POwerblOck PrO exP

My name is Tim May and I have been a Fitness Pro for 25 years. A former minor league hockey player, sports and fitness has been a part of almost my entire 47 years on this planet. I received a degree in Kinesiology in 1995, and became a certified personal trainer in 1998. My experience with fitness equipment is vast. Back in the mid 80’s I used a thigh master. Yes, it’s true, I used it to help me with my hockey workouts. And no, I didn’t buy it. I used Mom’s. I ordered PowerBlock dumbbells recently so I could complete my home gym. I bought PRO EXP dumbbells, allowing me to lift weights from 5 pounds up to 90 pounds. I also got a stand to put the dumbbells on and a bench enabling me to perform many exercises. The day they arrived: I was super excited to see 6 boxes with the PowerBlock logo sitting on my doorstep. I started with the dumbbells. They came in 4 boxes. Two boxes held the base set (50 pounds), and two boxes had the expansion kits, allowing the dumbbells to go up to 90 pounds. I was impressed with how easy it was to assemble the dumbbells. Essentially, all I had to was peel off some wrapping and they were ready to rock. Another box held the travel bench. This was also super simple to assemble, I only had to place some locking pins and the bench was set. The last box was the dumbbell stand. This required a tool, a Philips screwdriver. I have about 13 of them laying around, so I located one and followed the instructions. 18 screws, a handful of stickers, and 10 to 15 minutes later, boom, my stand was sturdy, held my dumbbells and I was ready to lift some weights. Adjusting the weights: This was simple, only took a couple of seconds. You pull out the fork like thingy (I am sure it has an actual term but that’s what I call it) and slide it into the desired weight slot. The weight increments are color coded, very easy to locate, and they go up by 10 pounds. But, a really cool feature is the ability to take in and out these little cylinders. Each dumbbell has two of them and they weight 2.5 pounds, so 5 pounds per dumbbell. What this means: You can go up or down 5 pound increments but simply pushing a lever to one side, allowing you to place in and out those 2.5 cylinders. That process does take about 30 seconds, but I typically rest 30 to 45 seconds between sets so this actually made my workout seem to go faster. My overall opinion: I am super stoked that I bought this product. I have 5 pound to 90 pound dumbbells that take up very little space. I did some math, a subject that is not my strong suit, and my dumbbells are the equivalent of 18 pairs. And those 18 pairs total 850 pounds of weights, which would require a lot of space and cost a couple of thousand dollars. With my PowerBlocks, I am set for life!