I'm not going to lie to you, I was skeptical of this idea when it first came to me. To be honest, I thought that it would be a complete waste of time and money but after trying it out I'm glad I gave it a go. I was told at the time that I would only get a couple of reps per set so I would have to be prepared for that. I guess if I had been paying close attention then I would have noticed that there are other advantages to using heavier weights.
Let's start with the obvious advantage of getting more reps. I don't think I've paid my own weight in the gym in a very long time so this is definitely a big bonus. I was getting roughly half a dozen reps per set before I started using the five pounders. This made the exercise much easier on my body, not just because of the weight, but because of the increased range of motion as well.
The bigger dumbbells featured on this link also allow me to keep the weights they're actually on the floor. This makes working out more varied. I used to do leg lifts, regular press-ups and chin ups with the weights on the floor. Now I can do all of these without the weights on. This is great for those days when I just want to work out a bit more since I can do it anywhere.
I'm not the strongest man in my family but I can deadlift about as much weight as some guys. I was always weak but this made it much easier for me. The added range of motion helps when you're doing heavy squats, lunges or deadlifts. It really does make a difference.
I also did quite a lot of bench presses with the regular weights but I never had the inclination to move up to the higher rep range like I can now. That's probably because I lack the biceps and triceps to actually pull off that kind of rep. I'm still working on my biceps and triceps, so I'll have to see how far I can push myself but so far so good.
Now the one thing I couldn't do with the regular weights was to do pull ups. I'm not sure why that is, maybe I'm just weak or whatever but I could do chin ups with the dumbbells but not a pull up. Now I can pull down bar from above but only on the second try. This has to be said though, I think I'm going to have to upgrade the dumbbells I have to do pull ups anytime soon. If I get the right ones, I think I might be able to do some pretty awesome pull ups.
The added advantage to using the dumbbells is the versatility they bring. For instance when I'm lifting with a bar and I get tired I can simply sit down on the bench and lift the weights. Now I can also do squats if I wanted to just stay at the same bench height. So, if I wanted to I could stay home and bench press all day and then squat and do some deadlifts.
There are plenty of benefits to having a set of dumbbells, it just comes down to what you're going to use them for. Personally I prefer the bigger dumbbells but either way they do the job. My best attribute is probably the flexibility and adaptability they bring to my workouts. You never know when you might need them.