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IronMind Home Sweat Home
Dumbbells & Kettlebells - Proudly Made in the USA
IronMind offers dumbbells and kettlebells that
work—hard—in any gym: 
If you don't know who Chuck Ahrens* is and if you're interested in building big strong shoulders, you should do 300-pound one arm presses . . . the best pressers around in the 1950s and 1960s could do these and that’s the gene pool that our Big Boys come from. *Hint: read Bruce Wilhelm's article, "Chuck Ahrens: The Reclusive Powerhouse," MILO, April 1994, Vol. 2, No.1. 
Pat Casey about to give a pair of 210-pound dumbbells air time. Leo Stern photo. For more on the legendary Pat Casey, take a look at: • Pat Casey: King of the Powerlifters, by Bruce Wilhelm • “Pat Casey and the Bench,” by Bruce Wilhelm, MILO, January 1994, Vol. 1, No. 4 
A revolutionary idea in thick-handled dumbbells: whether you want 1-1/2"-, 2"-, or 2-1/2" -diameter dumbbell handles, now you are all set with three nested handles in one unit. Resilient, high-strength, and lightweight, a testament to the power of chemistry, these handles are knurled and ready to take your dumbbell training into the twenty-first century. 
If you want the advantages of thick-handled dumbbell bars for Olympic-style plates, these beauties are for you. 
Retro-tech is the story here: collars that require a wrench and hang on so tight that they bite into the bar. 
First offered by IronMind in 1994, a guy named Pavel Tsatsouline noticed our kettlebells and asked if MILO might be interested in his writing an article on kettlebells from a traditional Russian perspective. The article* was a hit, and Pavel went on to start a kettlebell revolution. Meanwhile, here they are: the authentic IronMind kettlebells that caught Pavel’s attention, so that all of our comrades who think barbell plates are a good thing have a way to get the best of both worlds. *”Vodka, Pickle Juice, Kettlebell Lifting, and Other Russian Pastimes,” MILO, December 1998, Vol. 6, No. 3. Plate-loaded or fixed-weight?
Each has advantages and disadvantages—and they are basically the same whether you are talking dumbbells or kettlebells. Fixed-weight means that each dumbbell or kettlebell is a predetermined weight, so you don't have to change anything, often there are no collars to check or tighten, and the design can be more compact. On the other hand, when you need to go up or down in weight, you have to start all over, buying heavier or lighter dumbbells or kettlebells, which involves additional money and space. With plate-loaded dumbbells or kettlebells, you start with the bars, collars, and a pile of plates—from these elements, you mix and match, creating whatever weight you need, saving you money and space. On the other hand, you will have to loosen and tighten collars and be able to work with dumbbells and kettlebells that have the ends of the bar sticking out, rather than the smooth face of a plate or the rounded sphere of a cast weight, for example. Both are reasonable, proven choices, and at IronMind, we focus on the plate-loaded variety because our interest is always in having you get more from less, whenever possible. Will my plates fit on your bars and dumbbells? No matter how good a bar is in principle, it's no good in practice if you can't fit your plates on it, and maybe in the interest of rounding things off, some people mistakenly think the sleeve on an Olympic bar is 2". The official IWF measurement is 50 mm, which is about 1.97", and while you certainly don’t have to worry about an Eleiko bar being anything but spot-on in terms of meeting these specs, you should also know that the ends of our Apollon's Axle, the revolving sleeves on our Buffalo Bar and S-Cubed Bar, and the ends of our Olympic Husky Handle Dumbbell Bars have always been made to this standard because .03" might not sound like much, but it’s enough to keep a plate with a regulation-sized hole from fitting on, a big annoyance you will be happy to avoid. The situation is a little trickier for exercise (standard) plates, because most will fit on a 1-1/16" bar, but some will only fit on a 1" bar. Our Big Boy Dumbbell Bars, Three-For Nesting Husky Handle Dumbbell Bars, and Wrist Reinforcer all have 1-1/16" ends, so be sure your plates will fit, to avoid frustration. If need be, take your Big Boys or Wrist Reinforcer with you when you go to buy plates—then you'll be sure you’re matching apples with apples. Why do we use this size on these products? To give you an extra margin of strength and security—our customers include the strongest people on the planet, so we design our products accordingly. The sound of one hand lifting: visit our on-line store for our Big Boy and Husky Handle Dumbbells, Kettlebell Handles, Bulldog II Collars, and more. Get a fresh outlook on training with dumbbells, kettlebells, and more in MILO: A Journal for Serious Strength Athletes. Return to our Home Sweat Home center. 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
