dumbbell pressing vs. barbell pressing??

[Vipersg123]

I am a huge fan of dumbells, thats because they work my chest more, when I bench press I intend to work my chest the most not my tris and shoulders.

[Vipersg123]

the grip on a regualar flat bench determines what muscles you hit more. close grip would work more tris then chest, but a wide grip would work alot more chest then tris.

yeah, we know that he never said it didn't, he said that dumbells seem to isolate the chest more than barbells.

[FUBAR1]

variety is key

[cssprophet]

Does your comparison of 400lbs DB press to 495lbs BB press make any point? With DB, balancing and controlling the weight is a large part of lifting it, whereas BB, less so.

Yes, it does. DBs require more balance and control, but at the cost of overall weight. How can they be better for strength if you have to use less weight?

Just because an exercise is better than another does not mean that it wouldn't be used. Squats are better for legs than Legpress, but I see tons of people doing both.

Yes it does. If a particular exercise is better, what reason is there to use a different one? Think about it.

[IPH7]

I like them both. I'll usually do 4 weeks dumbell, then 4 weeks barbell, then 1 week maxing incline/decline/flat on smiths machine and also throw in cable flies on a constant basis... wrinse and repeat. IMO dumbells help work your stabilizer muscles better, allow you to be more creative with your workouts, and allow you to work your chest in a greater range of motion.

[Clean]

More effective at what?


If they were better for building strength, Ronnie Coleman wouldn't be repping the 200lbs DBs while he reps 495lbs on the bar. He also wouldn't be barbell pressing at all, because if DBs are better, then barbell pressing is useless. Utilizing both in your routine is best. Neither is better than the other, but both bring unique, positive qualities to the table.

Actually DB Press usually increases your barbell bench because it uses more stabilizing muscles and it is much harder to keep them straight then a barbell.

And DB press is better for building more definition and adding fullness to your chest. Layne Norton does DB Press and I don't think he does barbell at all, and I agree with him to a point that if you are natural, DBs benefit you much more.

Barbell press is good, but it is so easy to do it wrong and put more strain on the shoulders then on your chest. I would suggest either alternating between them, or just sticking with DB Press and incline or decline DB Press.

[Shortyflex]

Yes, it does. DBs require more balance and control, but at the cost of overall weight. How can they be better for strength if you have to use less weight?

Because the numbers are completely irrelevant. The only thing of concern is the strain of the movement on your muscles. All your muscles and body understand is how demanding it is, and how much it needs to grow and strengthen to do it in future.

[chaser18]

Like most of these guys said, switch them up. Also, the dumbells allow you to get a bigger range of motion, and allow you to descend beyond where the bar on barbell bench touches your chest, allowing you to recruit more muscle fibers in your lift.

[JoKing]

There is a post on this at least once every two weeks. S next time search for it first please. Here is my opinion. DB's give you a much better range of motion. You can move your arms more and in "better" ways to get hit the muscle better. The deal is though since the weight is focused right on your arms rather than spread across your body you can NOT do as much weight. This results in less muscle mass gains. However they are both beneifcal. Db's are better for cutting and getting propotinate and defined while barbell is better for basic mass.

[cssprophet]

Actually DB Press usually increases your barbell bench because it uses more stabilizing muscles and it is much harder to keep them straight then a barbell.

And DB press is better for building more definition and adding fullness to your chest. Layne Norton does DB Press and I don't think he does barbell at all, and I agree with him to a point that if you are natural, DBs benefit you much more.

Barbell press is good, but it is so easy to do it wrong and put more strain on the shoulders then on your chest. I would suggest either alternating between them, or just sticking with DB Press and incline or decline DB Press.

I agree 100%. I recently switched to some DB work from mostly barbell work and I'm lovin' it. All I'm saying is how can you just say "DB is better"? Better at what? If it were better at everything, there'd be no need or use for barbell work; if you have two options to do something, and one option takes more work and time as the other, but achieves exactly the same results, it's ridiculous to even consider that option.

[cssprophet]

Because the numbers are completely irrelevant. The only thing of concern is the strain of the movement on your muscles. All your muscles and body understand is how demanding it is, and how much it needs to grow and strengthen to do it in future.

Numbers themselves are irrelevant, but 495lbs is more than 400lbs, and your body knows it.

DBs require more control, which increases the difficulty of the movement, but you use less weight. The barbell allows you to move more weight, which increases the difficulty of the movement, but it also is easier to control... so how can you say DBs are better? (I'm not saying DBs aren't good, or that the barbell is better, I'm just saying you can't make a blanket statement that DBs are better.)


