PowerBlock Sport 2.4 Adjustable Dumbbell review: A well balanced and easy to use home weight

PowerBlock Sport 2.4 Adjustable Dumbbell review in a sentence: a great Bowflex rival for newcomers to home strength training, even if they do look a little peculiar.

Strength training with the best dumbbells is an excellent way of toning up, building muscle and burning fat, especially if you're using adjustable dumbbells like this Powerblock number.

However, they are pretty bulky and require a decent amount of room to house a good spread of weights for performing various exercises. So, what if you don’t have enough space for a full, commercial gym-style weights rack?

This is where a pair of adjustable dumbbells come in, and the PowerBlock Sport 2.4 is a solid answer to replacing up to eight individual sets of dumbbells with one rapidly adjustable system. In this case, that system revolves around solid steel ‘stacks’ that are selected with a magnetic polypropylene selector pin that slides out of the side of the PowerBlock Sport 2.4.

Measuring 25 cm in length and 14 cm in width, the Sport 2.4 is the most compact set of weights that PowerBlock currently offers and, as a result, can’t be expanded with additional kits. Instead, these nifty little numbers offer 1.5 kg to 11 kg in approximately 2.25 kg increments (they are originally for the US market, so weight is listed in poundage, which is irritating for my European mind).

PowerBlock Sport 2.4 Adjustable Dumbbell review: Price and availability

The PowerBlock Sport 2.4 Adjustable Dumbbell is available to buy now from see;cted third party retailers such as sweatband.com for a recommended retail price £199.99.

PowerBlock Sport 2.4 Adjustable Dumbbell review: How does it work?

Perfect for HIIT (high-intensity interval training), where swapping between weights and exercises are frequent or punishing drop sets, an adjustable dumbbell allows for quick and easy weight adjustment without the need for a massive selection of dumbbells. 

They might not look like the traditional rubber or steel dumbbells - or even the twist-to-select adjustable dumbbells from Bowflex and Men’s Fitness - but they actually feel surprisingly good in the hand, offering a stable grip and proving compact enough to perform a variety of strength exercises, from lying presses to bicep curls and beyond.

But how does the PowerBlock Sport 2.4 fit into a daily exercise routine and can it really replace a standard dumbbell? Put the kettle on, grab a protein snack and read the rest of the PowerBlock Sport 2.4 review to find out…

PowerBlock Sport 2.4 Adjustable Dumbbell review: Design and build quality

The Powerblock Sport 2.4 is very, erm, blocky. Essentially, it looks like someone has poured concrete into a shoebox and added in a couple of steel handles (with plastic covers) but they are a little more complex than that.

Essentially, steel weight stacks sit within one another like buff, bicep-building Russian Dolls and it’s up to you, the exerciser, to select the appropriate weight by sliding a plastic selector pin into one of the reinforced rails at the sides. Handily, these are colour coded so you quickly get to know the weights with a visual cue.

It’s not quite as intuitive as the “twist-to-select” models, like the Men’s Fitness Adjustable Dumbbell I’ve tested, but it still offers a quick adjustment of weight once used to the mechanism. 

Due to the steel construction, it all feels well built and solid too, with the weight stacks only emitting a mild rattle when in use. Trust me, some of the other adjustable dumbbells I’ve used make a hell of a racket and these are fairly quiet by comparison, but that’s likely to get worse if you opt for some of the heavier models where more stacking kits are involved.

On top of this, the urethane-covered handles feel a bit cheap and not particularly nice in the hand (knurled steel would have been better), while that plastic selector pin also feels flimsy. That said, PowerBlock claims the pin can handle almost 230kg, so maybe it’s tougher than it looks.

As previously mentioned, these are the most compact Powerblock adjustable dumbbells you can buy, but they still err on the large side. Considering it only offers 11 kg of mass, they feel quite bulky in the hand, leading me to believe the heavier units must feel absolutely massive.

PowerBlock Sport 2.4 Adjustable Dumbbell review: Workout performance

After a few weeks of use and numerous punishing CrossFit-style workouts, which involved weighted exercises and the use of rowing machines, exercise bikes and air bikes, the Powerblock Sport 2.4 quickly became integral to my regular home-based strength building and cardio sessions.

