Why Barbells are Better Than Dumbbells
Oct 31st, 2007 by Mehdi Posted in Gym Equipment
Image Credit: Sidereal
Brian asked about using dumbbells on the Beginner Strength Training Program:
“I am in week 4 of my workout and I feel a lot stronger than when I started. Just want to ask if it is possible to substitute dumbbells for this workout. Or is there another version for dumbbells?
Due to heavy workload I was thinking I might save time by cutting travel time to the gym & working out at home. But dumbbells is all I have at the moment.“
The Problem with Dumbbells. Dumbbells add a stabilization challenge & let you work both sides equally in case of muscle imbalances. This makes dumbbells great for assistance exercises, but not for main exercises.
- Progressive Loading Impossible. The key to building muscle & strength is progressive loading. Beginners can easily add 2,5kg on the bar each workout as they’re using both sides. With dumbbells you’re only using one side. Systematic increases of 2,5kg lead to stalling sooner.
- No Quality Leg Workout. Dumbbell Lunges, Step-ups & Dumbbell Squats will never stress your legs as hard as Squats & Deadlifts.
- Time Consuming. I have adjustable dumbbells. Changing the weight on these takes longer than changing the weight on a barbell. Unless you have tons of dumbbells, you’ll lose time adding & removing weight.
Mixing Work with Strength Training. I understand Brian. My work is also more important than strength training. Even though my work revolves around it.
But I don’t see myself quitting strength training soon. I feel weird when I don’t train for more than a week. I need physical activity after sitting behind a desk for hours. And I don’t think you’re different than me.
You’ll lose time travelling to the gym. But you won’t lose more than 5 hours a week, workout time included. Those 5 hours are worth it. One of the benefits of strength training is better sleep, increasing your productivity at work.
Strength Training at Home. Training at home saves time. No waiting for the Squat Rack to get free & no travelling to the gym. Brian has only dumbbells, so he needs to invest in a barbell. Tons of exercises you can do with one barbell.
Quality barbells are an investment. They don’t lose value, they increase the quality of your workouts & add safety. Buy equipment from a company that walks the talks, like EliteFTS. It’s founded by competitive Powerlifters.
- Barbell. If you have plates, you’ll only need a barbell. EliteFTS sells quality bars at 190$ including shipping.
- Weight Set. I presume Brian hasn’t 50mm plates at this moment. 300lbs weight sets including barbell & shipping start at 335$ on EliteFTS.
If you think this is expensive: you’re only buying this once. This equipment lasts a lifetime. And if you ever quit strength training you can always sell it on eBay or Craigslist, it doesn’t lose value.
This is a pretty sweeping statement and I would tend to disagree with some of your points. In a gym setting they do have dumbbells that go up in 2.5lb increments. Additionally, if you’re a beginner who is strength training at home, there are so many more exercises that can be done with dumbbells than with a barbell alone.
If you go with a barbell, you should also be buying the appropriate supporting equipment if you’re going to make sure a beginner is working out safely. (E.G. squat rack, bench, etc.)
Even if you have dumbells with 2.5lb increasements, the total load increases with 5lb. On a barbell you can put two 1.25lb discs = 2.5lb increase in total.
I think that was what he ment by it
Mark Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore write that dumbbells actually are better than barbells for bench press in “Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training”. But seen as barbel bench press are a powerlifting discipline and dumbbell are not, they focus on the technicalities of the former.
I’m a fan of the VersaBell or Bowflex SelectTech dumbbells since they can be adjusted quite easily and quickly. They don’t take up a lot of space either.
Also for a beginner, I think the leg exercises that you mentioned with dumb bells are sufficient, but I’m not an expert.
I’m not advocating dumbbells over barbells, but … If you use dumbbells, you can get small magnetic add-on weights for increments of 2.5 lbs. or less total for both dumbbells (there are several weights- I think 1 1/4 & 2 1/2 lbs. per pair?). I know ETS Fitness carries them, but they should also be available from any decent free weight based retailer.
