Bars & Dumbbells

Bars and dumbbells are two of most famous materials in physical conditioning of sports. They are usually at gym, but you can see them at the field or track in high performance. Regarding with their use, they are called free-weight because athletes move them in different directions according to the movements which are executed. Besides, they are used to develop the strength and power in lower and upper limbs to enhance the sport performance of the athletes. On other hand, this type of training is becoming more popular and utilise for health training. In the case of the bars, they allow doing bilateral exercises (two hands or legs), whereas the dumbbells permit doing bilateral and unilateral exercises (one hand or leg). Coming with bars, they are used in sports like powerlifting, CrossFit and weightlifting.

The main characteristics of bars are:

• Different forms, length and weights
• Different prices according to the brand and the weights
• Used them in powerlifting, CrossFit and weightlifting
• Less easy to use than dumbbells
• The need of adding bumpers to increase the weight
• Allow doing bilateral exercises (f.e: squat, deadlift or bench press)
• Not much expensive, but you have to plus the price of the bumpers

Image of bar without any license of Creative Commons (URL: http://www.maniakfitness.com/app/tiendaCategoria.do?id_cat=171##9) 

The main characteristics of dumbbells are:

• Different forms, length and weights
• Different prices according to the brand and the weights
• Used them in CrossFit
• Easier to use than bars
• Allow doing bilateral exercises (f.e: squat, deadlift or bench press) and unilateral exercises (f.e: unilateral snatch, curl biceps and deadlift with one leg)
• Not much expensive

Image of dumbbell without any license of Creative Commons (URL: http://www.maniakfitness.com/app/tiendaCategoria.do?id_cat=170##9)

Where can you get them?

Bars and dumbbells are not voluminous material, so you can keep them in a room’s house. In the case of bars, you have to foresee that you need bumpers. If you want to buy these materials you can find in shops and online, like other materials. How it has said, they have different prices (10€ - and this are in relation with their weights and brands. Next, you have various URLs where you can find them:

• http://www.maniakfitness.com/app/tiendaCategoria.do?id_cat=171##9 (Bars: 95-265€)
• http://www.maniakfitness.com/app/tiendaCategoria.do?id_cat=176##9 (Bumpers: 25-100€)
• http://www.maniakfitness.com/app/tiendaCategoria.do?id_cat=170##9 (Dumbbells: 15-95€)
• https://www.strongpeople.eu/es/shop/equipamiento/barras (Bars: 200-1123€)
• https://www.strongpeople.eu/es/shop/equipamiento/barras-y-discos/eleiko-discos-sport-training-color?sku=EKEBPST10 (Bumpers: 167-310€)
• https://www.strongpeople.eu/es/shop/equipamiento/mancuernas-y-kettlebells/eleiko-mancuernas-xf?sku=EKEDXF40 (Dumbbells: 15-191€)

We have selected the most famous brands in Spain: Eleiko and Maniak

Finally, they have to ways of use. First, there are utilised in strength training to develop muscular strength and power in performance and health. There is a high number of scientific articles which claim that the use of free-weights increases the muscular fitness. Therefore, bars, with their respective bumpers, and dumbbells should introduce in the training of athletes and people who wants to enhance their performance or state of health. Next, you will be able to see different videos where the athletes use this material for different goals.

Video with license of Creative Commons (URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVnEJzpUxKo)

Video with license of Creative Commons (URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBWANsPfstA) 

Video with license of Creative Commons (URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu9QphDspcA)

Video with license of Creative Commons (URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUhG40s6uAQ)

Video with license of Creative Commons (URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3-ufQBQZTQ) 

• You can see a Power Point of this post with this URL: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uPTFwE-wXkFfoBkQzi_5pAobAVk8x3y4/view?usp=sharing
• You can see the PDF of this post with this URL: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15v4DSljSzOSyU2Y8EyoI54DjDSnetpZR/view?usp=sharing

Information of products:

·       https://www.strongpeople.eu/es

·       http://www.maniakfitness.com/app/tiendaMain.do##9

Post done and edited by Jorge