Admittedly, 11kg isn’t really heavy enough to make good progress on the bigger movements, such as squats and pressing, but incorporating the weights into higher-rep or slow tempo sessions reaped solid rewards in the form of burning muscles and aching limbs a day or so afterwards.

Mastering the weight selection proved a bit fiddly at first, as you have to get the prongs of the selector pin flush with the rail of the weight that you want. Otherwise, it’s easy to accidentally partially select a weight and have the interior slide out without the desired weight connected.

This is more prevalent when more stacks (thus more weight) are selected, but it doesn’t take long to work out a method of rapidly changing weight. Handily, there’s an elastic loop that keeps the selector pin from dropping and also helps guide things into place.

Despite the appearance, the recessed handle is easy to live with and allows for plenty of wrist mobility, so it is possible to carry out complex compound movements, such as dumbbell clean and press or lunge movements with curls.

That said, they only offer one grip style, making it difficult to adopt a crush grip (two hands around the handle), nor can you grasp the ‘bell’ element of a traditional dumbbell when performing goblet sumo squats and the like.

Admittedly, these are fairly niche moves and it’s highly likely you’ll have access to a gym (when they open) or boast an existing dumbbell collection of you are throwing crush grip press outs or super heavy sumo squats into a routine.   

Above all else, it is quick and relatively easy to swap weights, which his what most people will look for, and they don’t take up a lot of room. You can easily push these under a bed or sling them behind a sofa when not in use.

One particular element I liked and thought was much better than rivals from Bowflex and Men’s Fitness is the fact that the weight plates don’t require their own plastic tray. With the aforementioned rivals, you have to first lug the dumbbells (with maximum weight selected) and then the plastic tray into position if you want to be able to swap weight plates without them flying all over the place.

Here, it’s simply a case of selecting the heaviest weight and moving the entire unit into position. alternatively, you can leave some of the heavier stacks near the workout station that require them  (floor bench press or squat, for example) and keep the lighter stacks with handles for curling and other trickier exercises.

PowerBlock Sport 2.4 Adjustable Dumbbell review: Verdict

Although not as enjoyable to use or as versatile as traditional dumbbells, there’s no escaping just how useful a set of adjustable dumbbells is for most folk looking to get fitter, build muscle or burn fat from home. With its unique stacking system, the units feel well balanced even when fully loaded. The recessed grips allow plenty of range of motion for various exercises. 

The Powerblock Sport 2.4 take up very little room, making them really easy to store, and offers a very affordable way of achieving a decent weight spread, without the need for an entire rack or tower full of individual dumbbells. They are around half the price of purchasing a set of 1-10kg pairs with a stand or rack and require a fraction of the space. 

Adjusting or swapping the weight stack can be fiddly, but gets quicker and more fuss-free as you get more attuned to their mechanism. I’d not recommend dropping them, mind.

Those looking to hit PBs and really bulk up might want to look towards other PowerBlock products, like the Pro Series or USA Elite Series, as these feature a knurled steel handle and various expansion kits that take them up to 40 kg. Be warned that the price starts heading upwards rapidly, once you start getting more serious about your Powerblock options.

PowerBlock Sport 2.4 Adjustable Dumbbell review: Also consider

if you're happy to spend more to go heavy, you might want to consider getting the Bowflex SelectTech 1090i Adjustable Dumbbell, sometimes also called the 'Rolls Royce of dumbbells'. These beefy 'bells from Bowflex offer a phenomenal spread of 4 kg to 41 kg in a product with a footprint a little bigger than a standard large dumbbell.

If you want to go heavy but don't want to spend quite as much as you would on a Bowflex, consider the MuscleSquad 32.5kg Adjustable Dumbbell. MuscleSquad's monster dumbbell takes up surprisingly little space yet leaves a lot of room for progression and to ‘go heavy’.

This might sound like a curveball but have you considered getting a barbell? The Bowflex SelectTech 2080 Barbell with Curl Bar offers amazing versatility and a lot of opportunities for progression but without the need to store a million weight plates in your living room.