Why we heart barbells

We love working out but if you’re not regularly including a barbell in the mix, you’re missing out! Find out why we heart barbells and why you need to make a beeline for one next time you’re in the gym!

So, what do YOU do?

If I asked you what was regularly included in your fitness program, what would your answer be? Cardio? A bit of ab work? Some strength work? How often does a barbell feature in your exercise program? If your answer isn’t ‘frequently’ then you are missing out.

Barbells may be used to train isolated muscles, however their biggest use is for performing compound, or multi-joint exercises, which don’t just work one muscle, but a whole muscle group.

What are the benefits?

Weightlifters and power lifters are without a doubt some of the strongest people out there and their immense strength can be attributed to the quantity of compound barbell exercises in their training regimes, such as squats, deadlifts and bench presses.

Personal trainer, owner of Speed and Strength and former ABAE English Boxing Champion Istvan Szucs is a keen advocate of barbell training: ‘The barbell is an inexpensive way to do a full-body workout,’ he notes. ‘The barbell can be used to not only perform isolation exercises but also compound exercises, which mean programmes can be tailored to achieve a client’s specific goals.’

The benefits that can be gained from barbell training are numerous. Barbell exercises require more energy to complete therefore keeping the heart rate up and as a result providing cardiovascular benefits, burning calories and promoting overall health gains. By training whole muscle groups, the barbell allows you to lift heavier loads, thus allowing you to build more strength. Compound exercises allow you to exercise longer with less muscle fatigue and improved joint stability, furthermore muscle balance across joints leads to a decreased risk of injury during sport and other exercise. The movements involved also promote improvements in coordination, reaction time and balance.

Compound barbell movements put emphasis on pushing, pulling, squatting, pressing and lifting and therefore help us to perform everyday tasks with more strength and efficiency. They also improve performance in sports which require the ability to coordinate multiple muscle groups simultaneous and a solid strength foundation. Szucs adds: ‘I use the barbell because it suits my boxing-specific training. It not only promotes muscle growth but has cardio benefits such as fat burning and muscular endurance, too.’

Moves for you to try

A handful of barbell moves should stand out as having a key role in your regular training program – the bench press, deadlift and barbell squat.

The bench press works the chest, shoulders, triceps and back, promoting massive upper-body gains. While all movements should be controlled, the key to fully benefiting from this move is emphasising the negative, or lowering phase, ensuring as many muscle fibers as possible are ‘stretched’ on the descent as possible.

The deadlift works virtually all muscle groups including the chest, arms, hamstrings, quads, calves, lats, erector spinae and traps. This lift, due to its demand on multiple muscles is a valuable way to develop a densely muscled physique and functional strength.

The barbell squat maximally works both the quads and glutes. It’s able to target the core muscles and improve core stabilisation of upper-body movements. The move also works the erector spinae, upper back, waist, arms, shoulders and chest.

With the huge number of benefits provided by these timeless barbell moves, can you really afford to be missing them from your training programme?