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Chest: barbell vs dumbells
- Thread starter ant256
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re chest
Barbells let have alittle more control cause your working as one. They also let you press more weight... Dumbells allow a fuller range of motion ( past the top of ribecage where barbell stops).
Dumbells tend to more isolate the chest.. Its mostly personal pref.
I usually use barbells for incline bench and dumbells for flat or decline, thats just my personal pref... As far as where it targets your chest. I beleive that the incline targets more upper chest. flat targets more middle and decline targets lower, but your prob hear alot of different opinions on that.. Its your call
Vigorous
Barbells let have alittle more control cause your working as one. They also let you press more weight... Dumbells allow a fuller range of motion ( past the top of ribecage where barbell stops).
Dumbells tend to more isolate the chest.. Its mostly personal pref.
I usually use barbells for incline bench and dumbells for flat or decline, thats just my personal pref... As far as where it targets your chest. I beleive that the incline targets more upper chest. flat targets more middle and decline targets lower, but your prob hear alot of different opinions on that.. Its your call
Vigorous
Thaibox
New member
90% of the people I know with serious shoulder injuries got them from BB benching. This includes me. I only use dumbells now(with no shoulder problems doing them) and I continue to see progress.
With the exception of satisfying my ego with a heavy press, I really don't miss barbells.
With the exception of satisfying my ego with a heavy press, I really don't miss barbells.
I got into powerlifting 12 months ago and I have been benching with a barbell 2x a week every week and my chest has gotten a lot bigger. I havent done a heavy set of dumbell presses either.
I dont have anthing against dumbell presses, but using a barbell is much better and allows for a lot more variety.
People who hurt their shoulders barbell benching generally do them wrong-with their elbows flaring out.
I dont have anthing against dumbell presses, but using a barbell is much better and allows for a lot more variety.
People who hurt their shoulders barbell benching generally do them wrong-with their elbows flaring out.
Robert Jan
New member
i prefer tha dumbs. i too noticed it feels better on the shoulders
The Dude
New member
DBs do isolate the chest more and you do have more range of motion at the top (but not at the bottom unless you're turning the dbs parallel to your body and really dropping your arms back behind your torso). BBs for people with past shoulder problems can still be used in order work with that heavier weight on presses. Just stop 2-3 inches above the chest instead of touching it. You'll notice that this range of motion on the bottom part of the exercise is almost identical to the range of motion for dbs. It's A LOT easier on the shoulders and I've had two shoulder injuries to slow me down in the past. Two to three inches is all it took to keep BBs a part of my workout.
BB is great for power lifting and ego boosting....AKA the king of the upper body exercises (because everybody does it).
DB is a great bodybuilding exercise for the chest.
IMO doing both will develope the best chest development. I do bb incline then flat DB. The next chest workout, I'll do incline DB then flat BB. I suggest switching all exercises between dumbells and barbells....don't just stick to one over the other.
DB is a great bodybuilding exercise for the chest.
IMO doing both will develope the best chest development. I do bb incline then flat DB. The next chest workout, I'll do incline DB then flat BB. I suggest switching all exercises between dumbells and barbells....don't just stick to one over the other.
The Dude
New member
Manu said:
Compared with dumbbells, no. Everyone says they get a greater range of motion with dumbbells, but stop and think about it as you're doing it. Yes, you get that range of motion at the top when you bring them together. However, on the bottom (unless you're turning them and dropping them very low), you're getting LESS range of motion compared with barbells that are brought all the way down to the chest. If you stop a few inches shy of your chest with barbells, you'll be getting the exact same range of motion that you do with dumbbells. Compare them as you do them next time and you'll see what I mean.
Blkout said:
How can you say one is better than the other when you stated that you have not done dumbell presses?
Actually I meant that I havent done heavy dumbell presses in 12 months. I used to do them all the time in my bb training days.
Also all the rippng on barbell bench presses is BULLSHIT! If bodybuilders knew how to bench properly-bringing the bar to the lower chest and pressing straight back up then there wouldnt be such a large amount of shoulder problems
Dont barbell bench like the fools in the bodybuiding mags.
I just benched over 400 lbs in a powerlifting contest a few weeks ago.
If you want to bench some respectable weight and if you want real pecs then come over to the powerlifting forum and we can help you out.
KILLER2001
New member
I love the dumbells. Since i began using them my chest has continued to grow, and hasnt stopped. The bar hurt my shoulders at the heavier weight.
Few thoughts...
*You get a better stretch with dbells.
.....maybe as already pointed out...IF you go wayyy deep with them. Seems as if this might put more stress on the pec insertions leading to injuries.
*Barbells lead to shoulder injuries.
.....Bad form leads to shoulder injuries, as well as muscle imbalances. Both can be corrected.
*Barbells lead to pec tears.
.....I still feel that the super stretch that you might get with dbells can lead to this even more.
*Dbells isolate the muscle more.
.....They probably do...but then you have to do other exercises to isolate all of the muscles that weren't hit because you did dbells.
*Barbells are good to "feed the ego".
.....I tend to find that those who refuse to use the flat bench press because of this reason have very poor flat benches. Maybe (just a maybe here too, seriously) people can not take the ego crash of not bench pressing very much in front of their friends.
Just a few random thoughts.
B True
*You get a better stretch with dbells.
.....maybe as already pointed out...IF you go wayyy deep with them. Seems as if this might put more stress on the pec insertions leading to injuries.
*Barbells lead to shoulder injuries.
.....Bad form leads to shoulder injuries, as well as muscle imbalances. Both can be corrected.
*Barbells lead to pec tears.
.....I still feel that the super stretch that you might get with dbells can lead to this even more.
*Dbells isolate the muscle more.
.....They probably do...but then you have to do other exercises to isolate all of the muscles that weren't hit because you did dbells.
*Barbells are good to "feed the ego".
.....I tend to find that those who refuse to use the flat bench press because of this reason have very poor flat benches. Maybe (just a maybe here too, seriously) people can not take the ego crash of not bench pressing very much in front of their friends.
Just a few random thoughts.
B True
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