Was able to snag these from someone who wanted to dump them off since they were moving. Was able to save a bit off of the ridiculously high asking price of $399.99 for the dumbells and stands at Costco (at other places, I've seen the dumbells go for 399.99 and the stand for 120.00. They are adjustable from 5 to 52.5 lbs in 5 and 2.5 lb increments. Not a perfect replacement for a full rack of dumbells (they are a tad awkward compared to regular dumbells) and they aren't really heavy enough to use for presses at 52.5 lbs max each, but it definitely beats having to pay for a full rack of dumbells and the spacesaving is nice. Between these, the Bowflex I got to rehab after surgery, and the heavier dumbells I have for presses, my home gym is starting to come together. I need a chinup/dip bar and I should be good to go.
riddla wrote:sweet, i recently got a set of traditional rubber-coated myself - with a vertical stand
Those are nice. I like the rubber coatings because they keep flakes of metal from falling into your eyes when doing presses if the dumbells clank together (had that happen once with 100 lbs in each hand...not fun to get a metal flake in your eye while trying to keep that from falling onto yourself.)
tnf wrote: I need a chinup/dip bar and I should be good to go.
ever consider getting a dipping belt for the chins and dips? It's amazing what weighted chins and (chest) dips will do for adding slabs of meat onto your upper body. To me, they're the squat and deadlift of the upper body.
tnf wrote: I need a chinup/dip bar and I should be good to go.
ever consider getting a dipping belt for the chins and dips? It's amazing what weighted chins and (chest) dips will do for adding slabs of meat onto your upper body. To me, they're the squat and deadlift of the upper body.
I've used to do dips with anywhere from 90 to about 115 lbs hanging on the belt.
Weighted chins maxxed out at about 25 lbs, but I only did wide grip pullups to the front, I never do 'chins' with the hands close together.
Yea, the weighted dips are a huge strength booster. You can do weighted seated dips to, we'd stack about 4 45lb plates on my lap and then do about 10-15 dips, then pull one off, do a few more reps, pull another off, do some more, etc...
Nice. All I have in my "home gym" is a few hand weights and a Roman Chair which I use for lower back lifts and tummy cruches. I have a gym membership, though, which I use about twice a week for cardio. How much should I spend on an elliptical if I were to decide to buy one?
it really depends on what you're looking for with the elliptical. But my experience with equipment like that is - you get what you pay for. I'd rather spend extra $$ up front and not have a poorly constructed piece of shit.
Was able to snag these from someone who wanted to dump them off since they were moving. Was able to save a bit off of the ridiculously high asking price of $399.99 for the dumbells and stands at Costco (at other places, I've seen the dumbells go for 399.99 and the stand for 120.00. They are adjustable from 5 to 52.5 lbs in 5 and 2.5 lb increments. Not a perfect replacement for a full rack of dumbells (they are a tad awkward compared to regular dumbells) and they aren't really heavy enough to use for presses at 52.5 lbs max each, but it definitely beats having to pay for a full rack of dumbells and the spacesaving is nice. Between these, the Bowflex I got to rehab after surgery, and the heavier dumbells I have for presses, my home gym is starting to come together. I need a chinup/dip bar and I should be good to go.
Nice! I was thinking about getting these too because it's way quicker changing weight than using standard, olympic plates. I figure for anything over 50# I can use my real dumbells with plates.
yea, i picked up a set of 75s and 85s today that i'll use for dumbell presses, so I pretty much have all the dumbells I need unless I decide to work back up to 100+ lb dumbell presses, which isn't likely to happen with how I train now.
I use the bench on the bowflex to do presses with these. It makes for nice supersets between presses and cable flyes (the bowflex is great for cable flyes).
I was considering getting a bowflex this year but I'm really happy with my results on free-weights though because it forces me to use more control of your motion and movement. I found if I try to perfect that, I get a WAY more efficient work-out on the musles I'm targeting.
Granted this is common knowledge but I have really made it a point to just not go and throw up my sets as quick as possible because I wasn't seeing the gains I wanted nor was I feeling the burn I needed to feel from working that muscle. Since I started focusing on my form, I've noticed tons of gains but I also changed my diet again.
One thing I like about the bowflex is the fact that the lifts you do with it are pretty much free-range in that you've got to stabilize everything yourself. Granted, its no replacement for the good old free weights (i'm a huge believer in the old fashioned value of free weights for strength and mass training). But as far as machines go, it does the job quite nicely...and there are some lifts that I can do with the bowflex that I've not been able to re-create with any machine or freeweight. It absolutely kicks ass for flyes and I've found some great rear delt exercises with it that I've not seen anywhere else (i invented them!).
tnf wrote:One thing I like about the bowflex is the fact that the lifts you do with it are pretty much free-range in that you've got to stabilize everything yourself. Granted, its no replacement for the good old free weights (i'm a huge believer in the old fashioned value of free weights for strength and mass training). But as far as machines go, it does the job quite nicely...and there are some lifts that I can do with the bowflex that I've not been able to re-create with any machine or freeweight. It absolutely kicks ass for flyes and I've found some great rear delt exercises with it that I've not seen anywhere else (i invented them!).
heh.
I like how many exercises you can do with the bowflex in such little space but like I said, I like the free weights.
