake my husband while I am working out at 6:00a.m. These will not.

I don’t need gloves with these Bowflex Dumbbells though I have been using them at home and like wearing gloves to prevent blisters. They will not scratch my rings like metal dumbbells will.

I use very light weights when I work my shoulders because I have had two shoulder injuries. Even if you have not if you are older (over 40- sorry) be careful with your shoulders. They are much more delicate than we realize and are easily injured. What is fantastic is that up to 25 pounds I can pick a weight from 5 to 25 pounds in 2.5 increments. So I do not have to do lateral arm raises (An exercise for the shoulders where I lift my arms to the sides keeping a slight curl in them.) with 10 pounds which is too much for me. I can use 5 or 7.5 if I want. Once I hit 25 pounds the increments are in 5 pounds. I am used to this because this is how most dumbbells at gyms are weighted. I may be able to do a one arm row (This is for the back where I lift one arm at a time while bending over being careful to lift with my back and not my biceps.) with 27.5 pounds but not 30 so I just use 25 pounds or I push myself and go with the 30 pounds and fewer repetitions.

Bowflex SelectTech Dumbbells have a very unusual feature. (Well the whole design is unusual but this is really unusual.) It is called offset weight selection. For example when I am doing overhead tricep extensions (These are for the part of your arm that flaps in the wind. I do these either sitting or standing. I lift one dumbbell holding it with both hands behind my head and lift it straight up and then bring it down again.) I might want more weight at the base of the dumbbell. So I can set the top for 10 pounds and the bottom for 20. The same thing can be said with dumbbell curls for my biceps. It is nice to add a small squeeze inward at the top of the movement. Your pinky finger points toward your chest. Adding addition weight on that side of the dumbbell will challenge you.

Each dumbbell is 15 3/4 inches long by 8 inches wide by 9 inches high.

A DVD comes with the dumbbells. It is helpful if you are new to weight training.

Bowflex gives you six weeks to try out the SelectTech Dumbbells. If you don’t like them you can return them but you must pay for shipping.

The weights on the dumbbells have a five year warranty.

These are made by Nautilus for Bowflex.

Needless to say I love these. For me they are the best invention in the world of weight training.

Please feel free to leave me a comment or question.

Related reviews are below. For a complete list of my fitness related reviews see my profile page. Thanks for reading. jo

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