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Which do you prefer? Barbell or dumbell chest press? No matter what i do, I cant seem to progress with the barbell bench press. It is definitely my worst exercise. I feel pain in my palms no matter how i grip the bar and the movement feels very unnatural for me. Microloading the barbell does not seem to help me.

I prefer dumbbell chest presses because it allows for more range of movement and i don't experience awful palm/wrist pain. Thinking of getting some power hooks to progress more with dumbbell presses. I have been doing barbell chest presses up to today, but im definitely calling quits on barbell for chest. I have been humiliated by it 3 times in the past. I used to go to my local YMCA do workout. I would suddenly run out of strength in the middle of the rep and get pwned by the barbell. I had highschool kids helping me to get the barbell off my chest. Felt so humiliating. This never happens with dumbbells as i can just drop them.

I now have a power rack at home so the humiliation factor is no longer an issue for me. But i still fail in the middle of a rep. Today, on my second set, i failed twice on the 6th and 7th rep of the barbell press. I did not get squashed thanks to the spotter bars on my power rack but i felt so weak. My triceps don't look bad but they don't seem to have any strength. I switched to dumbbell chest presses instead and it went so much better. It sucks that i can progress with squats, deadlifts, and millitary presses but my barbell bench does not go up.

You know, I was pretty stalled out on my chest for several months too until I listened to a Skip La Cour podcast where he talked through the process of feeling the chest exercise. I wrote about it here:
workouts-exercises/chest-t364.html#p1818

I am not sure you're experiencing the same thing, but visualizing the bench press, and feeling it in the pectorals rather than the triceps, hugely helped my lifts. I even spent some time just pressing without any weights at all in my hands, and then with an empty bar.

Then again, I exclusively dumbbell press due to safety concerns and a lack of desire to press on the Smith machine.

--Matt B.

I've been doing the same; during highschool I sprained my shoulder while trying to keep a barbell from crushing my ribs; been dumbell from then on. It's better too: you get more range of motion and more well-developed pectorals it seems. Barbell benchpresses just make me run out of steam, but not improve or get benefit anywhere really.

I prefer barbell presses because it annoys me how much energy and strength I need to use up to get large dumbbells into position for a chest workout. I feel it takes away from my set since my arms had to struggle so much already. I also feel more comfortable and stable with the barbell and my point of failure seems to be more predictable. Personal preference really.

I like them both, I alternate between them every 8-10 weeks.

The advantage of dbs is of course the range of motion and the usage of more stabilizing muscles, and the advantage of bbs is the bigger load and that you don't have to reset it after each set and lose energy. But if I had to go with one that would be barbell,just preference.

SurferX wrote:...it annoys me how much energy and strength I need to use up to get large dumbbells into position for a chest workout. I feel it takes away from my set since my arms had to struggle so much already.

Exactly. With only 75-pound dumbbells in each hand at this point, I'm not feeling that they are too unwieldy, but I can see a day coming some time soon that it's just too cumbersome to make my regular workout. My guess is somewhere between 100 and 150-lb dumbbells is the point at which I'll go "no more!" and need to start using the bar and a spotter (or Smith Machine).

Then again, Ronnie Coleman dumbbell presses 200lbs in each hand, though he really uses his legs to help push them up into position... and throws them when he's done! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l33aM1Wm3XE

--Matt B.

a simple way to solve this would be for someone to just create a dumbbell stand so that it's positioned like a barbell bench...

melville49 wrote:a simple way to solve this would be for someone to just create a dumbbell stand so that it's positioned like a barbell bench...

This is how millionaires come to be... *hint*

SurferX wrote:...it annoys me how much energy and strength I need to use up to get large dumbbells into position for a chest workout. I feel it takes away from my set since my arms had to struggle so much already.

Granted, I haven't pressed a dumbell over 80, but I find that it's easiest to take the dumbells off the rack (standing), sit down/swing the dumbells up so it's like i'm at the top of a curl, and then lie back and press them straight up. You can get pretty heavy weights up this way without any struggling, and it's well-worth the lack of embarrassment that comes with flailing my legs around in the gym while trying to get a barbell off my face.

I do have to say that most guys who use barbells seem to be a bit broader and have better shoulders - now is this the cause or effect of using a barbell? Beats me.

lol so the big reason why peopl don't like dumbbell is the difficulty in setting them up. That's what powerhooks are for. I just got them and they are extremely useful. They allow you to preload the dumbbels into position on the olympic bar. So it does not require a lot of energy at all to get them in place. How hard is setting dumbbells on an olympic bar? here's the link http://www.powerhooks.com/

i doubt that barbell user develop better than dumbbell users. That's all genetics. Weight is weight. I doubt that the body can detect the difference. You would have to do a study to really prove that.

i doubt that barbell user develop better than dumbbell users. That's all genetics. Weight is weight. I doubt that the body can detect the difference. You would have to do a study to really prove that.

Yes weight is weight but different exercises develop unique neural pathways in your brain than others even if we are talking about a variation of the same exercise, and other than that some of them respond better with your body's mechanics.

When we are skeaping about strength those pathways are what you need. You need those big motor units to react as fast as it take. And you create this be repeating and repeating the same exercise for years (see powerlifters they squat,bench press,deadlift for their entire career and still develop unbelievable strength). The problem is that your brain limits the reaction only to a small number of them even we talk about maximum strength attempts(the biggest the number of fibers reacting the better,and powerlifters take care of this in their cycles by training like bodybuilders(it is called repeatitive effort method). You will build muscle but not in the most efficient way.To build muscle effieciently you also need a bigger number of them. That's why variety is important in training(with a good combination of load and volume).The best exercises for beginners are those they perform better. The best exercises for an advanced lifter are those they are not familiar with anytime or for a period of time.

Also, we live in a world where you have the opportunity to use both bbs and dbs, so why not?