I'm 67 years and 8-months old, and I own 4 home gyms: a garage gym, a basement gym, an extension room gym, and a backyard patio gym. I own solid rubber-coated hex dumbbells, Power Block adjustable dumbbells, Olympic adjustable dumbbells, Kensui Fitness Adjustabell, and spin-lock dumbbells. I recommend buying the spin-lock dumbbells with vinyl-covered concrete weight plates. Vinyl-covered concrete weight plates are larger, and it is easy to bench press with them because of their large size. You don't need a flat bottom to kick into position when you do flat bench presses because of their size. You can also do unbalanced curls and other unbalanced exercises, like Arnold Schwarzenegger did-- that is, by loading more weight on one side of the dumbbells than on the other. For instance, curl with the heavier side while turning your wrist inward, which causes your biceps to ball up and contract harder.

Spin locks are a sensible starting point for most people. I started with 2 pairs (one regular and one extra long), but eventually got tired of constantly changing plates. I gradually built up a set of fixed DBs for this reason. The spin locks are still used for top sets though, as fixed DBs get very expensive & take up a lot of room if you want a full set to 50kg or 110lb. I now use spin locks for anything over 30kg and have fixed for 30kg and under.

Im really interested on the pepin HD spin locks. They look like you get the feel of real dumbells.

Very informative, great video

Clips are a bad option for hammer curls and a any other exercise where the DB is straight up and down. I've had the weight push the clip off when fully vertical

Thanks for the recommendations. I bought the norditrack 5-55. Returned it due to the imbalance. Bought the walmart cast iron ones and liked it butttttt… the knurling was very bad or non existent, returned it. I was looking at the Snode AD80 but it ended up with the ironmaster.

I own Iron Masters and Nuobells.80lb I use Iron Masters for my heavy pressing or pulling movements because I drop them all the time with no worries and you can load them over 130lbs . I bought the nuobells because I don't have much space and I got a great deal for the 80lb pair and stand. I use them for Curls, Flyes, shoulder and tricep movements, I occasionally use them for weighted back extensions. All exercises are light enough I don't need to drop the DB after set is complete. I don't know how long they will last however. BTW. I've watched 2 of your videos. I watch many others including all the well known ones. In my opinion, you are among the more credible reviewers. Keep it up.

One variation you forgot to cover is the olympic dumbbell handles. Similar to the standard dumbbell handles but obviously for olympic weight plates. They can also use spring lock collars or plastic clip on collars. I have never used any modern adjustable dumbbells (nubell, select trec, etc) nor have I used iron master or power block. I grew up with standard dumbbell handles and collars and later switched to spin lock dumbbell handles. Currently, I use hexbells (some rubberized some not) 5 to 30lb pairs in 5lb incriments and really like them. I use spin lock dumbbells for 35 to 45lbs yo keep the cost low and have 2 pair of olympic dumbbell handles that I can use for quick heavier changes and to have weight amounts ready for drop sets if I want.

Spinlocks are amazing. They're old school and they look, feel & sound like dumbbells. You can basically create a "fixed" set with just them with time, but you'll never run out of space for what is basically a bunch of mostly unused dumbbells at any given time, and without the up front cost. It's hard not to love them.

Kensui Adjustabell is just as cheep and alot better than spinlocks. It’s basically a cheap Ironmaster you can use both 1inch and 2inch weight plates. If you go for the Max version they are ratet for 150LBS (the Pro is 75) Ironmaster is ofcours better. But if you alreafy have alot of 10lbs or 20lbs weight plates in your home gym. Then the Kensui is a really cheap and affordable option

How are those long sticks called tho, it really makes it hard for me to find them exactly as "it's cheap" doesn't apply to all brands

i dont drop weights , if u got a power rack ( all homes should have one ) u can just rope the weights around over the top bars as a spotting rope ,its so nice to do DB press without the worry of pulling a muscle getting it up into starting position

bowflex saves time blah blah blah, meanwhile i know most home gymers are on their phones during their rest periods instead of altering the plates that takes 30 seconds ... ( boomer rant / back in my day )