Dumbbell vs Barbell Bench Press Weight Comparison

F or people who are using a barbell at the gym but need to resort to dumbbell benching when at home due to lack of space, there is always this dilemma: how much dumbbell weight equals the barbell weight they are benching at the gym? If you are one of them, you probably know that it can also be confusing to transform your dumbbell benching weight into barbell when you have been working out at home for long. In this article, we explain how to make the conversions so you know precisely how much you need to load on the barbell or on the dumbbells before taking your seat on the weight bench so you can avoid the danger of straining a muscle or ending up with back or neck pain. Below you will find conversion tables for both women and men for the most common weight plate combinations, so you can use them every time you are working out without needing to pull out your phone to do the math.

First Thing First: Why Are Dumbbells Harder than Barbells?

Most weightlifters agree that they can lift more when exercising with a barbell, and the explanation is pretty simple. The secret stands in the weight stabilization the barbell offers. More specifically, during barbell benching, the two weights are connected through the bar so you are basically pushing a single more massive weight with both your hands. When using dumbbells, each of your hands has its own weight stack to manage, and it needs to focus not only on pushing them but on preserving a vertical course of movement. This requires more chest muscles to be involved and an extra effort to be spent to maintain the balance.

You have more chances to progress using barbells, but then you have this study from 2020 that has sown that barbell presses activate the agonist and synergist muscles more while dumbbells help you work your arm flexors (biceps) to a higher degree, so you shouldn’t exclude one in the detriment of the other. Yet, the same study found the barbell to activate your pecs more, so you should prioritize these exercises.

Fit Woman Training with Dumbbells

How to Transform Dumbbell Bench Weight to Barbell Bench Weight?

You may be surprised when you do the transformation to see that you are able to lift more with the barbell. The average woman can lift 28% more with an Olympic weight set than with dumbbells, and the average man can lift 22% more since the range of movement is more restrained. Here are the formulas that apply in this case:

Barbell Weight (Women) = Dumbbell Weight (Women) x 1.28

Barbell Weight (Men) = Dumbbell Weight (Men) x 1.22

The table below illustrates the transformation values for both men and women for weights going from 10 lbs. to 300 lbs.

Dumbbell to Barbell Bench Press Weight Conversion

How to Transform Barbell Bench Weight to Dumbbell Bench Weight

The fact that you will be benching less with dumbbells doesn’t need to be seen as a disappointment. In fact, if you manage to lift as much as the conversion table says, you are on track, experiencing the same weight variance as most elite lifters. This study has shown that most individuals bench 17% lighter when using dumbbells. Here are the formulas for women and men:

Dumbbell Weight (Women) = Barbell Weight (Women) x 0.72

Dumbbell Weight (Men) = Barbell Weight (Men) x 0.78.

The table below shows the values we have obtained when applying the conversion to weights from 10 lbs. to 300 lbs.

Fitness Woman Lifting Barbell Lying on Bench

Barbell to Dumbbell Bench Press Weight Conversion

Is There a Way to Bench More?

Of course, there is! In the end, isn’t this the goal toward which we are all striving? And the big secret about how to get there isn’t that big actually. You need to become stronger in your upper body so your muscles can sustain more weight. This can be acquired if you bench every day, but doing extra strength exercises, even Smith machine workouts, can help you achieve your goal faster. Here are some tips we tried out that proved to be real game-changers:

• Check your position – the way you keep your shoulders on the bench is extremely important. They should always be touching the backrest. Moreover, you should try to keep your shoulder blades tucked in your back “pocket”, as this will give you a boost of strength and also protect your shoulders in the long run. Now referring to your feet, the right way to keep them is on the floor. You want them to support your movement, and you will also be pushing on them a little bit, which can be quite uncomfortable if you are only touching the floor with your tiptoes.
• Slow down your tempo – strength is more often associated with endurance than with cardio, and this is because your delts and other muscles react better when exposed to longer and slower movements than to quick, short ones, according to this clinical trial published in 2013. Thus, you should try doing fewer reps and, instead, maintain the pose for longer.
• Improve your technique – when you keep adding more weight plates, your focus goes on lifting them and maintaining them balanced, so you no longer have time to focus on your technique. Set a day on which you will lift lighter, so you can take a look at how you are lifting and even try an incline or decline position. This will help you preserve a better pose in the following training sessions and even add more weight to your bar.

The Takeaway

Now that you know how each type of training works and how to transform between barbell and dumbbell BPW and the other way around, you can organize a routine that would include both home and gym training. Check our table every time you are not sure what weight to use, and never bench more than your body allows. Also, don’t forget that most instructors recommend taking in both barbell and dumbbell workouts, as they engage different muscle groups, and this combination can help you obtain better results.