After 4 months, I recently went from 7.5kg dumbbells to 10kg dumbbells and it feels really heavy whenever I lift above my chest level. like my shoulders and back have a hard time doing the exercises. But 2 days ago I bought a barbell and loaded it with 28 kgs I was comfortably ( little bit challenging) able to do my exercises. I dont understand why the dumbbells feel so difficult to work with.
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Balance is easier to achieve if you have something larger you are working with, because you can more easily make adjustments that allow you to keep it balanced.
For instance, I can balance an umbrella on the tip of my finger for it pretty much as long as I want to. But it takes great effort to balance a pencil on the tip of my finger for even a couple of seconds.
Also with a bar both hands are working together to balance the whole thing while with dumbbells each hand has to work individually. So not only is it more work for your muscles but also requires more brain work because you are doing 2 complicated tasks instead of one.
You’re using both your arms with a barbell and distributing the weight amongst more muscle groups. Dumbbells are targeting the specific muscles groups like biceps, triceps and shoulders on one side at a time.
If you want bigger gains for a targeted muscle, dumbbells are better. But both are good for a complete workout routine.
Dumbbells are less stable than barbells as they have to be coordinated separately. So this sounds pretty normal to me, my 30lb dumbbells feels about the same as my 70lb barbell when doing curls.
It doesn’t really matter though, unless all of the stabilization work is preventing you from getting as much muscular stimulation as the barbell. I find that I can get a good workout with either, but I prefer dumbbells for some movements and since I lack a rack the extra safety of just being able to drop the dumbbells usually wins out.
Two arms help stabilize each other. Dumbells force you to engage a bunch of smaller stabilizing muscles that are less utilized and weaker.
It’s precisely why I prefer dumbells. You get a more effective exercise, even if the weight is lower.
Lift to exert yourself and worry less about the weight. The weight is for your ego.
One thing that hasn’t been mentioned yet is co-anchoring points.
If for example you’re curling a dumbbell, your arm is on it’s own but if you are curling a barbell your arms are anchored apart which allows your chest to to pull across your arms providing more muscles and stability. This is applicable in other variations.
Dumbbells require far greater stabilization, which in turn forces you to use stabilizer muscles that you wouldn’t usually have to use as much during a barbell or machine lift. Most of these stabilizer muscles used in a dumbbell press are extremely underdeveloped compared to a muscle like the pectoralis major (your chest muscle)
For example:
During a barbell bench press and or a machine press, the main muscles used are your chest muscles, your triceps and if your form is good enough to incorporate your lats, then that comes into play as well.
A dumbbell press brings a new muscle into the spotlight. The rear delts. Now you most likely do use the rear delts to some degree during a barbell press, but not anywhere close to how much they are used during a dumbbell press.
For the exception of a small minority of people, the rear delts are not trained to the degree that other muscles are. For this reason they are in comparison far weaker, which is probably the main reason for instability during dumbbell presses.
You have both your arms and all the little tiny stabilizing muscles in your body helping when you use a barbell. And your muscle recruitment patterns are slightly different using two different pieces of equipment.
You are using the muscles differently. The supporting muscles that balance the weight are working differently between barbells and dumbbells. The range of motion is different as well.
Weight distribution. Dumbbells put all their weight on one arm, while barbells distribute to both. So instead of the arm, shoulder, and back muscles of one side, you got both sets of muscles lifting.
Wierd, im the opposite. Dumbell press 45kg each for reps but throw 2 plates on a bar and i feel weak like 1rm
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