POWERBLOCK

It all started with the simple observation that dumbbells were cluttering gym floors everywhere and that a full set of traditional dumbbells took up too much space at home. The actual idea came later, as inventor and founder Carl Towley suddenly woke up late one night from a dream. Having grown up in California during the 1970’s Carl became fascinated with bodybuilding and strength training. Wondering how legends like Bill Pearl, Charles Atlas, and Mike Mentzer attained their epic physiques drove him to attach some coffee cans full of cement to a broomstick as his first home gym. His obsession  with fitness continued to grow and eventually he got a job repairing equipment for a health club in Santa Cruz.

Years went by and he started to notice there were improvements to be made with most gym equipment, so he did what felt natural and started a small fitness company. This required him to visit numerous gyms throughout the country. But like many first time entrepreneurs he failed, however his passion never wavered. So he got a different job, but the story was still the same everywhere he went, mainly, dumbbells chaotically gobbling up precious floor space. There had to be a better way.

The final PowerBlock design was elusive, he began creating a ton (literally) of prototypes while researching previous attempts to build a superior adjustable dumbbell. Many people had attempted to build a better dumbbell but their solutions were always too complicated, fragile or impractical. It wasn’t until that dream on a beautiful Santa Cruz night that Carl put together the concepts of a nested weight stack with a handle secured by a U-shaped pin, the ‘ahh ha’ moment! Within 24 hours of that, the prototype that is the foundation of all PowerBlock dumbbells was born.