Weider has a history of making decent fitness equipment for an affordable price. These adjustable dumbbells aren’t decent, they’re awesome! The Weider Powerswitch 100 lb. weight set has outperformed my expectations by far, and I hope to be able to use these as often as I have been for years to come. These are dumbbells adjustable in 5 pound increments starting from 10 pounds and go up to 50 pounds.

Weider Adjustable Dumbbells Review:

My first fear of the weider powerswitch 100 dumbbells after I bought them was of the integrity of the weight-switching mechanism failing. The switching mechanism of the adjustable weight dumbbell has a tendency to fail or be sticky with some sets. But with the Weider set it’s been as smooth and easy to use as it was on day 1. I have recently read some reviews of these same dumbbells saying the mechanism can get a little stiff, but that some all purpose lubricant like WD40 makes them like new again. I have not had to use any WD40 on my set.

I love the grips of these dumbbells. The part-metal-part-rubber grip fits very comfortably in my hand and facilitates the exercises that I do. Often when I’m away from home and use other dumbbells I immediately notice the difference in comfort when holding some traditional dumbbells. Most that I have used have a smaller diameter grip, which, when compared to the Powerswitch’s grip, is much less comfortable for me.

The other thing I love about the Weider Powerswitch adjustable dumbbells is that they come with a nice, heavy, sturdy stand. Not all sets come with a stand included in the price. The stands makes picking up and setting down the dumbbells very easy. The only thing about the stand I don’t like is sometimes when I have the dumbbells loaded all the way to 50 pounds the weights seem a little too snug coming out of the stand unless you lifted them out at a certain angle. After some time using them I got used to this and it’s no longer an annoyance.

Weider Dumbbell Bottom line:

After a year of use and abuse these weider adjustable dumbbells are still in awesome shape- really as good as new. I’m very pleased with them, would buy them again, and recommend them to anyone building a home gym who is limited in the space they have for equipment.

I’ll cut to the chase- the cheap dumbbell we recommend for the home gym is an adjustable dumbbell. Why? Price and space. Most rooms you set apart for a “home gym” won’t fit an entire rack of hex dumbbells comfortably. But replace that entire 4-5 foot long rack with one set of dumbbells and you free up a lot of room for you to exercise in. An adjustable dumbbell set is small enough to fit nicely in the corner of room without getting in the way at all. You don’t get that with 9 pairs of hex dumbbells on a rack. That takes up almost an entire wall.

Why are adjustable dumbbells cheap? You’re paying for less material and less shipping. With a hex set of 5-50 lb. you get 540 pounds of weight in the box. With an adjustable set from 5-50 pounds you get 100 pounds of weight in the box. Even though you get a fifth of the net weight, you don’t pay a fifth of the price. That would be sweet. But adjustable dumbbells have built in mechanics that allow you to switch between weights, which of course you pay for. Some sets are more expensive, some are less, but overall, you’ll pay around $0.60 per pound. Even the cheap dumbbell sets that are hex-style don’t come close to that price.

Here are three cheap dumbbells that are adjustable and great for a home gym.

Powerblock Adjustable Dumbbells: These are the best out there. They are the most durable, smallest, and have the best warranty of all adjustable dumbbells. Many exercises, like tricep, bicep, and shoulder exercises, can be cumbersome because of the size of some adjustable dumbbells, but are easy to do with the Powerblocks. And you won’t waste any time during your workout adjusting between different weights because of how easy their switch mechanism is. Also, you pay about 55 cents per pounds with the 5-50 lb. set.

Weider Powerswitch Adjustable Dumbbells: These are awesome too, and a little cheaper than the Powerblock. The switch mechanism takes a little getting used to, but after some workouts you’ll get the hang of it quickly. I own these and love them. They come with a stand and cost $299. You can’t beat that price.

Lifecore Adjustable Dumbbells: These are very comparable to the Weider Dumbbells. Though they aren’t as inexpensive, they do come with a stand, and go up to 55 lbs. instead of just 50. That added weight is really nice, especially for back and leg workouts.

So before spending $700-$900 on some “cheap dumbbells” take a look at what adjustable dumbbell sets have to offer you and your home gym. You’ll save money, save some space, and get an equally great work out.

