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"Even casual gym-goers might be able to justify the spend since weights at home are the only option when gyms aren’t open" Which is false, as you could always

"Even casual gym-goers might be able to justify the spend since weights at home are the only option when gyms aren’t open" Which is false, as you could always just do bodyweight exercises instead. "You can overload the body with bodyweight, but at some point you are going to have to add more." That may be true, but I would bet 99.9% of the people buying dumbbells aren't anywhere near that point.

niffydroid 6y ago
They could be concentrating on isolating muscles. Doing dumbbells to build up some strength before doing bodyweight is also another possibility. But yeah if you can't get what you want you'll just have to make do and work around it.
Darmody 6y ago
The problem is you can't do every exercise with your body weight, specially if you want to build muscle.
- tomcooks 6y ago
  Aren't there simple variations that specifically target those who haven't got the muscle power to do the proper exercise? Like negative pull-ups for those who can't do a pullup yet, or knee pushups, or many others you can find on any good bodyweight routine?
  - Darmody 6y ago
    Well, yes but I don't mean that. Even if you can do push ups or any other exercise with your body weight, there are some muscles that you can't exercise. Legs are extremely complicated to work out without weight. They carry your whole weight around all day so in order to make it suffer a bit, you need to add something on top of that. You can't do biceps or any other small muscle that needs to be isolated during the workout.
nicoburns 6y ago
The benefit of dumbbells could be the opposite: that they weigh less than the body and thus make the exercises more manageable.
- jld89 6y ago
  For that there are always alternative body weight exercises to make the effort easier.
  - Jtsummers 6y ago
    Yep. Do push-ups on an incline. Get rings or a suspension trainer and do exercises from a more upright position. Rest feet on the floor when doing dips. Tons of ways to scale exercises down if you can’t do the normal version yet.
    - LanceH 6y ago
      While you are all technically correct for one reading of that one sentence, it can also be read that buying dumbbells is the only option for using dumbbells right now.
  - Demiurge 6y ago
    Not really. What’s a body weight alternative to shoulder lift? When I travel and stay in hotels without gym, I use chairs and furniture. However, holding on to them can be really hard and certain exercises are just impossible.
    - esrauch 6y ago
      You can do it with Resistance Bands which are super light.
      - Demiurge 6y ago
        That’s a good point, and I try that as well when no alternative, but I prefer a chair and a dumbbell before those things because they pull in a specific direction rather than down. But these are not just using a body.
whatok 6y ago
Casual gym-goers are likely more familiar with random dumbbell routines than a myriad of bodyweight exercises. If you've been out of the gym for months and are out of shape, you're likely going to go with something that's familiar to you with proven benefits regardless of whether there are superior alternatives out there.
polote 6y ago
> Which is false, as you could always just do bodyweight exercises instead. lol, why dumbbells have been used for so long if they are useless ? bodyweights exercises are quite limited, only three of them can are usefull for athletic people, dips (triceps) and pull ups( back + biceps) and handstand press (this one is very hard, shoulders). Push ups are very limited in term weight, about 50kg bench press equivalent (which is nothing). Raw squat is the same , doing 100 reps is not the same as doing 10 reps with 80kg on the back. If you really want to exercise your legs, chest, biceps you have to use weights. But of course if you are not into gym but only into fitness, you can do anything bodyweight
- nextos 6y ago
  You can add rings and then you have a lot more bodyweight options. But I agree weights tend to be more efficient towards developing strength.
- Joker_vD 6y ago
  Or you could spend literally hours on bodyweight exercises, the athletes of yore used to do this... but it is indeed an inferior option.
  - Mindstormy 6y ago
    I wouldn't say its inferior by any means. I think the biggest difference is accessibility. When one uses weights, progression is very simple, just increase the weight. With body weight exercises one must switch exercises to increase / change the leverage and make the exercise harder to continue progression. A good example of this is going from a regular push up, to a diamond pushup, then moving toward pseudo planche pushups. The move from regular to diamond is not too bad as you only need to move your hands closer together, but to make progress towards PPPU, you have to learn how to do a planche lean forward a tiny bit more each time you attempt PPPU's eventually moving your hands from under your shoulders to practically under your hips for generating the push motion. So I guess the main point is body weight exercises require more study and coaching generally to see progression than exercises with weights and the progression you do see is less noticeable than simply adding more weight each time you workout, but they are both very good at gaining strength. edit - punctuation
_tik_ 6y ago
Based on personal experience. I need to set my exercises not too easy and not too difficult. Too easy will get me bored. Too difficult i will totally give up. For that dumbbells is easier to manage.
technodelic 6y ago
It doesn't take very long to get to a point where you can benefit from adding weight to chin-ups/dips. Someone able to do just 1 chin-up at the start of lockdown could have made some very good progress now depending on how well they trained, their physical proportions, and athletic history. Also, some people simply benefit from exercise variety. I personally get sick of certain movements after months of doing them and need to switch them up purely for mental motivation. Another issue with bodyweight training compared to free weights is training legs and hips effectively. Plenty people will be able to add resistance right away to something like a squat.
- dogma1138 6y ago
  Can you do a pistol squat?
octygen 6y ago
The debate is all about goals. The vast majority of athletic goals outside of bodybuilding and power lifting can be achieved with bodyweight and one kettlebell. The choice of that kb depends on your goals again. I have a 35lb and it's enough to get a hard workout.

niffydroid 6y ago

They could be concentrating on isolating muscles. Doing dumbbells to build up some strength before doing bodyweight is also another possibility. But yeah if you can't get what you want you'll just have to make do and work around it.

