People love bench pressing, as it is a very macho and adrenaline producing exercise. There are many types of bench press, and I would like to investigate the pros and cons in the dumbbell bench presses versus barbell bench presses debate.
Barbell Bench Press Pro’s
- Stability: Because both weights are attached by a bar, you have greater stability when bench pressing with the barbell.
- Stability #2: Because of greater stability, typically you can lift more weight with barbell bench presses than you can with dumbbells.
- Better coordination: Because of the greater stability of bench pressing with a barbell, you have greater coordination, and, usually better form is easier to achieve.
Dumbbell Bench Press Pro’s
- Safety: If you are training alone without a power rack to prevent a heavy barbell from coming down on you and pinning you, dumbbells offer an excellent alternative as you can simply drop them to the sides if need be.
- Greater range of motion: Because dumbbells are used independently in each and this means you can bench lower — often below the chest level — then you can with a barbell.
- A more natural range of motion: Possibly of benefit to those with shoulder problems is the fact that by using dumbbells you can lift in a more natural path which puts less stresses on the shoulders than a barbell does.
- Worse coordination: Yes! Not only is better coordination a possible benefit in the case of barbell bench presses, but have been worse coordination in the case of dumbbell bench presses allows the central nervous system muscles to work extra hard trying to coordinate the weights.
There you have it. The moral of the story is: Both have benefits, so do both!