Hi all,
I have been experiencing something very frustrating…
I worked my way up to lifting 105lb dumbbells for bench pressing (good for me). Two weeks ago, when I switched my routine to begin with barbell bench press, I can barely hit 200. It doesn’t make sense to me, as I thought most people can lift more with BB than DB?
Anybody experience anything like this? Could it possibly be that I just need to train the movement? Any help would be appreciated, this is my biggest lagging area in the gym. Thanks!
Don’t know about your bar but the barbell bar at my gym weighs about 40 pounds to start with?
[quote]justinf77 wrote:
…Could it possibly be that I just need to train the movement?[/quote]
Yes.
range of motion with the dumbells means alot too. you usually see people not going down near as far as they should
Give it time… I also am at 100-105 lbs for DB press with good form but when it comes time to do BB bench the most I’ve ever done cleanly is 245 lbs. 
I hope that more experienced lifters out there can possibly explain this discrepancy for the OP & myself… could it be body type or arm length, chest vs. triceps strength, etc?
[quote]redsox348984 wrote:
range of motion with the dumbells means alot too. you usually see people not going down near as far as they should[/quote]
Like redsox says maybe you have a poor range of motion and don’t go down very far kinda like partials.
If you are hitting 105’s for clean reps your bar bench should be much better then that. At least 225 clean for one. Something is amis there.
D
There are other factors involved in your barbell bench press. How much lat and upper back work do you do? It plays a lot larger roll in the BB bench than people realize. I had the same problem as you a while back. My DB bench has always been independent of my BB bench. It has been at 90’s to 110’s and my BB bench has stayed the same. I think its because you can change the angle: high chest, low chest, wide, narrow, more and less delt involvement.It wasnt until I added more back work that my bench went up. Practing the movement helps too.
How many times have you trained bb bench since the sweitch from db’s? If you’ve only had one session, you should be considerably stronger at the next session, or in the next few.
Perhaps you have a different style of lifting. Do your elbows flare with the barbell, but not with the dumbbells?
Also, what I frequently see is that the db’s are allowed to fall inward. They are not held over the elbows.
This shortens the leverage of the weight. Makes it easier on the pecs and taxes more the triceps.
[quote]craigspud101 wrote:
Don’t know about your bar but the barbell bar at my gym weighs about 40 pounds to start with?[/quote]
Most gyms use Olympic Bars which are 45 lbs. and call me crazy but when lift I do count the weight of the bar, so if I am benching with a plate on each side, I will write in my journal I lifted 135 lbs, not 90 lbs…
Anywho, back to the original question, one should be able to bench more with a BB than DBs; however, not being able to see you perform each lift, one could only speculate that maybe your ROM is only partial as other suggested. If not I would guess that maybe someone switched the stickers on the DBs and they are actually only like 75 pounds 
j/k
How are your shoulders? I know at one time I switched to DBs because of the stress the BB placed on my shoulders.
[quote]Bigpull wrote:
There are other factors involved in your barbell bench press. How much lat and upper back work do you do? It plays a lot larger roll in the BB bench than people realize. I had the same problem as you a while back. My DB bench has always been independent of my BB bench. It has been at 90’s to 110’s and my BB bench has stayed the same. I think its because you can change the angle: high chest, low chest, wide, narrow, more and less delt involvement.It wasnt until I added more back work that my bench went up. Practing the movement helps too.[/quote]
I don’t know it seems to me if you have the strength to hold and stabilize over a hundred pounds in one hand and then press it you should have some carry over in strength when stabilizing and pressing the weight with two hands.
D
I’m willing to bet every penny I’ve got that he’s just not factoring in the weight of the bar itself, which is probably around 15 or 25 pounds.
[quote]Benjamin Gueret wrote:
I’m willing to bet every penny I’ve got that he’s just not factoring in the weight of the bar itself, which is probably around 15 or 25 pounds.[/quote]
uuhhh…what kind of bars do you use man?
[quote]Benjamin Gueret wrote:
I’m willing to bet every penny I’ve got that he’s just not factoring in the weight of the bar itself, which is probably around 15 or 25 pounds.[/quote]
What kind of bar do you use? A standard?
[quote]Benjamin Gueret wrote:
I’m willing to bet every penny I’ve got that he’s just not factoring in the weight of the bar itself, which is probably around 15 or 25 pounds.[/quote]
what do you bench with an ez-curl bar?
Guys, one would have to be a total noob not to factor in the weight of the bar, lets give him the benefit of the doubt here.
[quote]StevenF wrote:
Guys, one would have to be a total noob not to factor in the weight of the bar, lets give him the benefit of the doubt here. [/quote]
i ageee with that. even if your noob you wouldnt think that. who thinks the bar would weighs nothing? you dont have to be a noob you have to be fucking retarded not to count the bar
[quote]redsox348984 wrote:
StevenF wrote:
Guys, one would have to be a total noob not to factor in the weight of the bar, lets give him the benefit of the doubt here.
i ageee with that. even if your noob you wouldnt think that. who thinks the bar would weighs nothing? you dont have to be a noob you have to be fucking retarded not to count the bar[/quote]
That is the 2nd cat who mentioned that…In addition, they don’t even know how heavy the bar is they are using…These poor saps need to stick to Lawnies…
barbell bench=overrated.
don’t worry so much about the numbers as much as the form. if the barbell causes too much stress on your shoulders like it does me, then lay off it and do some shoulder savers exercises. I began to realize how unimportant bench was when it went up 20lbs after I stopped benching for a month and tried it again. No other exercises do that for me.
I figure if everyone that stays the same size in the gym is benching and doing curls…I shouldn’t do them, at least not as a permanent staple in a routine.
[quote]xjayx300 wrote:
redsox348984 wrote:
StevenF wrote:
Guys, one would have to be a total noob not to factor in the weight of the bar, lets give him the benefit of the doubt here.
i ageee with that. even if your noob you wouldnt think that. who thinks the bar would weighs nothing? you dont have to be a noob you have to be fucking retarded not to count the bar
That is the 2nd cat who mentioned that…In addition, they don’t even know how heavy the bar is they are using…These poor saps need to stick to Lawnies…
[/quote]
And you Sir need to stick to the question and not flame others with your omnipotent knowledge. Troll.