Progressive training is key to making real gains in muscle size and strength.  This needs to be tailored for each body part to ensure the best workout is achieved.  Adjustability is the cornerstone of the Bowflex 552 dumbbells.  They provide a huge amount of variability in small and efficient package.

Simple to Operate

All it takes is a quick turn of a dial to select the required weight.  Adjustable dumbbells have a reputation for rattling when in use.  This is not the case with the Bowflex 552s.  They operate almost noiselessly.

Some adjustable dumbbell manufacturers use a pin system to select the required weight.  This tends to make it fiddly to change the weight just as you are in the middle of an intense set of reps. The dial operation of this set eliminates this problem.  They can be easily adjusted even when they are on the stand.

Optional Stands

The dumbbell stands are an optional extra and have the advantage of allowing you to select weight in-situ, and they look pretty cool.  However, I like to keep these dumbbells under the bed, so the stand is pretty useless for me.

Are they worth the cash?

It may seem at first that the Bowflex 552 adjustable dumbbells are expensive. But when you consider the cost of replicating the weight range with a number of individual dumbbells, it soon becomes clear the savings that you are making.  The dumbbells adjust from as little as 5 lbs right up to an impressive 52.5 lbs.  This is done over 15 steps, so you can see it represents quite a saving in terms of space and cash.

Look and Feel

Let’s face facts.  They look pretty cool don’t they?  They may not have the pared down simplicity of traditional dumbbells, but this does not mean they don’t have real quality and feel.  Bowflex have made a concerted effort over the years to improve their products, and this is definitely the case for the Bowflex 552s.

Living with the 552s

At the beginning I was surprised how wide they seemed, but I soon became accustomed to this difference between the Bowflex 552s and ordinary dumbbells.

The Bowflex 552s are much smaller than their competitors and this really helps during sets of reps when weight adjustment needs to be slick.  When you have got the hang of the wider stance, they are just as easy as any other dumbbell for the full range of exercises.

Chris Jackson is a busy Dad in his forties dedicated to achieving a strong lean body using home-based workouts. You can find out how he manages this at his website fitologi, where he shares the exercises and diet that he follows, including reviews of the Bowflex SelectTech 552s.