7 Ways Adjustable Dumbbells Can Boost Your Workouts

If you typically hit the gym at peak hours, you’re likely no stranger to spending a chunk of your workout looking for the right equipment or waiting your turn for the squat rack. On the flip side, working out at home may call to mind hundreds of burpees or endless reps of light biceps curls with the sole pair of dumbbells you snagged at a yard sale years ago.

There’s another option for you: Adjustable dumbbells. With the ability to load weights ranging from five to 100 pounds on a single piece of equipment, this variation on the classic dumbbell can save you both money and floor space, while also providing you with a home workout worthy of your fitness goals.

For years, PowerBlock has been the premier brand for adjustable dumbbells, and the company continues to iterate on its classic design with its latest model, the Pro 100 EXP. And to celebrate its release, BarBend has teamed up with PowerBlock to break down seven ways adjustable dumbbells can boost your workouts.

Editor’s Note: The content on BarBend is meant to be informative in nature, but it should not be taken as medical advice. When starting a new training regimen and/or diet, it is always a good idea to consult with a trusted medical professional. We are not a medical resource. The opinions and articles on this site are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. They are not substitutes for consulting a qualified medical professional.

7 Ways Adjustable Dumbbells Can Boost Your Workout

• You Can Change Weights Quickly
• Perfect for Beginners to Advanced Athletes
• Space-Saving for Home Workouts
• Unilateral Work With Dumbbells Targets Muscle Imbalances
• Some Exercises Are Better With Dumbbells
• Adjustable Dumbbells Make Progressive Overload Simple
• You’ll Build More Core Stability

But First, What Are Adjustable Dumbbells?

Having a squat rack, a complete set of dumbbells, and a cable machine at home would be fantastic — but that’s not necessarily realistic for small spaces or most budgets. Adjustable dumbbells help solve that problem by allowing you to adjust the weight from five to 100 pounds so you can go from light curls to heavy presses on a whim without needing a spare room filled with free weights.

The PowerBlock Pro 100 EXP dumbbells come in pairs and you can adjust the weight in 2.5- or five-pound increments, so you have more control over your total load. In effect, the Pro 100 EXP replaces up to 30 pairs of dumbbells, yet it’s compact enough to slide under a bed or into a closet when you’re finished working out.

Dumbbells may not be able to replace a barbell for certain lifts, but they have their own unique benefits, and adjustable dumbbells are even more adaptable. Working with dumbbells can improve your skills and help even out your strength and muscle imbalances. These gains will carry over to the next time you hit the lifting platform. Here are a few reasons to consider grabbing a pair.

You Can Change Weights Quickly

Instead of wandering around the gym looking for that missing 40-pound dumbbell that someone left near the squat rack, adjustable dumbbells contain all the weights you’ll need for your workout in a single spot.

This works especially well if you’re looking to shave some time off your workouts. For example, you’re likely going heavier on your shoulder presses than your lateral raises — now you can superset them quickly without having to shuttle several different weights back and forth between sets.

Perfect for Beginners to Advanced Athletes

Since the PowerBlock Pro 100 EXP dumbbells are sold in pairs that range from five to 100 pounds, lifters of all experience levels can use them for quality work.

For beginners, it’s helpful first to nail down perfect form in bodyweight movements like squats, lunges, and planks. Then, you can add five pounds to your squats and lunges and build from there as your strength increases. You can then learn deadlifts, bench presses, shoulder presses, rows, and farmer’s carries with light weights and increase over time.

When you’re new, you’ll build strength pretty quickly. While the base Pro 100 EXP model includes weight plates that go up to 40 pounds, you can purchase additional expansion kits that top out at 100 pounds total as you get stronger. So beginners won’t have to pay for 100 pounds worth of weight they might not use right away — instead, they can add on as they progress.

Advanced lifters also benefit from a wide range of weights. With just one piece of equipment, you can hit lighter weights on your curls, medium weights for shoulder presses, and go super heavy on squats and deadlifts.

Lift Whenever, Wherever 

Not everyone has the money or time to drive to a gym every day, and building a home weight room isn’t something that many people can fit into their budget (or literally into their garage.) Adjustable dumbbells help solve that by consolidating entire weight racks into an all-in-one package.

So whether you’re living in a cramped apartment or are a busy parent who wants to bang out some deadlifts in a home office before picking your kid up from soccer, it’s made even easier with these dumbbells. You can even store a pair in your home office so you can do some curls during your company’s next all-hands Zoom meeting. (We suggest you keep your camera off, though.)

Unilateral Work With Dumbbells Targets Muscle Imbalances

You may have felt one side give out before the other when doing bilateral (two-limb) exercises with a barbell. For example, think of doing a barbell bench press. If you’ve felt one side lag behind on that last rep, it could be a strength or muscle imbalance in your pec, triceps, or rotator cuff muscles.

Working with dumbbells allows you to do unilateral (or single-limb) exercises that target these imbalances between your two sides. When performing a single-arm bench press with a dumbbell, you can help build up your strength on your weaker side by completing a few extra reps, improving your bench technique overall.

