CAP Barbell Solid Hex Dumbbell, Single: Review

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The CAP Barbell Solid Hex Dumbbell is currently one of the most popular hex dumbbells available across many of the online shopping sites, but what is it about this design that makes it stand out?

This is what we aim to answer throughout our in-depth review, as we take a look at the design, exercise options, and customer reviews, as well as thinking about when you should choose fixed weight dumbbells over an adjustable set.

Ergonomic design features

Whether you are setting up a new home gym, or simply looking to add to an existing collection, having a variety of dumbbells in different weights can make a big impact on your training.

If you’ve lifted at a commercial gym in the past, you probably found that most of the gyms were from the same company, and followed the same style of design.

This is something that’s easily achievable with your own home gym setup, but you need to find a company that produces dumbbells with a wide enough range of weight options.

That’s where the CAP Barbell Solid Hex dumbbells come in.

Available in weights ranging from 5 lb all the way up to over 100 lb, there’s no need to worry about not getting enough of a challenge. Each time your strength level does make significant gains, you can simply buy the next heaviest set available.

In terms of their design and as the name suggests, these are what are classed as Hex dumbbells.

This relates to the shape of the weight at each end, and can actually be a major benefit if you don’t want to damage the floors in the room you’ll be lifting weights in.

With so many flat surfaces around their hexagon shape, this prevents the weight from rolling across the room and potentially causing damage.

Each cast iron dumbbell has also had its weight molded into the main weighted ends, making it quick and easy to identify a pair of the weights, even if you don’t have a storage rack.

If you plan on buying a few sets of these dumbbells across future months, it could certainly be worth investing in one of CAP Barbell’s own A-Frame dumbbell racks for more convenient storage.

Exercise options

With such a wide range of weights available in the solid hex range, it’s no surprise that there’s an equally large collection of exercise options to choose from.

Although your options would greatly increase if you were to combine the CAP Barbell Solid Hex dumbbells with a weights bench, it’s still entirely possible to put together a full body workout.

From bicep curls to lunges, we’ve listed a few of the most popular dumbbell exercises you could be including in your workouts with a set of the hex dumbbells:

Hex dumbbells vs. adjustable dumbbells

If you’re still undecided as to whether to buy a set of adjustable dumbbells or hex dumbbells, there are really just 3 main points to take into consideration:

If you’re mainly training for size and strength, the chances are that you will be using some of the heavier dumbbells in the CAP Barbell Solid Hex range.

In fact, many of the major mass building exercises, such as dumbbell bench press and dumbbell rows, will see you using a weight that’s fairly similar for both exercises.

In this case you will want to opt for the hex style of fixed weight dumbbells, to save wasting many of the lighter weight options in an adjustable set.

However, if you are training more for a mix of strength and size, then you’ll probably be mixing up the low rep strength work with some high rep isolation exercises, such as lateral raises and concentration curls.

In this case you will want to choose the adjustable dumbbells. This will allow you to use the same set for both isolation and mass building exercises.

The CAP Barbell Solid Hex Dumbbells are also made of cast iron as opposed to the toughened plastic coating you see applied to some sets. This can make them much more compact to use than adjustable sets, allowing for a more natural range of motion when curling.

Of course, the adjustable sets will take up less space than buying the hex dumbbells in a few different weight ranges, so you’ll need to base your decision on how much space you can spare for your home gym.

More reviews

Although there’s no need to follow complicated assembly instructions and really not many ways such a solid weight can be damaged or scratched in transit, it’s still important to take a quick look at the customer reviews on some of the online shopping sites.

With well over 200 reviews currently available on Amazon alone, it’s encouraging to see that this is a dumbbell that has such a high average rating.

We’ve provided a quick overview of some of the most important pros and cons we found when reading through many of these reviews ourselves.

Pros:

Cons:

• Weight has shown to be off by 1 – 2 lb in a small number of reviews
• Handles may require polishing to smoothen off any metal flakes left over from the manufacturing process

With the lightest set of 5 lb dumbbells usually costing not much more than $20, we’ve found Amazon to be the most reliable source to buy from if you’re looking for the best deals.