Incline Bar vs. Dumbbells

Both are heavy. Both are metal. You might be thinking of the musical style heavy metal, but when you hear that both provide resistance, you may have a different picture. Barbells and dumbbells are the subject. You can perform the incline bench press with either one to improve the strength of your chest and arms. Both have their benefits.

  1. Feel the Motion

    • Lie face up on an incline bench and hold onto either the barbell or dumbbells to perform the press. Your elbows should be bent and your hands should be level with or slightly higher than your chest. Face your palms forward and your elbows away from your sides to concentrate on your chest or next to your sides to emphasize your triceps. As you exhale, straighten your arms and press up the weight. An Olympic barbell, which you find at most gyms, begins at a weight of 45 pounds, without additional weight plates. A standard barbell weighs 20 pounds. Dumbbells begin at 1 pound a piece and increase in 1, 2 or 5-pound increments.

    Greater Range

    • When strength training a particular muscle, you want to strengthen the entire muscle. You do this by using a full range of motion throughout the exercise. A barbell may limit the range of motion in your arm movement during the incline press, especially if you use a grip wider than your shoulders. In contrast, the dumbbells allow for a greater range of motion. Instead of the bar stopping at chest level, the dumbbells can move slightly lower than your chest. This is a positive if you have strong shoulders. If your shoulders are inflexible, injured or weak, the use of dumbbells may stress the shoulder joint too much.

    Stronger Stimulus

    • Dumbbells require a higher level of stability than barbells during the incline press. You use more stabilizing muscles to keep the independent weights moving together as you raise and lower them. The barbell does not contract as many stabilizing muscles and requires less coordination than the dumbbells. That being so, you can lift a heavier amount of weight with the barbell than with the dumbbells.

    Imbalance Issues

    • Since your arms and chest work independently when you use dumbbells for the incline press, you can strengthen both sides equally. Both arms have to push the same amount of weight, which helps even out muscle imbalances. Compare this with a barbell, which requires both arms to work together. A common error is to push stronger with one arm than the other. Since the stronger arm is lifting more of the weight, the muscle imbalance remains.