Barbells vs Dumbbells: Which is Better for Muscle Growth?

When it comes to your choice of free weights exercises for muscle growth and adding muscle mass, you’re stuck between barbells vs dumbbells. And although you can put on size and increase your strength effectively regardless of whether you use a barbell vs dumbbell, you should be aware that each have their own advantages that need to be considered. For example, looking at the barbell vs dumbbell bench press, the barbell enables you to lift heavier weight and more effectively progressive overload which helps to maximize mechanical tension. Whereas the dumbbell bench press provides a better range of motion and elicits greater muscle activation. The same is true for other exercises like the barbell vs dumbbell shoulder press and the barbell vs dumbbell bicep curl or row. So which is better? Barbell or dumbbell exercises? Well, perhaps unsurprisingly, incorporating both is the best approach – however, it’s important that you do so in the best way possible. This is done by using barbells for your main heavy compound movements (bench press, overhead shoulder press, squat, deadlift) especially when a lower rep range is employed, and then adding in dumbbell exercises particularly for upper body exercises and with a higher rep range to maximize metabolic stress. Doing so enables you to get the best of both worlds.

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STUDIES:
Meta-analysis:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2...
Heavier weight w/ barbells:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2...
https://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/Fu...
Better activation w/ dumbbells:
https://www.researchgate.net/publicat...
https://www.t-nation.com/training/ins...

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