Why the Barbell?

Meet me at the bar.

Adrian Sanders
October 17, 2026

So you’re convinced that you need to get in the gym.

You’re convinced that strength training is the bee’s knees.

You want to get stronger, or get more muscle, or just look good.

But how do you go about it since there are so many options out there?

There’s machines, dumbbells, kettlebells, bodyweight, or awkward loads like sandbags, axle bars or even rocks (seriously).

Well I’m here to ease your mind because you can make it quite simple.

You may think I’m biased. I went from bodyweight training to the barbell as soon as I could. You may try as many other things as possible before trying the barbell, but we’re going to talk about that.

First remember all the great reasons for strength training that go beyond just looks

More strength.
More muscle and bone density.
More independence into old age.
Yes, looking better (since “looking better” is a combination of less bodyfat and more muscle)

All you have to do is strength train, but specifically with a barbell. It’s so simple that you might not like it (because it’s boring).

Barbells vs The World

Bars are awesome, and while I could start spouting off the benefits, I think it’s wise to have a discussion about all of the other alternatives. Anything is better than sitting on the couch, but we’re going to talk about some of the drawbacks of each one.

Machines

If you have access to a gym, these are in no short supply. If not and you want to train in the convenience of your own home, good luck setting this up in a home gym. This would mean that you’d need a big enough space or you’re at the mercy of a gym and whatever they have available.
When you train, you want to train the big movement patterns, aka what your body can naturally do. While machines can do this, they remove an important quality: balance and stability. Since you’re sitting and moving the part of the machine that’s supposed to move along a guided path, training your balance is taken away from you. Life doesn’t give you that option, and if you can train your balance and stability while working out, you might as well do it. Bodyweight does this very well, and we’ll talk about that soon.
For machines that work all the “little muscles,” you could be veering into “show muscles” territory, but think general strength first. Besides, most people just want to get stronger and feel better, not step on stage and pose in minimal clothing. Hit the big movement patterns, and any other machine can and should be used for rehab/prehab purposes. But you could also figure out bodyweight alternatives so you can save no space and aren’t reliant on a gym.
Think about doing chin-ups on a pull-up bar connected to your squat rack vs a preacher curl machine. Not only is the pull-up bar connected to something you already use, you’re working more than just your biceps when you pull your body up. Bigger bang for your buck.

Light Weights (Dumbbells or Kettlebells)

These have their place. If you’re just starting out, then light dumbbells on an overhead press or a kettlebell on a goblet squat are great starting points.
If you want to get stronger, how much more weight do you need? I’m not sure, but at some point, things will need to get harder. It will be hard to mimic the incremental loading needed with dumbbells or kettlebells unless you have access to a gym with rows of dumbbells. At home you’d need an entire wall dedicated to them.
These are nice to have for swings or one sided loading, but for basic boring strength training, a barbell is easier. I understand the need for going light sometimes, but don’t hold yourself back. If you can get stronger, you might as well give it your best shot. Again, you could have a set at home, but for most people they’d stop at either 50lbs dumbbells or maybe a 24-32 kg kettlebell.

Bodyweight

There’s no more pure form of strength training than this. It’s a great place to start for a lot of people, even kids. You remove the need for other stuff and you can add strength to your frame. You’re going to have to do so with more reps and harder progressions, but it can still be done.
The only drawback is that you hit a wall. I’m a big fan of making sure you can move your own body, but there’s only so many one-armed chin-ups, one-armed pushups and pistol squats you can do before you need to add load or go insane with reps.
If you’re intimidated by lifting weights, you’re still not out of the strength game. Calisthenics is a great place to get the ball rolling. And for anyone reading this that’s already addicted to the iron already, keep in some bodyweight movements to make sure you can still move your own body.

Awkward Loads

Sandbags, rocks, farmer’s carry equipment, even rocks are being used these days. There are now people that will say that all you need is a sandbag to get stronger. I’m a fan of these because we’re made for more than lifting things that fit perfectly in our hands on two legs that can be kept close to us. A “farmer’s workout” does a body good. But how can you actually gain strength more efficiently? You pick something that you can incrementally load. If you have a stone lift event in strongman, I highly doubt that you can incrementally load the stones to train for it unless you had a backyard dedicated to this. Work your deadlift and your squat, then apply that strength to all the other stuff you like to do.

The Barbell Takes the Lead

On to the bar, let me list the reasons.

