Great for ego but terrible for chest isolation Dumbbells give a better stretch and save your shoulders
100% true Switched to heavy dumbbells six months ago and my chest finally grew
I don’t know man nothing beats the feeling of a heavy barbell press
True the ego boost is real but dumbbells just give a way better stretch at the bottom
My shoulders used to ache every chest day Switched to dumbbells and the pain completely vanished
The fixed path of the barbell kills my rotator cuffs
But how do you progressively overload dumbbells when the jumps are usually 2.5kg per side?
It’s way easier to micro-load a barbell with small fractional plates
You just milk the reps Go from 8 reps up to 12 reps before you move to the next set of dumbbells
I use a barbell for my low-rep strength work, then destroy my chest with dumbbells for high reps Best of both worlds
That’s actually a solid compromise Might try that on my next push day