Your non-working limb may also benefit. According to the phenomenon of cross-education, unilaterally training your stronger side may also increase the strength of your weaker side. Studies have shown that after resistance training on one limb, strength on the opposite limb increases. (1)

Some research suggests cross-education occurs because the muscular contractions on one side send immediate neural signals to the other side. Another theory is that your temporal lobe may play a larger role in cross-education than motor learning. (2)(3)

It doesn’t end at the bench press, either: You can also do single-arm rows, shoulder presses, and farmer’s carries. Single-leg deadlifts, pistol squats, step-ups, and lunge variations are also some unilateral exercises for your lower body.

Dumbbells Activate Muscles More on Certain Exercises

Dumbbells allow unrestricted movement, which lets you train in all three planes of motion: frontal, sagittal, and transverse. In the frontal plane, you move from side to side. In the transverse plane, you rotate. Many exercises are in the sagittal plane, where you move backward and forward. Training all three is beneficial for excellent movement quality, mobility, flexibility, and overall technique.

Training in the transverse plane may also improve your athletic performance in sports that require rotational power or swinging, like baseball, golf, and tennis. (4)

Research shows that certain exercises — like chest flyes — may be more effective when using dumbbells because they allow for more freedom of movement. (5) Windmills, rear delt flyes, and chops and lifts are a few other exercises in the frontal and transverse planes that you can’t do with a barbell.

Other research suggests that you may get more muscle activation overall with dumbbells than with barbells or machines in the bench press and triceps extension. (6)

Adjustable Dumbbells Make Progressive Overload Simple

When following a training program to build muscle or increase strength, you need to change one variable at a time to increase the difficulty and make progress. This is known as progressive overload: increasing your weight, reps, or sets to get stronger as the weeks go by. You can also change your base of support, exercise angle, or increase your volume and intensity with other methods.

Progressive overload can be challenging when working out at home, but adjustable dumbbells make it simple. You can easily increase your weight gradually by 2.5 pounds at a time or knock the weight down if you want to crank out more reps and sets. Unlike standard dumbbells, where you’re locked into one set weight until you buy more pairs, these adjustable models don’t make it inconvenient to get stronger.

You’ll Build More Core Stability

When working with dumbbells, you’ll need to work harder to keep your torso still as your limbs move, which requires and builds balance and core strength. Better balance can help prevent injuries (especially to your spine) and improve your performance on the lifting platform. 

So that means every time you do dumbbell curls, presses, or rows, you’ll be stabilizing your torso and spine for that extra bit of core work, whether you’re completely conscious of it or not. You’ll build more core strength, stability, and even some muscle over time.

Put a Pin in It

Barbells, machines, cables, and all the features of a fancy gym are great but not crucial to building strength and muscle. Working with dumbbells allows you to do all your fundamental movements, target muscle imbalances, strengthen your core, and make serious progress toward your fitness goals. Some exercises are even better suited to dumbbells due to their free movement patterns.

With adjustable dumbbells, it all becomes even more accessible. You can do a solid workout at home with limited space and time. The PowerBlock Pro 100 EXP gives you access to all weights from five to 100 pounds, so lifters of all levels can choose their custom weight and quickly swap them out for different exercises.

In the time you spend waiting for the 17.5-pound dumbbells to become available at peak hours at the gym, you could be banging out a circuit of presses, rows, and curls at home. All it takes is sticking a pin in your dumbbells and lifting, and you can easily swap between your three different weights.

Head here to learn more about how the PowerBlock Pro 100 EXP adjustable dumbbells can effectively boost your workouts.

References

1. Lee M, Carroll TJ. Cross education: possible mechanisms for the contralateral effects of unilateral resistance training. Sports Med. 2007;37(1):1-14. 
2. Green LA, Gabriel DA. The cross education of strength and skill following unilateral strength training in the upper and lower limbs. J Neurophysiol. 2018 Aug 1;120(2):468-479. 
3. Farthing JP, Borowsky R, Chilibeck PD, Binsted G, Sarty GE. Neuro-physiological adaptations associated with cross-education of strength. Brain Topogr. 2007 Winter;20(2):77-88. 
4. McHugh MP, O’Mahoney CA, Orishimo KF, Kremenic IJ, Nicholas SJ. Importance of Transverse Plane Flexibility for Proficiency in Golf. J Strength Cond Res. 2022 Feb 1;36(2):e49-e54. 
5. Solstad TE, Andersen V, Shaw M, Hoel EM, Vonheim A, Saeterbakken AH. A Comparison of Muscle Activation between Barbell Bench Press and Dumbbell Flyes in Resistance-Trained Males. J Sports Sci Med. 2020 Nov 19;19(4):645-651. 
6. Farias, Déborah & Willardson, Jeffrey & Paz, Gabriel & Bezerra, Ewertton & Miranda, Humberto. (2016). Maximal Strength Performance and Muscle Activation for the Bench Press and Triceps Extension Exercises Adopting Dumbbell, Barbell, and Machine Modalities Over Multiple Sets. The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 31.