Thread: Dumbell vs Barbell bench press

DB overall better I think

Makes you have to lift and handle the weight

requires more overall body strength and balance

Barbell....bigger weight=bigger muscles and strength.

Originally Posted by ForemanRules

Barbell....bigger weight=bigger muscles and strength.

But do dumbells really take the stress of your shoulders?

I think they do for some exercises, I do barbell bench but will not do barbell inclene.....it puts too much pressure on my shoulser joints.

I think its best to do both.

its gotta be barbells, im afraid. i suppose we can have an arguement over the shape part, but for mass, barbells.

Originally Posted by ForemanRules

Barbell....bigger weight=bigger muscles and strength.

The fact that you can do more weight makes the barbell easier pound for pound. This makes the dumbbell the more effective tool because, for the same amount of weight, it's much more difficult to do the exercise with dumbbells.

DB for me. BB better for strength, but DB you get a better range of motion. Also for DB it's easier to drop set.

Originally Posted by Squaggleboggin

The fact that you can do more weight makes the barbell easier pound for pound. This makes the dumbbell the more effective tool because, for the same amount of weight, it's much more difficult to do the exercise with dumbbells.

So by this logic, concentration curls while standing tip toed on one foot are the ultimate bicep mass builder.

Good to know!

Originally Posted by Mudge

So by this logic, concentration curls while standing tip toed on one foot are the ultimate bicep mass builder.

Good to know!

No. I realize you're joking, but read what I posted and think again. The DBs train the stabilizers much better, give you a greater ROM, and force your arms to balance and move the weight independently. The BB lets you use one arm as a crutch to the weaker one and use more weight because of this. It doesn't have as great of a ROM and is easier, so it allows you to use more weight. If you do a BB curl with perfect form, and then do one while rocking, you can use more weight rocking, but that doesn't make it a better exercise. That's basically the logic behind the BB group (other than saying that it works better for them, which I can't and am not arguing with).

Want another example? Do flies the right way, then do them with the DBs touching your chest so you're just rolling them along. You can use a lot more weight this way, but more weight doesn't mean a better exercise. I'd expect most of the people standing behind the BB to think about this, but it seems this has escaped them.

If a barbell were to make a problem of one weaker problem worse, imagine how many people would have one huge side and one small side. Somehow I have benched over 400 and I dont think it was just one arm performing the task, hmm no problems with barbells here!

Flys? Why would I do flys???

I cycle both, is that a bad thing?
3 months of barbell then switch back to dumbells.

Bad? Nope.

Barbells all the way. I reckon that a workout should have a barbell pressing movement in it always. They're your meat and potatoes exercise for chest.

Originally Posted by Squaggleboggin

If you do a BB curl with perfect form, and then do one while rocking, you can use more weight rocking, but that doesn't make it a better exercise. That's basically the logic behind the BB group

bad form has nothing to do with my logic. muscle growth has everything to do with it.


show me the muscle.

My point was that most people think "I can do more with a barbell; it must be better than the dumbbell exercise." This seemed to be where you were coming from. Like I said, if someone says that the BB has worked for them much better, that's great. For me, DBs have always given me better strength gains and will always carry more functional strength. I realize that the question was about size, so it's definitely possible that I'd change my mind if I were going for that instead of strength.

A barbell does indeed make the problem worse for people with one weaker and one stronger arm. Doing it with DBs means that you do equal weight on each arm. This means that the most you can do is the max for your weaker arm. For benching, you can do more than double what your weakest arm can. The stronger arm helps pick up the slack, and the whole is more than just the sum of its parts. In other words, that's not the only reason that you can do more for the BB than you can for the DBs.

dammit i was just about to write the whole is more than the sum of its parts!





yea i think you need to do both, actually.

Originally Posted by TheCurse

dammit i was just about to write the whole is more than the sum of its parts!





yea i think you need to do both, actually.

Let's just say that they are both good and they compliment each other.

Originally Posted by min0 lee

Let's just say that they are both good and they compliment each other.

Well that's no fun!

You can't do fly's with a barbell

Remember, the question is about size not strength. I have gained nothing from doing barbell presses. Maybe because of form I dont know

Originally Posted by The Monkey Man

You can't do fly's with a barbell

You can if you're really strong. How hard could it be to bend the bar like that?

If you want size you have to eat your way there. I dont know how you could not get a workout from doing a movement.

I dont do a lot of flat barbell work, for reasons covered already.

Originally Posted by Squaggleboggin

The fact that you can do more weight makes the barbell easier pound for pound. I agree with this This makes the dumbbell the more effective tool because, for the same amount of weight, it's much more difficult to do the exercise with dumbbells.I fail to see the logic in this

Bottom line as I said in post #5. Doing both is best.
But If I had to choose only one, without question it
would be barbell.

Originally Posted by ForemanRules

Bottom line as I said in post #5. Doing both is best.
But If I had to choose only one, without question it
would be barbell.

WRONG!!...

































































Bottom line is... This is another stupid question by GotHand?

everyone talks about how the dumbell hits the stabalizers harder, thats fine and dandy.. but if youre doing just dumbells, you will be limited on how hard you can train your pecs because the stablizers act as a bandpass...

thats why you need to do both. you want your stabalizers stronger, but you want your pecs to be stronger than your stabalizers... as they should be. all of these exersizes have their individual places and you need to do a variety of them.

Actually I feel that my pecs get a much better workout from the DBs. Otherwise I wouldn't value them so much as a chest exercise...

try to combine the db bench press with an isolateral bench press.... its killer! i tried it once at the begining of my workout and i was doing 2 45s on the iso lateral... after my workout i wanted to do it again... i could only do 25s i was so shot from it...