BARBELLS - YOUR BEST FRIEND

If you’ve wandered in any commercial gym before, you probably know what a barbell is: a long cylindrical metal shaft with rotating sleeves bolted on each end. Its origins are quite old at this point, with the first globe barbells appearing sometime in the second half of the 19th century, and being updated strength competition after strength competition, until the birth of the modern barbell, standardized by companies such as York (1930s) or Eleiko (1950s).

Long before the barbell, lifters would use dumbbells and clubs, because the focus was not really on progressive overload, but mostly on the skills in handling a fixed weight.

Somewhere along the line, some very intelligent person figured out that those tools needed to be loaded over time, in some sort of measurable manner, in order to gain strength. Sand, water, mercury or whatever cheap material was available at the time.

What became obvious was that a barbell allows for the loading of a certain movement, while the movement is being displayed with the same form as when unloaded. This is why, until the invention of Nautilus machines back in the mid 80s, a movement like the Standing Press was included in the Olympic Weightlifting Games. A Press movement is a straight vertical push from the shoulders. An Olympic Press was executed by picking up a barbell from the floor to the shoulders and simply pushing it above the lifter's head until the arms were straight. This is different from throwing or "jerking" the bar above the head like in an Olympic Clean and Jerk.

When you build a machine with the goal of fatiguing the front and side deltoids responsible for the shoulder flexion and abduction that raises the arms up in the air at a certain degree of external rotation, the original full body pressing movement, and the benefits associated with its execution in training, become irreplicable, for the sake of convenience and a hyperspecialized application of human physiology. Even if you built a machine that the lifter could stand under and push vertically against to move the load, it would still be very sub-maximal in terms of muscle mass involved and overall athleticism required, compared to the standing Press or the Olympic Press.

Although some equipment can be used alongside barbells for rehab purposes or other limitations the lifter might have

In the last few decades the focus has shifted from getting stronger by heavily loading normal human movements, to chasing soreness, pumps and aesthetic pleasantness by isolating muscle groups and their functions

Thanks to methods like Crossfit and Starting Strength, and the rise in popularity of Strongman, barbells are finally back in fashion.

Commercial gyms now have dedicated “functional training" areas, where you will find cage racks, barbells, bumper plates and maybe even a deadlift platform. More strength training facilities are equipped with the space and tools necessary for people to get stronger.

This was unthinkable as recently as 15 years ago to my knowledge.

Social media platforms are full of men AND women, lifting heavy weights, whether for competition, aesthetics or health purposes. The eating disorders and body dismorphias that have afflicted billions of people over the last few decades, especially women, because of ignorance and unattainable body standards, seem to have loosened the grip on our society, and people are finally accepting what a normal human body is supposed to look like - and most importantly how it’s supposed to function.

So, forget about machines that can’t adapt to your body structure and are not infinitely loadable.

Forget about dumbells for single-sided movements that limit the amount of weight you can lift, and make balance the limiting factor.

Learn how to use a barbell and perform a full body movement with it attached to your body. You’ll quickly find that squatting, deadlifting, pressing and benching are the most efficient movements you can perform and a barbell the most efficient tool to perform them with,  if you want to get stronger.