Welcome

Welcome to my ever-evolving blog. It started out as a blog on Beachbody workouts and products, mainly when I was a Beachbody coach. I no longer coach, not because I don't believe in Beachbody's programs (I subscribe to Beachbody on Demand and use their workouts every day), I am just not a salesperson and hated that aspect of it. I am more than willing to answer questions about my experiences with their products and the various workouts, and I feel freer to do so without the appearance of giving a biased review of something.

I have also started adding reviews for various things I have purchased like movies, books, CDs, and other products. This was brought about by a fight with Amazon in which all of my reviews were removed over a completely bullshit allegation that I posted a review that violated their terms of service. After going back and forth with the morons in the community-reviews department (even after they admitted that my posts did not violate their guidelines) they restored my account (which took them six months to do), but I have been posting my reviews on my blog to have them preserved in case something like that happens again. And here, I will post uncensored reviews so I will swear from time to time and post reviews that may be longer than Amazon's character limit. Everything I post here on any topic or product is my personal opinion, and I take no compensation for any product reviews I post. I am a member of Amazon's vine program and because I get those products for free, I keep those reviews on Amazon only, but everything I have purchased with my own money, whether from Amazon or some other store/website/outlet, I will post here.  

I also plan to do some longer blog posts on various topics, such as how to learn physics, how to get through calculus, and longer reviews of workout programs as I do them. Basically, whatever strikes me as interesting at the time.  As you can see if you navigate around the blog, I had many years in between postings. During that time I was going back to school to get an engineering degree, and learning material that I avoided my first time through college was a different experience and one that gave me a lot of insight into how to do well in those classes, which I will try to impart here for those who are looking to get a science or engineering degree. 

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

Product Review: Bowflex SelectTech 552 Adjustable Dumbbells

 


These are, unlike some Bowflex products, mostly good. However, there are a couple of things you need to keep in mind. First, and probably most importantly, they do have plastic parts, so you definitely do not want to drop them, especially on a hard floor. If you have relatively thick mats, like tumbling mats, it is possible they could be dropped safely, but most definitely not on concrete or some kind of hard flooring. I would be hesitant to even drop them on a carpeted surface. The inner mechanism could easily break in that situation, then you basically have a very heavy paperweight. Also, these are much bulkier than traditional free-weight dumbbells, which can be an issue if you have low ceilings and are doing shoulder-press type exercises standing up. I work out in my basement, which has seven-foot ceilings, and even though I am not extremely tall, I am tall enough that if I do standing shoulder presses with these I will easily hit the ceiling and put a nice gash in it. Finally, when you dial in a weight selection the locking mechanism does not always totally engage the plates so you may have to slightly turn the dial and/or jiggle the weights to get them out of the stack. The first two things are major, the other is relatively minor.

Overall, the ability to get 50lbs of dumbbell weight in a compact space is very nice. And for a lot of people, that is probably all the dumbbell weight they will ever need. The handle grip is much better than most dumbbells and they do not get slippery in your hands. I would highly suggest getting the stand that can hold them because constantly bending down to pick them up and put them back may be hard on some people's backs. They are also a lot cheaper than getting 50lbs of regular dumbbells, which is nice. I personally use these in conjunction with regular dumbbells, and for exercises where I am concerned about dropping them if I use max weight I use the regular dumbbells I use those, and for those, I am not concerned about it, I use these.

Overall, these are a pretty good option, but you do kind of have to treat them with kid gloves. Much more than you would ever have to with regular iron dumbbells. I have had these for years and never had an issue with them and do recommend them as long as you keep the things I mentioned in mind.

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