Usually free weights aren’t the first thing you’d think of when design is mentioned. However, this is not the case for designer Sang-Hoon Lee. This digital barbell concept, dubbed the Revolution Dumbbell, really could be useful if put into production. You set the display to the appropriate weight and inside, balls start to spin. When they spin fast enough, the desired weight is achieved.
Without the need for a whole rack of weights to exercise, this setup could easily find its way into exclusive gyms like Equinox and celebrity personal trainers would most likely make it a staple of a workout. In the mean time, stick with the Bowflex you bought three years ago. One thing’s for sure, don’t count on John Brownlee buying them.
June 12, 2008 18:21pm
Sure, it could be useful if put into production — but only if the manufacturer is also somehow able to change the laws of physics. These can’t work. It’s pure hokum.
June 12, 2008 21:06pm
Laws are meant to be broken.
June 13, 2008 17:28pm
Looks like gyroscopic action to me. The weight won’t increase, but the faster the balls spin, the more they will resist being moved.