One area in which dumbbells excel is doing single-limb training to help address any muscle imbalances (although some single-limb work can be done with a barbell too), and so it is helpful to have both a barbell and a set of dumbbells. You might add some assistive lifts into your program as you advance (i.e., beginners wont use them for a good while) that use dumbbells, and there are some pre-hab exercises that are done with dumbbells or kettleballs. I also have helped newer lifters who had trouble with deep squats (i.e., getting down and keeping their knees from collapsing in) by starting them on goblet squats which are done with a dumbbell.
All that said, I certainly generally agree that you’ll do better with a barbell centered program than a dumbbell centered one.
I also disagree as barbells kill my shoulders…and I can lift all day long with dumbbells; and dumbbells give you a much better range of motion, therefore working the muscle better (I feel).
I think more people screw up their rotator cuff muscles with barbells, especially ones that have limited range of motion. Dumbbells allow for a more natural movement, therefore less stress on the joints.
Everybody has their opinions and what works for them. Makes the world go around
“This makes dumbbells great for assistance exercises, but not for main exercises.”
This is a good point; a person will always be able to put up more total weight using a barbell than dumbbells (assuming a two-hands lift).
I would echo the point about dumbbells being better for bench presses in a lot of cases. I had a lot of shoulder trouble (i.e. tendonitis) when doing bench with barbells. The points about the shortage of effective leg exercises with dumbbells are pretty much dead on–a handful of the better ones (e.g. Bulgarian squats) are really tough to pull off without over-stressing the knees and lower back.
Krets. If your gym setting has 2.5lbs increases you’ve got a great gym. All gyms I went to had 4.5lbs increases. Home gym it’s 5lbs. But even a 2.5lbs is too much. It works at first, but you’ll quickly stall on the Bench Press & Overhead Press.
Beginners don’t need variation. Variation makes technical proficiency harder. Beginner must choose 4-5 exercises & do these a lot, that’s the fastest way to improve your technique. Without technique you can’t train safe & lift heavy weights. Check out the strength training with only one barbell btw for more info on exercises you can do with only one barbell.
Eivind. Rippetoe writes that indeed in starting strength. As I wrote above: dumbbells add a stabilization challenge which makes them harder. But that’s also why you’re using less weight & why it’s harder to apply maximal force.
Lazy Man. I assume you haven’t tried Barbell Squats before. Give them a try you’ll understand what I mean.
Mike & Jeremy. There’s nothing wrong with barbell exercises. If you get shoulder pain from the Bench Press or Overhead press:
1) Your technique is not right
2) Your posture is not right, muscle imbalance
Removing the exercise because it hurts, is not treating the cause. You need to assess the cause which is one of the above. Start with shoulder dislocations.
I wrote it above, I write it again: dumbbells are great for assistance exercises, but they are not as main exercises. Unless you’re recovering from an injury, barbells are the way to go. Those who say dumbbells are better than barbells miss experience. Try heavy squats & let me know if lunges are as physically/mentally challenging.
If it works for you: continue. But be open minded.
It depends on your goals. A term like ‘better’ is always relative depending on the individual and their goals. Barbells AND dumbells rock my world
I only wish more players in my team used either.
Medhi, I have been lifting weights since I was 10 years old. Barbells don’t work for me, just like some of your other commenters. There is not much technique to bench pressing unless you’re a competitive power lifting looking for personal bests.
I would NEVER have my 60 year old golfers using barbells ever! Many trainers have the blinders on when it comes to training “the client”. Barbells should not be used unless a client has a baseline of strength and no recurring injuries…period.
There is no reason to force barbells on someone who gets as much out of dumbbells (and cables for that matter).
Don’t try to make a point by telling me you’re lifting weights since you’re 10 (You could have done it wrong since you’re 10) or by saying it doesn’t work because it doesn’t work for other commentators. “Does history record any case in which the majority was right?” Robert Heinlein
It strikes me that people still dare to say barbell exercises don’t involve technique. Like if I said your sport, golf is just hitting a ball. That’s what it looks to me from my perspective. Luckily I know better. Starting Strength has 40 pages on Bench Press technique.
Because they don’t know how to coach it, because they don’t know how to Squat or Bench Press correctly in the first place. Correct technique prevents injuries.
