Dumbbells vs. Barbells for the Upper Body

Free-weight exercises build muscle mass, increase muscular endurance and improve overall fitness, and the variability of such exercise provides a number of options to achieve your fitness goals. For example, you can perform most of the same upper-body exercises using similar form with either an Olympic barbell or two dumbbells. In general, neither is objectively better than the other, but each piece of equipment is better suited to achieving specific results.

  1. Upper-Body Targets

    • The exercises you select for your upper-body workouts are a major factor for deciding whether to use a weighted barbell or dumbbells. For example, you can bench press with either piece of equipment without issue, but certain exercises lend themselves entirely to one over the other. Behind-the-head presses, for example, require the use of a barbell, while chest flyes require dumbbells and cannot be performed with a barbell. Many arm exercises are easy to interchange between the two pieces of equipment, especially biceps curls performed while seated or standing.

    Dumbbells

    • The main difference with using a set of dumbbells rather than a barbell boils down to balance. You lift and control a barbell with both arms working in unison. This more evenly distributes the weight and allows stronger muscles to compensate for weaker ones. For example, if you’re left-handed, chances are that your left bicep is stronger than your right. When doing barbell curls, your left arm will compensate for your right arm, making the lift more controlled and smooth, but diminishing the impact of the lift on the right arm. Dumbbells remove this obstacle and let you focus the full stress of one dumbbell – half of the curled weight – on your weaker arm. This process also aids in developing smaller stabilizers throughout the body that facilitate balance and control of two independently-moving weights, rather than a single barbell. One aspect to keep in mind is that dumbbell weight isn’t adjustable, meaning you will need multiple dumbbells of various weights – all in pairs – to successfully work out each major muscle group of your upper body.

    Barbells

    • The Olympic barbell lets you concentrate more of the stress from lifting weight in a particular exercise on the primary target muscles than dumbbells generally do. The barbell helps you balance the weight while target muscles are completely engaged through all phases of a lift. For example, the barbell bench press removes the involvement of several stabilizers in the upper body, forcing your pectorals to take on most of the weight. The triceps and shoulders engage as stabilizers to an extent, but the control necessary for pressing two independent dumbbells engages these stabilizers to a far greater degree. The Olympic barbell requires multiple free weight plates, but the weight can be increased or reduced with ease. Also, the Olympic barbell sets a minimum weight of 45 pounds to any exercise you perform, because that is the weight of the bar.

    Comparison

    • Determining whether dumbbells or barbells are better during a particular exercise depends on your current level of fitness, an assessment of your short-term and long-term goals and your experience level with free weights. For exercises that you can perform with either piece of equipment, the novice will benefit from learning precise form through using a barbell rather than risking the potential sloppiness of attempting to balance twin dumbbells during the motion. However, dumbbell versions of a particular exercise can complement their barbell counterparts, and you may find significant gains from splitting your routine with a couple of sets of each.