Some people interested in a treadmill for home use just want to be able to walk on a softer surface than concrete, and don’t plan on running at all. Their knees might not be able to with stand the high impact of running and their doctor may even recommend not running for cardiovascular exercise. These people don’t necessarily need to go drop a couple thousand dollars on the “best” treadmill out there. My parents were in this situation exactly. They ended up with a $600 treadmill and they love it. Other athletes will want a treadmill to run at almost full speed and for an extremely long period of time. These people will most likely be better off by avoiding cheap electric treadmills and spending more on a top-end machine. The treadmill companies out there have made it fairly easy and reasonable to get into a treadmill, which is great for people like my parents, but if you are a seasoned athlete don’t unnecessarily buy the lowest priced treadmill out there.

How much do you want to spend on your electrical treadmill? Again, decide this before you go looking. You’ll see machines from $300 to $3000 and at every price in between, and not deciding how much to spend before hand could just lead to an overwhelming shopping experience. Also, figuring out first how you’re going to use the treadmill will help you decide how much is necessary to spend. From everything I’ve seen, read, and experienced, you pretty much get what you pay for with a treadmill. Don’t think that you’re going to get a three thousand dollar machine for $1000- it doesn’t work like that. And realize that the fitness equipment resellers like to play games a little bit with the pricing. They will usually have the MSRP at twice their price, suggesting that you’re saving 50%. Really, that’s just the price they normally sell the machine. If you do your research and don’t rush into something, you won’t be fooled.

The other two questions are answered pretty easily. Do you need to save space and do you have a friend with an electric treadmill you could talk to? A folding electric treadmill is awesome for someone with a smaller home or apartment and can’t have the treadmill laying out the entire day, everyday. Many treadmills fold and roll extremely easily so you can store it in the corner of a room. If you don’t need the space and don’t want to bother with folding and unfolding, then there are non-folding treadmills out there as well. A distinct advantage to non folding electric treadmills is they are more stable. Our final word of advice is to talk to a friend who has a treadmill and ask them questions. They’ll be straight with you, which you can’t necessarily expect from a salesman, and they may have questions for you to ask that you haven’t thought of yet.

So, though we’ll be writing more about specifics of treadmills, which brands are the best, and where to buy them, etc., we think asking these few questions before everything else will help you make a more informed and confident decision when you actually buy the electric treadmill. They are great machines for cardio, there are a lot out there that will accommodate many different types of people and workouts, and the more research you do and questions you ask the better off you’ll be.

An abs chair doesn’t offer the resistance that traditional ab exercises do, despite their claims. Most of these chairs have a bar on each side of the chair, which kind of looks like an arm rest, that the person exercising can pull against to left themselves up. How hard is that? And it certainly doesn’t target your abs. Other chairs have spring loaded back rests that boost you up during the most critical part of a crunch- when you’re at the bottom! And some, like the ab circle pro and ab chair 2, completely lack resistance.

The myth that an ab chair workout is based on is that you can work your abs and trim your waste line. Show me one scientific study that supports that – you won’t find one, because anaerobic exercise of your abdominal muscles won’t target the fat that surrounds those muscles, especially if you’re only working out 3 minutes a day. What burns fat is consistent exercise accompanied by a healthy diet. When you burn calories your body will use both carbs and fat for energy, so the more calories you burn the more carbs and fat your burn. But your body doesn’t say, “Oh, my abs are working, so I’m only going to use the fat that is around those muscles for energy.” It doesn’t work that way. Sorry. But most people don’t know that.

Another classic claim is that with an ab chair you get more range of motion. In reality, to work you abs, you only need 30 degrees of motion. During the first 30 degrees of a sit-up you work your abdominals, but after that it is impossible to contract your abdominals more. You actually start to work your hip flexors, like your psoas major muscle. You might think this is good, but it’s not. Do this little test for me and you’ll see what I’m talking about:

Get on the ground and do as many sit-ups, full range to where you hit you chest to your knees, in one minute as you can. Repeat that three times. Then wait one or two days. Where are you sore? Yes, your stomach will be most likely, but you’ll also feel this really weird deep pain inside your hips. That’s your psoas major muscle, and it attaches to your lumbar spine. So really, one of the best ways to irritate your lumbar spine is by doing full range sit-ups or full range ab chair exercises.