Barbells will give a baseline of strength. Start with an empty barbell, build up the weight gradually.
You don’t get as much out of dumbbells/cables(!) as barbells. What’s next btw? Machines? The Smith?
Send me a video of yourself doing a Bench Press. I’ll tell you why your shoulders hurt.
Easy boys, there is room for love of both. Both have plus points, both have minus points. Focus on the context for sweet lifting harmony
It seems that you who are commenting about why dumbbells are better are not here for Mehdi’s Strength Training program. Example: Mike’s comment “I also disagree as barbells kill my shoulders…”. You are obviously not reading Mehdi’s articles. Ask Tiger Woods if he uses dumbbells when he benches 300lbs and then ask him if he is only working on that to be a body builder.
Mehdi: You need to realize that what works for you may not necessarily work for everyone else. I’m familiar with all the exercises you pointed out but there are just as many exercises (and more) that I could point out with dumbbells. I’m not here to argue which one is better because I don’t think that is a valid argument. Barbells are most certainly useful for lots of exercises but dumbbells are very useful as well.
Now if you’re aiming at a beginner who is limited to a home gym, I still think that dumbbells are going to be the best option. Clearly there are benefits and drawbacks to each option without having the other available.
Krets. The body builds muscle & strength as a reaction to physical stress. This is Hans Seley’s General Adaptation Syndrome. Lifting weights = physical stress. Everybody reacts to stress the same way. Barbell exercises are more stressful than dumbbells. Barbell Squats are more stressful than dumbbell squats or lunges.
I still have to meet somebody who doesn’t want to build strength & muscle as fast as he can. That’s why barbells are better than dumbbells. Dumbbell lunges/squats might be easier than a power clean + front squat, but that’s also why the latter will make you tougher. “Follow the line of most resistance” Napoleon Hill.
But if what you do works for you, continue.
I have to take issue with the “barbells are better than dumbells” statement. While I do use BB’s more than DB’s I would like to use DB’s more than I do. Now if you want to say they are different and then point them out, I am with you. After all, both have stood the test of time and both are quite functional and I would take either in a heartbeat over any machine. And you can throw kettlebells into the mix as well.
The stabiilzation issue is an advantage to dumbells. Why wouldn’t you want to strengthen and train those muscles? Ori Hofmekler had me do Waiter Walks with DBs of two different weights. Life is not symmetrical and you need to train for asymmetry as well.
If you don’t think you can develop leg strength well with DB’s you haven’t done Thrusters (front squat + push press, one continuous movement) or farmer walks or waiter walks up hills, or overhead squats. BTW, you can get some pretty damn heavy dumbells to train with that will build some mighty powerful muscles. Coach Rutherford once had me do 21-15-9 reps of DB burpees alternating with Farmer walks around a rather large San Diego city block. The idea was that those db’s wouldn’t leave my hands. They crushed me! With a little imagination and checking out coach Rut’s blog, you can find many different ways to build strength with dbs.
Dumbells. their cousins, kettlebells and barbells are tools in the toolbox. Is one better than another? I wouldn’t make that argument, but I would point how they are different and then tie those differences together as to how they contribute to overall strength gain. Each certainly has big advantages over the other.
“Everybody reacts to stress the same way.”
Wrong. Absolutely wrong. Your body is genetically programmed to respond to stress very differently from mine and each of your other readers. In the very general sense muscles grow as a response to stress. But the way they grow in each individual is vastly different. If every person responded exactly the same way to stress you’d have one single workout program that worked for everyone out there exactly the same.
I think that many of the commentors are missing the point of Mehdi’s article and his blog in general. His site is built around lifting for strength as a primary focus, and his program is oriented around this end relying on an approach that makes sense for someone pursuing primarily general strength and not specific sport preparation like golf. Most experienced lifters pursing the same ends learn eventually that for the most part building a program centered on a handful of foundational complex lifts and their variations produces the best strength gains. And most of these lifts are best done with a barbell. Assistive lifts, rehab and prehab exercises, and the isolation exercise regime that bodybuilders tend to focus on for hypertrophy and shape often are better done with dumbbells. However, for a primarily strength focused program these are supplementary to the primary lifts. Just go ask experienced Olympic lifters or power lifters what produces maximal strength gains, and a guarantee you that for almost every one of them (assuming that without a thorough study that there might be a small handful pursuing a non-conventional strategy) it will be centered around the barbell and compound movements.