Free Weight (Stability and Balance)

Most of life involves moving your body through space or moving other stuff through space. Although most of this stuff isn’t a bar that fits perfectly in your hands that you can keep close, a barbell is the next best option. As I’ve said, machines do not tax your stability and balance as much as free weight could. If you’re going to lift a weight, the best way to get stronger and work stability and balance is to pick something where you could fall down and…not fall down.

Ergonomic (Can grip it and keep it close)

If you’re going to work on loading weight, you might as well do so with something that doesn’t have an awkward balance component to it. Stones and sandbags are nice, but if you want to skip the craziness, you might as well use something that fits in your hands and you can keep close to your body so you don’t have to worry about it falling out of your hands or getting too far away from you. The barbell to the rescue.

Safe (Yes, it’s safe)

People will have this fear of hurting some joint or some part of their spine when lifting. Guess what? You can start light. Super light. You can start with a lighter barbell than the generic 45lbs. You can get a spotter. You can have a squat rack with spotter arms to catch the weight if you miss. You can load the weight slowly and as lightly as need. You could just not miss.
That last point seems silly, but if you’re training by yourself, go up in weight, but not so heavy where you’re not sure if you’re going to make it. If you think that missing is possible, then the weight is too much. Don’t take it out of the rack. It’s better to de-load or change the rep scheme than to hurt yourself. Do no harm.

Micro-Loading

You can take things as slowly as needed if you’re just starting out. Dumbbells and machines may not afford this luxury. Kettlebells definitely do not, and the lovers of them pride themselves on how few options you have. Yet, we’re not aiming for high rep swings here. We want to get stronger at a pace that’s appropriate for each movement and for each person.
As a small example, you can probably add 10lbs to a deadlift in a few weeks no problem. A movement with smaller muscles like the press? Not so much. Get a set of tiny plates online and take your time. 1lbs each week for a year is still 52lbs on one lift. Think long term.

Simple (Big Movement Patterns)

If you’re going to lift, the place to start so that you don’t waste your time is with big movement patterns. That means the stuff your body is designed to do. It doesn’t matter if you’re not squatting with 300lbs on your back every day, your body is made to squat. If that’s the case, then strengthening that ability will make you stronger in general for life and whatever else you want to do. There’s a reason why football players lift weights in the offseason. There are only a handful of machines that mimic the big movement patterns - horizontal press, overhead press, squat, maybe deadlift. If they do, again, the stability component is taken away (think of a smith machine squat).
If you want to work tiny muscles for rehab, look into bodyweight alternatives first so you don’t waste time seeking out a machine for it. But get the big “rocks” out of the way in your training before you start adding the small “pebbles” for each individual muscle group. Most people aren’t bodybuilders nor want to look like it either. They’d be best served by a general program as long as possible just so they can feel better and get stronger. Your body is one unit. The more ways you can find to train it that way the better.

Find a Basic Program

Do a basic barbell program. If you take this barbell path, you may be wondering how far you need to go. I don’t know. If you can get stronger, you might as well just start. If/when things start slowing down and you can’t add as much weight each time, at least you’ve gotten the beginner progress out of the way. Just slow the progression down and keep coming to the gym. Add weight weekly, then monthly. Do some online research about some barbell standards or set your own. Hit them and maintain them for the rest of your life. This is the rest of your life we’re talking about, not just a 6 week challenge.

Branch Out or Maintain

If later you want to veer off into other types of training, go for it, but start here. If you want to play a sport, do it. But at the very least, don’t give up on your training. There’s something called “Easy Strength” where you come in a few days per week and hit weights in the 60-80% range and get out. This is a great place to be for athletes in season or just normal human beings maintaining their strength. Yet people need to get strong enough to know what their percentages are in the first place. If you’re just starting with the bar, then what’s your 60-80%? No clue. Get stronger and come back to this type of training later.

Lift Weights, Live Life

“I don’t want to be a powerlifter” you may say. I never once said that. Just because a football player is squatting doesn’t mean they’re getting ready for a powerlifting competition. Nor does training sprints mean they’re getting ready for a track meet. Their coaches know that more strength means a stronger player. It doesn’t help with the skill of their sport, but I’d take someone that can squat 500lbs over someone that can’t squat 225lbs (given their skill is the same) on the field any day.

People get confused because when they think barbell, their minds immediately go to some powerlifting clip they’ve seen with the top 0.0001% of athletes in the world or some huge hulking bodybuilders.

But there also grandmothers in their 60s, 70s and beyond out there coming in quietly and doing their squats too. They just don’t get as recognition.

I hope these reasons can calm your nerves and give you some motivation to get started.

So go and get started.

Thanks for reading! As always if you have any questions you can feel free to respond back to this newsletter.