Dumbbells vs. barbells what is the difference?

There is always a constant debate over which one is better dumbbells or barbells. What could be the difference? There are actually many differences that could help or harm your training routine depending on how you use them. Dumbbells for instance allow each side of your body to be independent while you perform a certain exercise. This is good for strengthening the target muscles due to each side independently taking the load of weight. A secondary effect is the fact that the independent movement of the weight causes the use of "core" or "stabilizer" muscles more to maintain control of the weight. What these muscles are actually are all the supporting muscles for balance such as your abdominal muscles,back and legs. So in the long run the body burns more calories because it is using more muscles than a fixed barbell for control. But there is a bad side as with many things. Once you reach a certain strength level with your dumbbell movements the dumbbells become so large that it becomes cumbersome to carry out the motion of the exercise. So in other words if you are wanting to go really heavy dumbbells are not the way to go. Barbells still have the leading position for this role. But that doesn't mean that doing some heavier dumbbell movements prior to the barbells would not be a good thing. As I often say variety is the spice of life. That even goes for your chest routine. If you don't believe my last statement about the dumbbells being too large at really heavy poundage next time you get a chance to look at the 180lb or 200lb dumbbells if you can find them. They are about three and a half feet long a piece. That is a combined length of almost 7 feet. But whether you chose one or the other or a combination consistency will also give results.