Dumbell Weight vs Barbell Weight for Bench

[Caleb's Tree]

In the heyday of Muscle Beach back in the 30s and 40s... the guys didn't look at the Oly lifts as the definition of "being strong." The gold standard back then was that if you could do your sets on incline dumbbell bench press with 100s... you were strong... very strong.

A lot of the old timers still consider it the best metric.

At Gold's Venice years back we used to do a group cheer every time a guy hit it for the first time.

And check this out....I got low Test, under 300, and I can push that weight.
I don't do any AAS. I eat right, and take my protein, like a good boy, so that's my natural base strength.

Soon, I will be doing HRT as my doc approved it. Gel at first, but then hopefully injectibles. Can't wait to start pushing up the 100 dumbells. I am not into killing myself though. I do proper warmups, and get spotted.

Thanks for telling me about the "Muscle Beach" story. After seeing my test levels this week, this gave me a bit of a boost. I am curious though, with such low "Test" levels, how in the hell, am I able to progress? Another thing I wonder about is why my arms never, I mean never get sore, even when I bump up weight.

 

[SofaGeorge]

And check this out....I got low Test, under 300, and I can push that weight.
I don't do any AAS. I eat right, and take my protein, like a good boy, so that's my natural base strength.

Soon, I will be doing HRT as my doc approved it. Gel at first, but then hopefully injectibles. Can't wait to start pushing up the 100 dumbells. I am not into killing myself though. I do proper warmups, and get spotted.

Thanks for telling me about the "Muscle Beach" story. After seeing my test levels this week, this gave me a bit of a boost. I am curious though, with such low "Test" levels, how in the hell, am I able to progress? Another thing I wonder about is why my arms never, I mean never get sore, even when I bump up weight.

I was talking to some of the old guys from that era... Muscle Beach pre steroids... and it was really interesting to hear from many of them that there were very firms "caps" on where strength developed to. The incline bench was an example. For a guy to reach 100 lbs naturally back then was a serious feat... and to go up to 120 lbs he was super human. There pretty much wasn't anyone in the group who went beyond that. They gave me numbers on some other lifts... one example being 405 lbs on bench... and I don't remember what else... but the common theme was there was a pretty established bar and very very very few people went beyond it. They said that when steroids came along... the old standards just disappeared. It didn't mean anything to be strong any more because every schmuck could do it.

 

[Caleb's Tree]

I was talking to some of the old guys from that era... Muscle Beach pre steroids... and it was really interesting to hear from many of them that there were very firms "caps" on where strength developed to. The incline bench was an example. For a guy to reach 100 lbs naturally back then was a serious feat... and to go up to 120 lbs he was super human. There pretty much wasn't anyone in the group who went beyond that. They gave me numbers on some other lifts... one example being 405 lbs on bench... and I don't remember what else... but the common theme was there was a pretty established bar and very very very few people went beyond it. They said that when steroids came along... the old standards just disappeared. It didn't mean anything to be strong any more because every schmuck could do it.

Wow...That's interesting and sad at the same time. If I did AAS I'd probably be a lot stronger. Even though I'm interested in AAS, I wanted to stay natural. I might end up on HRT though, which really isn't like being on AAS, it is just supposed to elevate test to "normal" ranges. Even on HRT I don't know if I'd even feel an increase in strength or not.

Getting back to the topic, all I know is that I've made my greatest strength gains doing incline dumbell bench press. I started out pressing like 50 some pounds just a few weeks ago, and already am hitting 95 and looking forward to trying to hit 100. After that, I'll just start goin back to barbells, and my guess is that my dumbell press will have helped my barbell press.

 

[Caleb's Tree]

Wooohoo.

I hit 100 lbs on the dumbell press 6 times. First time pressing that weight. Felt good.

85x15
90x12
95x10
100x6

 

[Longhorn85]

Anyways, at my gym, the dumbells only go to 100 lbs.

I guess after that I am going to have to go to Barbells, but I really prefer Dumbells.

Any thoughts on this?

Maybe I can stick with the Dumbells longer by increasing the reps.

Congrats on working your way up to 100s! Maybe now use flyes instead of presses if you want to stick with DBs.

 

[Caleb's Tree]

Congrats on working your way up to 100s! Maybe now use flyes instead of presses if you want to stick with DBs.

Damn..I couldn't imagine doing flies with 100 pound dumbells, but then again, I never imagined I could press 100 pound dumbells till I tried it this week. I used to look at them and think how ungodly big they were and who in the hell would be able to even use dumbells that big?

I can do flies with 70 pounds, but I don't lock my elbows out, instead I dip the weight below the bench and then force my pecs to bring the dumbells back together. Elbows are like 45 degrees. I have a bit of a "loose" shoulder, so I guard it, but still get my workouts in without doing any damage.

Some say the way I do flies isn't good form, but I think it works for me on the flies. Thoughts?

 

[TheOak84]

voted no difference... jk

 

[PWR]

How are these old ass threads popping up when the last person that posted was in May?

Anyway, I love the good ole bench press but my shoulders hate me for it. I feel more powerful with db's.
I am also stronger on my incline dumbells than with flat dumbells.

 

[SpyWizard]

How are these old ass threads popping up when the last person that posted was in May?

Anyway, I love the good ole bench press but my shoulders hate me for it. I feel more powerful with db's.
I am also stronger on my incline dumbells than with flat dumbells.

someone takes the survey .. that bumps it..

 

[BBR100]

I haven't touched bb bench in over 6 months because of shoulder probs.

I obviously can't move the same weight with dumbells but great pumps and no pain.