A friend of mine recently changed job positions. At his previous job he belonged to a health club within a mile of his office. Now with the new position the closest one is about 5 miles away and in the opposite direction. With the high cost of gas these days he tries to avoid any extra driving if at all possible.
So, because of this, he wanted to turn a portion of his basement into his own home gym. His big decision came was to decide to go with free weights using a bar to perform exercises like the bench press, shoulder press and so on, go with some nautilus equipment or just buy some dumbbells.
Since he would be working out from home in the early morning, meaning he would not have a spotter around, I told him to go with the dumbbells. I have been there where I have gone to the gym, felt really great, stronger than normal and attempt bench pressing weight I had no business trying in the first place. I think it's a right of passage for all guys to do this, but you suddenly find yourself with a bar loaded with heavy weights stuck to your chest hoping someone will walk by to help you as opposed to make fun of you.
At a fitness center or health club you can get away with this as somebody will eventually go by and help. At home, however you may not be as lucky. For this reason and a couple of others I choose dumbbells. If I ever find myself "stuck" in a movement I can just drop or lower each dumbbell individually without risk of crush my chest or other body parts.
Along with safety reasons dumbbells offer a means to workout each individual arm such as doing alternating dumbbell curls or one arm bent over rows. Dumbbells give you more flexibility.
Many people say that after you start increasing your weights you find yourself with a basement full of dumbbells, and that may be true. If space is a factor in your decision then look towards some incremental dumbbells such as the pro trainers or even Bowflex now offers them (although they only go up to 80 pounds per dumbbell for your stronger people).
Also with dumbbells a flat bench is all your need to perform every exercise for every body part that you can think of. Dumbbells are easy to maneuver since they are so small so switching from one exercise routine to the next is a cinch.
If you are looking into starting or creating your own home gym and unsure as to what kind of weights you should add, consider dumbbells. They are a good way to get started and versatile enough for you to perform any and almost every exercise that you need.
