Yikes, I might be recomping!

Glad you're please with results so far. At this stage of your lifting career, you're still in the brain-muscle connection phase, with actual muscle-building coming later. Your adventures with weight and appearance are likely mostly water weight, as you identified. Still, pretty powerful motivation to keep going, ain't it?

Congrats on the visible progress.

I assume you're going from 1" to 2". This is why I recommend planning ahead, otherwise you can end up essentially re-purchasing weight.

So if you're going to get an adjustable db set, make sure they go plenty heavy enough for a long time, and/or are expandable. And don't mix and match bar sizes or you'll need weight for both diameters. If you start with fixed db's then need a set higher later, then another set higher after that, and so on, that gets real expensive very fast.

I started with Titan 2" loadable db's. All the 10's and 5's plates that I use on those, can also be used on my barbell and EZ-bar. I can load a single db up to 92.5lbs, or 102.5lbs if I include a pair of 25's instead.

Are you planning on doing any kind of sudden-movement exercises like Olympic lifts? Or stick with simple up/down movements that dominate most lifting regimens?

If you need a shorter bar, look into an EZ-bar maybe. It's shorter than regular barbells. It's good for arms, and it should be able to hold enough weight to do other things too, such as chest and back etc. Basically the inside hand holds of the bar will be angled for curls etc., and if the outer hand holds are flat you can use them for chest/back/shoulders.

You know what annoys me even more than screw collar dumbbells? Screw collar barbells! Honestly, I loathe changing weights because of it 😆 but that might be linked to the way I work out - I like to alternate exercises between each set so that means a lot of changing of weights.

Clips: Good plan. I like my clips. The only limitation I know is the one already mentioned about them being less strong an attachment, so if the bar isn't horizontal and there's a fair amount of weight, it can slip.

@springlering62

Yeah, it helps to do a lot of research for sure. There's significant variety in adjustable db's. As you said, they're not all round weight discs. One of the popular ones is square! No thanks. Some are more resilient than others wrt dropping. Some are going to last longer, due to their mechanical design and parts used. Some are expandable, some aren't. Etc.

Going with fixed db's has its drawbacks too. For instance, I use eight different db weights for various exercises. If I bought db's for those, that would be eight pairs, which means maybe needing a strong rack to store them all. And if I needed to progress from X pounds to X+5 pounds, the X+5 set basically means paying for all of X, again. That gets very expensive very quickly especially as the weight goes up.

their website explains it far better than I can.

I just got the regular gloves, ladies small. In retrospect, I probably should have gotten a medium because I have long fingers.

Basically, you have a long “shoe tongue” resting in the palm of your hand, attached to the band around your wrist, that you can wrap around the bar or the weight. It sounds ridiculously simple, but it provides both extra grip, as well as enough structure to force your wrists not to bend.

They are very comfortable, and you can easily rotate them around like a bracelet if you’re doing a quick transition from handling weights to doing, say, pushups or planks.

I particularly like them for pull ups. I can wrap them around the handle, and can then put all five fingers on the handle in the same direction, with better grip, , rather than wrapping my thumb around and clutching. Makes pull-up so much more comfortable.

I think they are $75 a pair, but one of those products that’s worth every penny. They’ll last forever.

The only very very minor complaint, not worth fudging with, is they do make my wrists hot.

I guess you won't be getting a tsunami bar then. This bar is more floppy, also 4" longer than a standard Olympic bar, at 90".

Bugenhagen here. Look at the wobble on this.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/WvilFiTc3F0

TBH, that sounds like the kind of thing that will help you. Free weights builds neuron connections (skill) and stabilizing muscles in ways that machines do not. As Mitchell Hooper said in a recent vid, that's why when people try barbell bench for the first time, they're wobbling all over the place because the brain hasn't made the neural connections for how to do that movement. With repetition, it gets easier as you build the skill (and strength).

If that means you need to lower the weight while learning the skill, that's ok.