So, to say the least, we do not recommend using an ab chair. They’re expensive, lack resistance, and you don’t need it. There are much better and cheaper ways to work your abs. For example, if you want the best abs machine, go with a Swiss Abs Ball – it’s cheap, fit’s almost anywhere, and you can work your abs muscles very effectively on it.

You wonder why good gyms don’t have abdominal machines like the ab king pro, and ab circles pro, for their customers? It’s because they don’t work. But you will see a ton of peopld doing Swiss ball ab exercises at the gym. The next time you see one at the gym or a friend’s house, do a normal crunch on it, then do a crunch on the ground, and you’ll see the difference immediately. First, you’ll notice how much more comfortable it is to lay down on an exercise ball than on the floor. Second, you’ll notice how the crunch on the Swiss Ball requires you to activate a lot more muscles to stabilize yourself and stay on the ball. You don’t get that with a floor-crunch. And third, you’ll notice you’re not limited to just one movement or motion to work your abdominals- there are dozens of different moves you can do to work your abs. The other ab crunch machines out there offer one exercise motion only.

Here are a few examples of moves you can do on an exercise ball to work your abdominals:

• Ab Roll
• Ball Rotation
• Ball Twist
• Exercise Ball Crunch
• Swiss Ball Side Crunch
• Ball Ab Stretch
• Swiss Ball Reverse Crunch
• Swiss Ball Torso Twist
• Prone Torso Twist

You can purchase Swiss balls pretty much anywhere now (buying the swiss ball online is probably the cheapest) – amazon.com, eBay, Wal-Mart, Target, etc. But you might want to look into the type of ball you’re getting. Not all of the are created equal. The best balls I’ve found are from Thera-Band and SPRI. Most gyms buy these which means they’re made to withstand a lot of use. There also not much more expensive than your Wal-Mart type. Specifically the Thera-band exercise balls support up 300 lbs. and have a 3 year warranty. Other than the brand, take a look at the recommended size of the ball. Here’s a quick table to help you out:

Height Ball Height Ball Size
Up to 4’10” 45 cm Small
4’10” to 5’5” 55 cm Medium
5’6” to 6’0” 65 cm Large
6’0” to 6’5” 75 cm Extra Large
Over 6’5” 85 cm Extra, Extra Large

(When you sit on the ball, it should be inflated enough so that your thighs are parallel to the floor or slightly above parallel.)

So please don’t go and buy one of those As Seen on T.V. ab crunch machines. You don’t need it! Just get the one best simple ab machine there is- the Swiss ball. You won’t regret making this addition to your home gym.

The package they offer costs around $100 and includes the Ab King Pro machine, an instructional video, a conditioning video and a slim down plan. But the Abs King Pro is just another bench with an arc support bar attached to it. It’s nothing special, and certainly nothing compared to what we consider the best ab machine out there- the Swiss Ball. Also, its construction is certainly not worth the $100. The cushion is terrible and the machine doesn’t adjust to fit smaller or larger people, making it pretty awkward for them.

Here is what they claim of Ab King Pro exercise: “The Ab King Pro is designed to give you flat, sexy, rock-hard abs faster and easier than any other product on the market.

Other machines only give you a 90-degree range of motion, but the Ab King Pro’s secret is its astonishing 200-degree range of motion that targets your upper, lower, middle abs and obliques all at once, on the way up and down.

In just 3 minutes a day (combined with regular exercise and a sensible diet) you’ll tighten your stomach and reduce those love handles in DAYS, not months!”

Seriously? Just run away from this machine. Spend your time and money on something of value (like a good exercise ball so you can do swiss ball ab exercises). Rock hard abs don’t come easy, you don’t need 200 degrees of motion (you only need 30 degrees), and 3 minutes a day is not enough. Sorry. The Ab King Pro doesn’t measure up to its price and nothing, this machine especially, will ever measure up to those claims.