One might argue that, well these folks are lifting to be strong in the particular lifts of their sport. This is true, but they all learn that lifting heavy in a core group of compound exercise produce maximal general strength gains throughout the body (read some of Mehdi’s begginer articles for why), and that lifting heavy for these key exercises is best done with a barbell. Now, there are a few caveats to this. Maximal gains can be enhanced by occasionally changing up the routine to avoid adaptation stalling, and some of these periods of where one alters the routine in this way should consider variations and alternative lifts that use dumbbells. Second, maximal gains will benefit from supplementing the key exercises with some strategic use of assistive lifts. Third, a lifter may have an imbalance or an injury or some other condition or sport need that makes particular injuries a concern, and that these often are addressed using single-limb exercises that use dumbbells.
Now if one is preparing for a sport that relies on a repetitive motion, especially that is limited range of motion, in a single direction or otherwise imbalanced in terms of focusing on one side of the body or one muscle group rather than its antagonist, then those pursuing that sport will have to adapt their program to address those needs and the associated injury/imbalance problems. These folks will almost certainly need to use dumbbells, and it would make sense to prioritize the purchasing of dumbbells over a barbell for that reason. Still, in general, and for most of the general strength gain lifts they should also be using, a barbell will still be the better tool other than the reasons I listed in the previous paragraph.
Finally, Mehdi was not advocating not having dumbbells, but that for the general audience that reads this blog with the aim of most effective use of their limited time to gain general strength, a barbell is a better tool and should be higher priority. I might quibble a bit with this, as some have pointed out, for true beginners one will not be approaching the weight limitations of dumbbells and so it might make sense for any who have some need to address known imbalances or injuries to buy dumbbells first with the understanding that a good barbell should not be too far in the future. Still, because even at lower weights one of the important goals for a beginner’s program is to learn proper form before getting to heavier weight and to grove the lifter into the positions (like ass to the grass on squats or beginning wrist/arm position on the overhead press), starting with a barbell makes most sense for achieving this end. As I mentioned in a previous post on this thread, I have used dumbbells for very inflexible beginner friends to learn to squat deep using a goblet squat because this got them into the down position better and faster than the traditional back squat. I think Mehdi would agree that if one can afford both a good barbell and dumbbells, this would be best. I suspect he would agree that some particular sport goal or injury/imbalance need might be best served by getting a good set of dumbbells first if a good barbell was soon to follow. He didn’t frame his article this way which may have produced some of the reaction, but I don’t think these caveats take away from his general recommendation that the barbell is the best general tool for effective strength training.
Of course, we really might be wrong
and I recommend that readers try the alternatives for themselves. Both tools will produce strength gains, each person will have to weigh their particular goals, restrictions, and budgets to decide what they should do.
Great comment Dave.
If you have to choose between barbells & dumbbels, the choice is barbells. MarkFu mentioned waiter walks, farmer walks, overhead squats, etc using a dumbbell. Try a one barbell overhead press, one barbell waiter walks, one barbell turkish getups, etc. You can do unilateral exercises using a dumbbell & it’s more challenging. The only benefit for a dumbbell would be is if you don’t have the strength to do an exercise with a 20kg barbell. But that’s what a beginner’s program is meant for: build a foundation of strength.
Barbells are better because they give faster results. More loading, more stress. This applies to anyone. You don’t want to believe it: continue doing what you do.
My reasons for liking barbells over DBs:
#1 More total resistance
#2 Easier progression
#3 Less emphasis on balance/unilateral elements for beginners
#4 Better at stimulating CNS
#5 Easier to use to add size,strength,power
There’s also nothing preventing one from using barbells for unilateral movements. DBs do have certain movements which are hard to do with a barbell such as Swings however their place is still primarily as assistance in a well balanced strength program.
Well said DevilsSon. Spot on with the one hand Barbell lifts.