When most people think of the gym, they think of a bunch of beefed-up, sweaty dudes deadlifting thousands of pounds and communicating via a series of grunts.
Funny to think about?
Yes.
Is this some gyms?
Yes.
But not the vast majority of them.
Old heads will tell you that if you’re serious about weight training, you need to be using barbells, back squats, dead lifts, bent rows, blah blah.
As a guy who trains primarily using barbells, I can tell you that they will get you super strong, but it does come at a higher risk.
But I’m willing to make a statement that’ll probably anger a lot of people in my industry. That is, if you’re not competing in powerlifting, Olympic lifting, or CrossFit, you will most likely have far fewer flare-ups if you stop centering your training around using barbells.
Mic drop.
Let me explain
I’ve been training both adults and athletes for 15 years. Thousands of programs, hours, and cueing have taught me a bunch, but when I look back and dig a little bit deeper into how we train our adults, the least used exercises in my programming are traditional barbell lifts.
I don’t include them because I can’t spell them correctly to include them on a program. I don’t include them for a very specific reason, and here’s why:
Barbells are wonderful, but they are built for barbell sports. In my opinion, they are one of the worst default tools for a personal trainer. Most people can build strength and muscle effectively with fewer flare-ups without forcing their bodies to fit a straight bar.
You see this throughout the history of exercise science or personal training. About 15 years ago, we had an overreaction to the “functional training” trend. The industry swung very hard back to the traditional barbell lifts, and if you weren’t serious, you had no business being in the gym, not using barbells.
This includes barbell back squats, bench press, dead lifts, etc…
Here is the issue.
Most of our personal training clients are over 40 years old, and that means several things:
- Lots of previous injuries
- Achy joints
- Limited mobility
- Stress and bodies that do not love to be forced into positions that they don’t like
Bench Press
Everybody’s favorite exercise, probably the most common horizontal pushing lift in my opinion, that aggravates the shoulders. Can we get the same training effect using dumbbells and push-ups for our adult population? Yes.
Barbell Back Squats
This requires you to put weight on your back with a lot of shoulder external rotation to grab the bar, which many of our populations do not possess. We can substitute some of this stuff with specialty bars, but most of the time lower backs and ankle limitations make them a poor lower body choice.
Can we get the same training effect with split squats, reverse lunges, or other single-leg orientated exercises? Yes.
Barbell Deadlifts
We like to use trap bars here as they are easier to queue up and most people’s bodies like them much better. As we know, form change is under fatigue and under heavy weights, and the trap bar is far more forgiving.
In Summary
When I sit here and look at our programs, they’re mostly barbell-free, just because those big lifts didn’t fit the bodies that we’re trying to force underneath them. Now, if you are into barbell lifting, of course go ahead, and if that’s what makes you happy, continue with the training. I think at the end of the day the big lifts are not needed for a general population to become strong and healthy.
When we teach our clients the fundamentals of strength training, we want to make sure that they are aware that we can become very strong and able-bodied using many different means that are found in the gym. At the end of the day, most people want to be able to get up out of bed pain-free, run around with their grandkids, and walk up a flight of stairs without being exhausted.
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