Adjustable dumbbells are a great choice if you are planning on investing in or upgrading your own home gym. The non-adjustable dumbbell sets that you see in gyms cost thousands of dollars. The non-adjustable ones are convenient because you do not have to worry about having to change the weight plates all the time. However, the cost is prohibitive for most people. An adjustable dumbbell set can be purchased for only a few hundred dollars. If you think you will not need much weight, then you can even find a decent set for under one hundred dollars.
Adjustable weight dumbbells can be used to perform any exercise that you would perform with a barbell or with regular dumbbells. Some fitness experts argue that dumbbell workouts are superior to barbell workouts for a couple of reasons. First, dumbbells allow your limbs to take a more natural path of motion during the exercises. Barbells are slightly more restrictive, as they enforce that your hands remain exactly the same distance apart at all times. Secondly, dumbbells are more difficult to balance than a barbells, so dumbbell exercises help you improve your balance and coordination.
With adjustable dumbbells, you can work out every muscle group in your body, with the exception of your lats. You can work out your lats indirectly with exercises like dumbbell rows. However, if you are really keen to work out your lats directly, you can always find a horizontal bar at a park, or even at your home, and use it to do pull-ups.
One of the best exercises to do with dumbbells is the squat. However, if you are used to doing a squat with a barbell, you may run into difficulty with dumbbells. If you try to hold your dumbbells up on your shoulders, like you would with a barbell squat, you may find that your shoulders tire before your legs do. If you prefer, you can do an alternative dumbbell squat that does not wear out your shoulders. Simply hold the dumbbells hanging by your sides, and then proceed to squat as normal.
The only disadvantage of adjustable dumbbells, compared to non-adjustable ones, is that you may find yourself frequently changing the weights. This is certainly something that frustrated me when I first started using my adjustable dumbbell set at home. However, you will very quickly learn how to change the weights over quickly, much like a tire change in Formula 1 pit-stop. Also, you can structure your workouts in a way that minimizes the number of weight changes you need to perform.
Good adjustable dumbbells can be bought from various online retailers. If you choose to buy online, make sure you check out the review sections on the store websites. That way you will have a better idea of which adjustable dumbbells set is ideal for you.
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