Darmody 6y ago

The problem is you can't do every exercise with your body weight, specially if you want to build muscle.

tomcooks 6y ago
Aren't there simple variations that specifically target those who haven't got the muscle power to do the proper exercise? Like negative pull-ups for those who can't do a pullup yet, or knee pushups, or many others you can find on any good bodyweight routine?
- Darmody 6y ago
  Well, yes but I don't mean that. Even if you can do push ups or any other exercise with your body weight, there are some muscles that you can't exercise. Legs are extremely complicated to work out without weight. They carry your whole weight around all day so in order to make it suffer a bit, you need to add something on top of that. You can't do biceps or any other small muscle that needs to be isolated during the workout.

nicoburns 6y ago

The benefit of dumbbells could be the opposite: that they weigh less than the body and thus make the exercises more manageable.

jld89 6y ago
For that there are always alternative body weight exercises to make the effort easier.
- Jtsummers 6y ago
  Yep. Do push-ups on an incline. Get rings or a suspension trainer and do exercises from a more upright position. Rest feet on the floor when doing dips. Tons of ways to scale exercises down if you can’t do the normal version yet.
  - LanceH 6y ago
    While you are all technically correct for one reading of that one sentence, it can also be read that buying dumbbells is the only option for using dumbbells right now.
- Demiurge 6y ago
  Not really. What’s a body weight alternative to shoulder lift? When I travel and stay in hotels without gym, I use chairs and furniture. However, holding on to them can be really hard and certain exercises are just impossible.
  - esrauch 6y ago
    You can do it with Resistance Bands which are super light.
    - Demiurge 6y ago
      That’s a good point, and I try that as well when no alternative, but I prefer a chair and a dumbbell before those things because they pull in a specific direction rather than down. But these are not just using a body.

whatok 6y ago

Casual gym-goers are likely more familiar with random dumbbell routines than a myriad of bodyweight exercises. If you've been out of the gym for months and are out of shape, you're likely going to go with something that's familiar to you with proven benefits regardless of whether there are superior alternatives out there.

polote 6y ago

> Which is false, as you could always just do bodyweight exercises instead. lol, why dumbbells have been used for so long if they are useless ? bodyweights exercises are quite limited, only three of them can are usefull for athletic people, dips (triceps) and pull ups( back + biceps) and handstand press (this one is very hard, shoulders). Push ups are very limited in term weight, about 50kg bench press equivalent (which is nothing). Raw squat is the same , doing 100 reps is not the same as doing 10 reps with 80kg on the back. If you really want to exercise your legs, chest, biceps you have to use weights. But of course if you are not into gym but only into fitness, you can do anything bodyweight

nextos 6y ago
You can add rings and then you have a lot more bodyweight options. But I agree weights tend to be more efficient towards developing strength.
Joker_vD 6y ago
Or you could spend literally hours on bodyweight exercises, the athletes of yore used to do this... but it is indeed an inferior option.
- Mindstormy 6y ago
  I wouldn't say its inferior by any means. I think the biggest difference is accessibility. When one uses weights, progression is very simple, just increase the weight. With body weight exercises one must switch exercises to increase / change the leverage and make the exercise harder to continue progression. A good example of this is going from a regular push up, to a diamond pushup, then moving toward pseudo planche pushups. The move from regular to diamond is not too bad as you only need to move your hands closer together, but to make progress towards PPPU, you have to learn how to do a planche lean forward a tiny bit more each time you attempt PPPU's eventually moving your hands from under your shoulders to practically under your hips for generating the push motion. So I guess the main point is body weight exercises require more study and coaching generally to see progression than exercises with weights and the progression you do see is less noticeable than simply adding more weight each time you workout, but they are both very good at gaining strength. edit - punctuation

_tik_ 6y ago

Based on personal experience. I need to set my exercises not too easy and not too difficult. Too easy will get me bored. Too difficult i will totally give up. For that dumbbells is easier to manage.

technodelic 6y ago

It doesn't take very long to get to a point where you can benefit from adding weight to chin-ups/dips. Someone able to do just 1 chin-up at the start of lockdown could have made some very good progress now depending on how well they trained, their physical proportions, and athletic history. Also, some people simply benefit from exercise variety. I personally get sick of certain movements after months of doing them and need to switch them up purely for mental motivation. Another issue with bodyweight training compared to free weights is training legs and hips effectively. Plenty people will be able to add resistance right away to something like a squat.

dogma1138 6y ago
Can you do a pistol squat?

octygen 6y ago

The debate is all about goals. The vast majority of athletic goals outside of bodybuilding and power lifting can be achieved with bodyweight and one kettlebell. The choice of that kb depends on your goals again. I have a 35lb and it's enough to get a hard workout.