Sorry for the double post; my computer's being finicky.

[Anticrombie315]

no you got it backwards. barbell is the one that works body equally


i prefer barbell because i can make my grip wide and get a better stretch

No u got it backwards. In dumbbells, one hand can't help the other, so each hand has to lift the same weight the same distance. When one hand wears out, most people don't keep repping with the other, that would lead to an imbalance.

Yes, it does. DBs require more balance and control, but at the cost of overall weight. How can they be better for strength if you have to use less weight?


Yes it does. If a particular exercise is better, what reason is there to use a different one? Think about it.

1) Weight is irrelevant. People can generally legpress much more than they can squat, does that make Squats inadequate? Even if your arguement held true, you get a better ROM with DBs, so that would essentially make up for the lack of weight.

2) So you are saying 1 excercise efor each BP is enough? The guy you disagree with never said NOT to do the better exercise, they said to use both.



I personally like both. I usually alternate every month or so, when i stop feeling it as much. I have seen good gains from that.

[cssprophet]

People can generally legpress much more than they can squat, does that make Squats inadequate?

That's not the same thing. We're not talking machine vs. free weights.

2) So you are saying 1 excercise efor each BP is enough? The guy you disagree with never said NOT to do the better exercise, they said to use both.

No. What I'm saying is if a particular exercise is truly "better", there's no need to do anything else. Why would you waste time and effort doing a bunch of exercises when the same thing could be accomplished with one? (Which, theoretically, would be possible if the exercise was better.)

[Shortyflex]

cssprophet, in my opinion you've confused yourself. You're saying that ultimately, barbell benches have the potential to be more difficult because you can add more weight. The argument is that, supposing you found for example, a 40lb dumbbell bench press to be the same difficulty as a 100lb barbell version, which would build more muscle and strength?

[Emberstone]

I took the advise from the thread and on my last workout a few days ago, I did DB presses, I found that my arms shook slightly, because I am new to lifting *nearly 3 months* and I was not used to having to put more effort into stabalizing. I found it really hit my chest muscles more then the barbell did, and they felt really tight after word, and I had a little more soreness then I usually did. it has not gone away and the only soreness I have left around the underside of my arms.

I am waiting for my next excersie to see how I fair when I start db pressing again.

[corple]

k well like it was said before 92834234 times, using both is obviously the best idea (rotating them).

but i must say DB press is the better excercise. you use more stabalizer muscles, you can throw them out the way for safety, and it doesnt **** up your rotar cuff(shoulder) the way barbell can.

[cssprophet]

cssprophet, in my opinion you've confused yourself. You're saying that ultimately, barbell benches have the potential to be more difficult because you can add more weight. The argument is that, supposing you found for example, a 40lb dumbbell bench press to be the same difficulty as a 100lb barbell version, which would build more muscle and strength?

I would say the barbell. You're using more weight, and focusing more on pressing the weight than keeping it from falling on your face. Though with saying that, I suppose it could be construed to mean that machine pressing is better, because it allows you to move more weight without worrying about controlling the weight. Then again, moving towards the "the more difficult it is, the better it is" mantra you could say screwing things like standing on one foot on a bosu ball doing a reverse overhead DB lateral raise is better, because it's "harder". I guess you just have to find a happy median and what works for you.

I recently took up some horizontal DB pressing, and I'm using a good bit more weight than I do with the barbell. However, it's not because I lack the strength to move the weight, rather I lack the coordination. My body isn't used to the movement. Once I become accustomed to the movement I expect to increase in weight, but one will (almost) always press less with the DBs, only because the movement is not conducive to moving heavy weight.

[Shortyflex]

I'm sorry, I simply have to disagree. Two exercises, equal difficulty, but one hits more stabiliser muscles - that has to be the better one. I see it clearly that dumbell > barbell > machine bench press in my mind, am I the only one?

[Aquilius]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...umbell+barbell

Motor unit activation of both muscles was not significantly different during all 3 lifts. However, dumbbell flys had significantly less relative time of activation than did barbell or dumbbell bench presses. Therefore, dumbbell flys may be better suited as an auxiliary lift, whereas barbell and dumbbell bench presses may be used interchangeably in training programs.

Regards,
Aquilius

[Addicted_1990]

Dumbell > Smith Machine > Barbell

[mattitude]

Funnily enough I was on a page of a muscle magazine when I came across this topic. This is what they say;

Barbell - Upper pecs / Front Delts (by far better than using dumbells)
Dumbell - Lower pecs (slightly more effective than a barbell)