Have you ever wondered what is the difference is between barbells and dumbbells? Some of meatheads in the gym decline to use anything but heavy weights, so you'll only see them using barbells. While barbells do have the benefit of letting you move a lot of weight, there are a number of advantages to training with dumbbells instead. Rather than viewing it as an either/or situation, you should strategically take advantage of the strengths and weaknesses of each type of free weight, barbells and dumbbells, to develop the best possible physique. .
The majority of your big, compound exercises (movements that require more than one joint and more than one muscle group) can be accomplished with a barbell. But as the Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding points out, most muscle groups only have one or two barbell exercises. On the other hand, dumbbells often are the best tools for performing isolation exercises. For example, while the barbell bench press is the core of your pectoral routine, you need dumbbells to perform chest flies to isolate the pectoral muscle. While the shoulder press is a huge mass creator for the deltoids using the barbell, in order to hit them directly there is no better exercise than the lateral raise with dumbbells. The reason why dumbbells do a better job at this is because it isolates the desired muscle that you want to workout.
Have you ever-performed dumbbell bench presses and noticed how your hands move? Your palms don't stay pointed straight toward your legs, but rotates somewhat in. The barbell bench-press, meanwhile, locks your arms into a certain path that puts strain on your wrists, elbows and shoulders. According to The Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding examined the chest routine of some of the world's best bodybuilders, and found out that they have eliminated the barbell bench press in favor of the dumbbell bench press to spare their joints. World renounced bodybuilder Jay Cutler explained that while he got very strong doing the barbell bench press, it was dumbbells that increased his pectoral size because he can achieve greater range of motion compared to barbells.