The dumbbell, a type of free weight, is a piece of equipment used in weight training

Weight training

Weight training is a common type of strength training for developing the strength and size of skeletal muscles. It uses the weight force of gravity to oppose the force generated by muscle through concentric or eccentric contraction...

. It can be used individually or in pairs (one for each hand).

History

The forerunner of the dumbbell, halteres

Halteres (ancient Greece)

Halteres were a type of dumbbells used in Ancient Greece. In ancient Greek sports, halteres were used as lifting weights, and also as weights in their version of the long jump, which was probably a set of three jumps. Halteres were held in both hands to allow an athlete to jump a greater distance;...

, were used in ancient Greece

Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...

 as lifting weights and also as weights in the ancient Greek version of the long jump. A kind of dumbbell was also used in India for more than a millennium, shaped like a club

Club (weapon)

A club is among the simplest of all weapons. A club is essentially a short staff, or stick, usually made of wood, and wielded as a weapon since prehistoric times....

 – so named Indian club. The design of the "Nal", as the equipment was referred to, can be seen as a halfway point between a barbell

Barbell

A barbell is a piece of exercise equipment used in weight training, weightlifting and powerlifting. Barbells range in length from to although bars above 7' in length are used primarily by powerlifters and aren't commonplace...

 and a dumbbell. It was generally used in pairs, in workouts by wrestlers, bodybuilders, sports players, and others wishing to increase strength and muscle size.

Etymology

"Dumbbells" as a word originated in Tudor

Tudor period

The Tudor period usually refers to the period between 1485 and 1603, specifically in relation to the history of England. This coincides with the rule of the Tudor dynasty in England whose first monarch was Henry VII...

 England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 – referring to equipment simulating the action of a bell rope for the purpose of developing technique, and especially strength, for the purpose of practicing English bellringing (see Change Ringing

Change ringing

Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a series of mathematical patterns called "changes". It differs from many other forms of campanology in that no attempt is made to produce a conventional melody....

), but without making a noise (hence dumb). When strongmen started to make their own equipment, they kept the name, even though the shape and form changed. See Oxford dictionary definition.

Types

By the early 17th century, the familiar shape of the dumbbell, with two equal weights attached to a handle, had appeared. There are currently three main types of dumbbell:

• Adjustable dumbbells consist of a metal bar whose centre portion is often engraved with a crosshatch pattern
  Pattern
  A pattern, from the French patron, is a type of theme of recurring events or objects, sometimes referred to as elements of a set of objects.These elements repeat in a predictable manner...
  
   (knurling
  Knurling
  Knurling is a manufacturing process, typically conducted on a lathe, whereby a visually attractive diamond-shaped pattern is cut or rolled into metal.- Uses :...
  
  ) to improve grip. Weight disks (plates) are slid onto the outer portions of the dumbbell and secured with clips or collars. Shown to the right is a "spinlock" dumbbell, whose ends are threaded to accept large nuts
  Nut (hardware)
  A nut is a type of hardware fastener with a threaded hole. Nuts are almost always used opposite a mating bolt to fasten a stack of parts together. The two partners are kept together by a combination of their threads' friction, a slight stretch of the bolt, and compression of the parts...
  
   as collars. Alternatively, a dumbbell may have smooth ends with plates being secured by a sprung collar. Nowadays, many commercially sold dumbbells are available with sophisticated, and easy-to-use methods for weight increments adjustments. This is meant to afford ease of use, thus preventing the need to stop workouts in order to raise or lower the weights.
• Fixed-weight dumbbells are weights created in a dumbbell shape. Inexpensive varieties consist of cast iron
  Cast iron
  Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...
  
  , sometimes coated with rubber
  Rubber
  Natural rubber, also called India rubber or caoutchouc, is an elastomer that was originally derived from latex, a milky colloid produced by some plants. The plants would be ‘tapped’, that is, an incision made into the bark of the tree and the sticky, milk colored latex sap collected and refined...
  
   or neoprene for comfort, and even cheaper versions consist of a rigid plastic
  Plastic
  A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs...
  
   shell that is filled with concrete
  Concrete
  Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
  
  .
• "Selectorized" dumbbells are adjustable dumbbells whose number of plates (i.e. weight) can be easily changed when it's resting in its stands. This is achieved by adjusting the number of plates that follow the handle when lifted, e.g. by turning a dial or moving a selector pin — rather than manually adding or removing plates. This makes it very easy to change the weight of the dumbbell between exercises, and the stand typically doubles as storage for the additional weights not being used for a particular exercise.

See also

• Barbell
  Barbell
  A barbell is a piece of exercise equipment used in weight training, weightlifting and powerlifting. Barbells range in length from to although bars above 7' in length are used primarily by powerlifters and aren't commonplace...
  
  
• Kettlebell
  Kettlebell
  The kettlebell or girya is a cast-iron weight used to perform ballistic exercises that combine cardiovascular, strength and flexibility training.Sizes may range from to...
  
  
• Weights
• Weight lifting belt
• Pool dumbbell
• Bulgarian Bag
  Bulgarian Bag
  The Bulgarian Bag , also known as the Bulgarian Training Bag , is a crescent-shaped exercise equipment used in strength training, plyometric weight training, cardiovascular training, and general physical fitness...