These Bells Are So Frickin Dumb

The Selecttech system is the perfect set of weights for people who want dumbbells in their house. Instead of having to spend just as much, if not more, on a huge set of dumbbells that take up a ton of room, you can get these and do more things than you could do with them than with standard dumbbells. The retail price on these (the 552 series) is $399. These weights go from 5 lbs to 52.5 lbs.

With these, instead of having a huge set of dumbbells, you just get two dumbbells, and you adjust the weight putting them in a little slot they come with and turning the two dials that are on each dumbbell. The excess weight that the dumbbells start out with stay in the slot. So since these up to 52.5 lbs if you make a dumbbell 15 lbs, 37.5 lbs of weights will stay back in the slot. The reason you have to turn two dials to get your desired weight is so you can put your weight on whichever side you want on the dumbbell, which is something that dumbbells in the past haven't offered. If you want to lift 25 lbs just set the weight on both sides to 25, and each side will weigh 12.5 lbs. Suppose you want to lift 27.5 lbs and the system jumps from twenty-five to thirty; well then you would put one side to 30 and one side to 25. The side you put to 25 will weigh 12.5 lbs and the side you put at 30 will weigh 15 lbs. This is a neat feature, but depending on whichever exercise you’re doing, your hand will naturally bend or move over to the side that has more weight. Another reason they let you put more weight on one side is because you can make certain exercises easier by doing this. Doing tricep workouts are much easier now that I have this. All I have to do is set the dial to 52.5 on one side and a low weight on one side. The side with the low weight will be small so I can put it behind my head and lift up and down without worrying about hitting my head, while the bigger side glides up and down on my back.

Weights on each dial (lbs): 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, 15, 17.5, 20, 22.5, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 52.5


You can buy a stand for the dumbbells for $149, which is pretty pricey, but is definitely a must have if you don't have anything to place the set on. Having it on the floor and constantly bending down to grab the weights is a great way to quickly injure your back. So deciding whether you need a stand is something you need to do before ordering the dumbbells, and then you have to decide whether or not you want to spend almost $550 on a set of dumbbells. An exercise bench is also a wise investment, and will open up a ton of exercises to do with the dumbbells.

The problems that I've had have been fairly minor, and only occur occasionally. Rarely, but occurring more often that I would like, I will lift the dumbbells and a weight will either fall out right after picking it up, or just won't lift up with the dumbbells. You don't have to worry about the weight falling out while exercising though, because when that problem happens, it happens immediately. The other problem I've occasionally had with these is sometimes the dial gets stuck and you can't lift any of the weights. This generally happens when you match a larger weight on one side with a smaller weight on the other side of the dumbbell, and usually can be fixed by just equaling out the weight and trying it again.

If you want a home gym, this is an excellent start, because you can do so many exercises with dumbbells. To name a few exercises you can do: you can work out your legs with squats, biceps with curls, chest with bench presses, and triceps with kickbacks and lifting them up and down behind your head. The Selecttech saves so much room that if you were planning on buying a set of dumbbells, there is no reason not to go with this.