/fit/ - Fitness, Health, and Feels

which one would you prefer?

>>122961

Which ever one maximizes my gainz?

One of my friends said dumbbell means your stronger arm can't compensate for your weaker arm.

Is that true / what other stuff should I be aware of?

>>122977

I'm not having much trouble picking them up (probably because of the low weight), and they're much easier to put down.

>>122975

maybe if you're using a machine, which you shouldn't be doing

if one arm is doing a lot more work than the other on the barbell press your form is going to be all over the place, the barbell should be level

>>122958

Barbell is better for strength training.

Dumbbells seem to be better at building muscle.

At least this has been my experience.

>>122975

>>122977

good point there, I guess the best is to have a mix match of them

on my current routine I do flat barbell presses followed by 30° incline dumbbell press

and yeah for a moment there between getting into/out of position like I won't have the strength to hold the dumbbells

quick question though, when doing flat barbell, are you supposed to past the shoulders or hold level with shoulder like with dumbbells?

>>122995

What does the incline do? More chest?

>>123014

May be mistaken on this, but I think you can get fuller muscles from hitting them at different angles.

If you have dumbbells, you should do flies. I just injured myself doing flies but I still recommend them because they're that good for targeting chest.

I might have heard it wrong but I think dumbbell presses give the benefit of working out stabilizing muscles since you have to fight to keep your even when lifting. It's not necessarily superior but it depends on your goals.

>>123059

this is excellent advice

read the fucking sticky

Oh look what I found in the sticky

http://www.exrx.net/Kinesiology/BenchPress.html

Dumbbells are harder to use because your muscles have to stabilize the weight, barbells do it for you. Plus you can do the squeeze press with dumbbells, which is a neat little muscle builder that builds size the barbell can't. Go to exrx.net to learn about the sternal and clavicular heads up the pec major. There's nothing wrong with switch between barbell and dumbbell. I'm back on the barbell and off dumbbells for awhile and I'm doing fine. Be careful with dips and decline press though. If your back isn't strong enough, your anterior deltoid can get pulled forward and you risk injury. You need to balancing whatever push movements you are doing with pulling exercises. If you're going skip leg day, skimp on rows and pull-ups, and try to do every bench movement in the bible, you're going to end up in an operating room meeting the team of surgeons that are going to fuse whatever tendons you snapped back onto the bone.

>>123015

The incline hits the clavicular pretty well. And far as decline bench pressing (and dips) working the lower portion of the pec, I think it does. That's just from experience, but I think some of the 'science' behind people hitting all these crazy angles is bullshit. I just do flat bench and OHP. If I do incline/decline, I only do 2-3 sets of each and no flat bench, but I haven't done that for awhile.

>>123102

There's no such think as 'stabilizer' muscles. Read exrx and see how they breakdown certain exercises. For example;

The pull-up

Primary: lats

secondary: biceps

Stabilizer: triceps

The bench press

Primary: pecs

Secondary: triceps

Stabilizer: biceps

Are you going to build bigger biceps by benching and build bigger triceps by doing pull-ups? Hell no. But if you have a well developed back and biceps, you can squeeze your lats and the rest of those muscles to create tension and help stabilize the weight as you move it around. It's literally the reason weight lifting suits exist, and it's because there's some freaks out there that end up moving more weight than their body can handle and need equipment to tighten everything for them.

>>123059

>does chest flies

>gets injured

wow and no one is surprised at all.

>inb4 ahrnald did them

arnie was on steroids and did a lot of shit no one wants to do, like knocking up a freakish looking mystery meat mexican

>>122975

dumbbell exercises are better for making sure you stay balanced so one pec isn't bigger than another, for example. Barbell exercises tend to be ones where you can lift more weight, which will make you stronger and help with overall gains. Honestly Anon, you have no reason not to do both.

>>123196

I had it coming. My setup was curling them off the floor, and it was a weight that was slightly more than I could curl, so it's no surprise. It wasn't a big injury or anything; just a minor sprain in my bicep that has healed by now. I did some chins yesterday and it felt fine.

If you do flies, just doing them on the floor isn't enough. You need to have something to hold them up so you can start the exercise with your elbows bent at 90 degrees, like you were doing a knuckle pushup but on your back. I didn't listen to Scooby and I got what I deserved.

>>122958

dumbells if you don't want one pec to be bigger than the other

>>123014

When I started lifting, I did inclined dumbell presses with baby weights because I would shake just with the bar alone. After a couple of weeks, when, I moved onto the flat barbell press I felt the lower pec area for the first time. My guess is that inclined works the upper pec more than the lower part.

Barbell lets you use microplates and is easy to setup. Dumbbells forces you to balance and evens out your arms. Be a dudebro and jus do both.

Btw you should switch to incline + dips if you're into aesthetics.

>>130641

As long as you're bumping ancient threads, they both suck because the scapula is not free to move in either exercise. Pushups would be cool if there was a practical way to continue loading more weight on the movement like bench presses. So the real red pill is dips for outer lower chest, olympic ring flies/presses for inner mid chest (or other parts depending on inclination), and olympic presses (I call them "limbo presses".) or landmine presses for upper chest. The limbo press is more than meets the eye. I liken it to squats in that muscles of the waist also become involved and not just the limbs. Who wants to lie down during a workout anyways?

If more focus is made on using a single tool such as the barbell + optional rack (throw in olympic rings/suspension trainer Suspension trainers may hold feet more easily than olympic rings. + dip belt and there is pretty much nothing you will miss out on), less time is spent doing tours of the gym and deciding what machine to use and more is spent getting work done.