The barbell is one of the most commonly used pieces of equipment in any commercial gym, the barbell is used particularly frequently for the ever popular bench press. This famed exercise has been used for decades by meat heads and novices alike in the attempt to capitalise gains in muscle to the chest, the focal point for any respectable trained upper body.
But the way I see it, and this is all this article is, one man's opinion, the barbell is not the most effective way to achieve the sought after chiselled pecs of your dreams. The problem with barbell's for chest development is that it's more of a multi-joint compound exercise, it heavily recruits the shoulders and triceps, this allows you to lift heavier but reduces the focus away from the chest.
Dumbbells on the other hand are a different story, because you have more control and flexibility over the movement of the weights you can direct the focus away from your shoulders and onto your chest. I've found having the dumbbells aligned with the lower chest and rotating your hands inwards at the bottom of the press makes for challenging but rewarding work. Your chest will develop symmetrically and evenly at both sides because each side has to produce equal effort whereas you can use your stronger side with the barbell to aid your weaker one creating an imbalance.
Another little plus of using dumbbells is the benefits to your wrists, because you can rotate the weight through the pressing motion you can alleviate pressure as your wrists will want to naturally angle themselves towards the bottom of the press. With a barbell you simply have a fixes plane of motion which is up and down, your wrists just have to take the pressure which may come back to haunt you in years to come.
If you're a barbell enthusiast and advocate then all I'd say is give it a shot, you might be astounded at the difference and change in weight training is never a bad thing, so stimulate those pectorals with some dumbbells!
