Dumbells or barbell for overall development?

[MASTER]

Wot u guys reckon is best, some people ive spoken to reckon barbell becoz u use more weight and therefore stimulate more muscle fibers, but others say dumbells because they use more stabilizers.

[TADOLFI]

Just depends on what you are trying to accomplish. If you are new to lifting - I recommend both to be worked in to your routine so that you can see how your body reacts.

[Captain_test]

what do we think are "Best" as in.......what? Symmetry/isolation?=dumbells

overall strength/recruiting more muscle fibers? barbells.......but use both bro

[MASTER]

Ive been training for like 5 yrs, its just my chest growth has pretty much stopped, ive always done both, but I concentrate more on barbell because I like it, I was just wondering whether other people thought dumbells give better results.

[MASTER]

by better i mean for growth, clearly barbells are better for strength, this isnt a newbie question.

[chest6]

what do we think are "Best" as in.......what? Symmetry/isolation?=dumbells

overall strength/recruiting more muscle fibers? barbells.......but use both bro

what he said

[MASTER]

that means u think barbells are better, whereas swolecat always says dumbells are better for development, thats all i wanted, peoples opinions

[Captain_test]

I would say...shock your chest. do more barbells, push yourself, experiment. try flipping the switch, and doing more dumbbells..try different exercises to reach different areas of your chest! I recently was doign this with biceps, tried a different way of holding the dumbell while i curled it, i was feeling sore fibers that i had never felt get "injured" before! good luck

[chest6]

that means u think barbells are better, whereas swolecat always says dumbells are better for development, thats all i wanted, peoples opinions

Im not necessarily saying they are better just what has worked for me. Dumbells definitely have their place tho

[chest6]

I would say...shock your chest. do more barbells, push yourself, experiment. try flipping the switch, and doing more dumbbells..try different exercises to reach different areas of your chest! I recently was doign this with biceps, tried a different way of holding the dumbell while i curled it, i was feeling sore fibers that i had never felt get "injured" before! good luck

I used to do dumbells for chest only one week and barbell the next..that worked pretty good..then i got more into powerlifting shit

[TADOLFI]

You're right - development is, and can be, better with dumbells. Another thing that some people under estimate (depending upon your goals) is using cables for various body parts.
Now - if you are specifically looking for getting through a plateau on chest, use both, but you may have to investigate exercises you're doing, order of the exercises, and how many days per week you're working chest.

[MASTER]

I work chest once a week, my metabolism is very slow, so i assume my recovery is slow also, so ive never risked training it more than once. I figure if u train properly u shudnt b able to train a muscle group twice in a week.

[TADOLFI]

Sounds right - once a week should be plenty if you're training right.
The only other thing I could suggest is to incorporate the secondaries more - (maybe an extra set on each workout)

Back to the original question of dumbells vs. barbell - try one workout that uses primarily all barbell exercises and log how you felt as far as pump, intensity and recovery and then the next week try to do the same thing with dumbells and log it.

It can be a pain in the keester - But then it's right in front of you in black and white.

[MASTER]

yeh cheers for the advice.