- This seems like a very load implement,
this seems like something where,
if I'm in front of the TV I can easily
see myself just like trying to get diesel.
- [Narrator] This is Best Fit,
each episode, two people discuss
and test out two top fitness products
to decide which is the best fit for them.
Today we're looking at two of your top options
for home adjustable dumbbells,
the Bowflex SelectTech 552's
and the PowerBlock Pro Series dumbbells.
(air whooshing) (energetic upbeat music)
- Not everybody can have a full rack
of dumbbells behind them,
and we know that because we train at home.
- Not in my apartment, no way.
- And when you're in that situation,
you need to have a pair of adjustable dumbbells
that can start light,
because there are light exercises we wanna do.
At the same time we wanna go heavy,
so we're tryna sort out the better fit
between the Bowflex SelectTech 552's and
- the PowerBlock Pro Series.
And this is the expandable one
so you can bring that range out with heavier weights.
- Yeah it's interesting 'cause
they're very structurally different, right?
Like the Bowflexes all we do,
they go up to 52.5 pounds,
as low as 5 and it's a dial turn.
So that's how we can change the weights
and pick them up,
except we can't pick that up.
- Turn on both sides there up, come on now.
- There we go. See that,
I'm just right off the bat,
that's like way too complicated for me.
I just wanted...
I want one thing
and I wanna lift my weights, right.
- And that's what you get here,
let's put this whole package right here.
All right, so it's pretty easy,
just pull out, this is attached here
and let's see. Let's go up to white,
so that's gonna be 30 pounds easy.
- Exactly, and there's some adjustment over there
'cause obviously this goes up in 10 pound increments
when you work it that way,
but if you pull that clip out again Brett,
and pull out the center of it,
and now you hit that little red tab.
- Ah okay, show me how it's done.
- So when you hit that tab,
we can pull out two, 2.5 extensions.
So I can go now five pounds,
2.5 or 7.5, I can't do math, 10.
So that gives us a lot more versatility with the weight.
Although this again, is gonna go up to 52.5 pounds,
the PowerBlocks we have here go up to 50,
although you can buy expansion packs for it
to get it up to 90 pounds,
which is critical for anyone
who really wants to move a larger load.
One other thing too
I've kind of like about the PowerBlocks,
is they look like they can take
a little bit of a pounding.
And I feel like anytime you have
60, 70, 80, 90 pounds,
and you're going to a failure,
there's a chance you're going to drop the dumbbells,
and you shouldn't and these look very droppable.
- Yeah, so what is this? It's pretty rugged,
looks like treated rubber,
some type of rubberized material.
Here we're working with more a kind of a plastic.
It's definitely finished, it's not like it's cheaper,
it looks like it's gonna break if it hits the ground.
But this, I think I would feel
a little bit more secure with dropping down
or having an accident happen.
- Not that you ever want to drop anything
in your living room, ever.
- Definitely not your living room, no.
- That's the PowerBlocks , the Bowflex
definitely feels a little bit more homey.
I kind of like the handle,
it's got like a nice rubbery feel,
I feel like I can grip this.
- Is that textured, is that kind of like,
it's not knurled obviously but.
- It's got a little bit of texture,
I can grip it pretty aggressively.
And I like that it's a little bit like convex, right?
I can see this feeling really good to curl,
which is actually one thing
I'm a little bit concerned with about the PowerBlocks,
because the structure and distribution
of the weight is not like a traditional dumbbell.
So I'm not anticipating getting
that really good rotation
when I'm doing some of my motions
with the PowerBlocks.
This seems like a very load implement,
this seems like something where,
if I'm in front of the TV I can easily see myself
just like trying to get diesel.
- It's very smooth.
(dumbbell assembling) - Yeah
- And I mean that setting
that you're talking about
in front of the TV in the living room,
that's kind of closer to
how I do some of my training at home.
I have a very small apartment, very small space,
and what I like doing is pulling out the weights
and kind of you know,
figuring out circuits that I can do
as I'm watching a show
or just trying to kill time.
What's your home training situation look like generally?
- Yeah, so my home training situation
is very different. Yes I'll occasionally do
curls in front of the TV,
or kind of in that quick situation,
but I definitely wanna go
a lot heavier with my training,
train a lot more aggressively
and I have a garage gym.
So one thing I like about the PowerBlocks I think,
is that I can go heavier with that
and I can get up to 90 pounds.
52.5 at some point,
becomes just not enough of a challenge
for some of the exercise that I'm doing
because I'm doing a lot less accessory motions.
I'm not doing bicep curls all the time,
but I'm doing the heavy presses, the deadlifts,
and at some point when you're training at home,
I think you want more load,
and you need more load
for those bigger motion exercises.
Okay so we've talked about them,
now I think we should just test them out,
see what we think
and then get back to you.
(air whooshing) (energetic upbeat music)
So we curled, we bench pressed,
we did some deadlifts,
and I think now we're ready to make our decisions
and choose the dumbbell that fits best for us.
I'm gonna let you go first,
which one do you like?
- Yeah I mean, I don't think you can go wrong
with either of these to be clear,
but for my situation
and what I'm training for especially,
I think the Bowflex is the better call.
You know, just because I'm not working
with as heavy a weight when I'm lifting inside,
you know it's a smooth transition,
I really like the mechanism there.
And honestly, I wanna be careful with these
because they're a bit more drop averse.
You know, you don't wanna necessarily be tossing
these around just because of the mechanism
and the way that they work.
And that's actually a good help
for when I'm training inside
and I don't want to mess up my floor
or go out of control.
We've all seen those videos,
people you know having workout fails inside,
so I think that actually design there
can help me a little bit stay under control.
So that, you know I think
the Bowflex is a good call for me.
- Awesome. That's perfect because,
I'm gonna choose the PowerBlocks mostly because one,
they can grow with me,
because they start at 50 pounds
but I can eventually get the expansion packs
to get them up to 90s,
and I wanna be able to move that heavy weight.
Two, they are super durable,
I can drop those things,
I can pound those things
and I like the quick switch of the weights.
And three, because of the weight distribution,
I know that when I'm gonna deadlift
or when I'm going to bench press
it's nice and even.
These are not great curling dumbbells,
I solve that problem by having an assortment
of lighter dumbbells that I can use,
but just to be able to do all that heavy weight work,
that's exactly what I want in a dumbbell.
So the PowerBlocks are perfect for me.
- It's the privilege of having a garage gym
and having all that space.
- I mean, you gotta train somehow.
- All right, so to sum it up,
the best fit for the Bowflex here
is gonna be someone who is looking to be
a little bit more cautious
with their at-home workouts inside,
but you still want the smooth transitions
from weight to weight
and you do want to save space.
Again, because you don't have room for
an entire wall's worth of dumbbells
like we have behind us here.
- And the PowerBlocks are perfect for anybody
who wants to go really, really heavy,
and if you have that garage gym freedom,
then you wanna think about the PowerBlocks
That's all we have from here,
if you want us to compare any other devices
on Best Fit, make sure to drop something
in the comments below
and let us know what you think.