Here are the pros to the Lifecore Fitness Dumbbells:

1. Grip- These are extremely comfortable to hold. They use a neoprene grip which in my opinion is more comfortable than metal when your using the dumbbells for a longer period of time.
2. Stand- The stand is open, allowing you to sort of step in between the dumbbells to lift them, rather than standing in front of them, which requires you to bend your back a little too much for some people. This stand is sturdy, and it comes with the system.
3. The Lifecore dumbbell comes with a 5-year warranty
4. Adjustable in 2.5-pound increments- this gives you some diversity that a lot of adjustable dumbbell systems don’t.

Why they don’t match up to the Powerblock or Weider:

1. Price- They aren’t the cheapest. If you buy the set with the stand it will run you around $450. You can buy Lifecore dumbbells at amazon.com. For some reason they don’t sell them on the Lifecore website.
2. Weight Switching Mechanism- Compared to the Powerblock and Weider is isn’t as smooth. To switch weights you push a slide bar up or down. It can get caught up a little easier than ideal.
3. Size- This was the biggest draw back for me. They are a lot bigger when fully loaded than most adjustable dumbbells out there. They can interfere with full range of motion with some exercises.

Overall this adjustable dumbbell set would make a great addition to a home gym. They are much cheaper than traditional hex bells, are very durable and versatile, and though they’re not our #1 set, Lifecore dumbbells are a level above most other adjustable dumbbell sets out there.

The Weider Tech Powerswitch dumbbells and stand are very sturdy and easy to use. Assembly is simple- you just put a few screws in to assemble the stand and the weights come ready to go. The grip is really nice- is mostly metal but has a small oval section of rubber that your palm contacts which I think makes holding them very comfortable. Switching between weights is a piece of cake. The only system that I’ve found that is easier to switch is the Powerblock adjustable dumbbell set. To switch weights you pull up on a spring-loaded bar and slide that bar to the desired weight. The mechanics are smooth and there really is no way for the weights to fall out after the pin has been adjusted. Some reviews have said that the switching mechanism catches. I have only experienced that when I’m in hurry and don’t try to be smooth with the transition. Size wise the Weider Powerswitch 100 set is about as big as a hex 45 pound dumbbell, and I’ve only noticed a limitation in range in motion when doing crouched curls. They suit every other dumbbell exercise that I’ve done. 100 pounds is the heaviest they go, which limits some back and leg exercises, but that’s not a big deal for the types of workouts most people do at home, especially with adjustable dumbbells. Overall Weider has put out a great product for a home gym for a reasonable price, and I would definitely recommend to buy Weider Powerswitch dumbbells as an addition to your home gym, and would recommend them over other brands such as the Bowflex SelecTech Dumbbells, and the Lifecore Dumbbells. The only adjustable dumbbell set that I might recommend over the Weider Powerswitch is the Powerblock set.

For the Powerblock U-90 Stage I set, which goes from 2.5 to 50 pounds, adjustable in 2.5 pound increments, you pay $379 plus $59 shipping- a total of $438. That’s 825 pounds of weight replacing 16 pairs of dumbbells. You pay $0.53/lb. The Powerblock Sport 5.0 set goes from 5-50 lbs, adjustable in 5 lb. increments and is $299. So price wise these still kill the traditional hex dumbbell set. There stands cost $100, but aren’t required. So total you’d be starting out at $300 to $500. A superior aspect of the Powerblock design is the lack of moveable parts in the system. You’re not turning a knob or lifting a spring loaded bar to adjust the weights. This adds to their durability and ease of use. Switching between different weights is a piece of cake with these; you simply pull out a silicone flex pin that divides the weights, slip it back in to a different position, and you’re off lifting again.

Also, you can purchase additional weight packages and add them to your set, increasing each bell to 125lbs if you want! No other dumbbell out there does this. Adding this weight will allow you to work with lower rep sets, which will allow stronger people to actually rip their muscles and add bulk. 50 pounds usually isn’t enough weight for more well-seasoned athletes while doing back, leg, and shoulder exercises. The Powerblock adjustable dumbbell is also more compact than the traditional hex dumbbell (see picture below of different 30 lb. weights) and they come with a lifetime warranty. Again, they come with a LIFETIME WARRANTY. So the Powerblock dumbbell set optimizes your dollar, your space, ease of use, and will last you a very long time. Definitely check these out.