5 Great Leg Exercises

Olympic Barbell with Bumper Plates

Note: if you’re going to train with a barbell, do yourself a favor and . You can thank me later.

This past weekend, I pulled out my old 300 lb olympic weightlifting set because my brother wanted to start lifting weights on top of his bodyweight training routine.  So, I helped him set it up and decided to test out the bench press exercise for old times sake. Now, I haven’t used a barbell in my own training for almost three years, and haven’t practiced the bench press exercise in over 4 years, back when I was experimenting with a musclebuilding style strength routine with my training buddy.  It was no surprise that my technique was spot-on, as it’s a fairly simple exercise, but I was shocked when I realized I had only dropped back by 10% of my former best lift. With a few days of rest and a proper warmup, I may have been able to meet my former personal record ().

I wasn’t testing in ideal circumstances, by any means – I had already completed a moderate intensity workout that day, I was already fatigued, tight, and didn’t perform any warmup other than a few sets. And yet, I came so close to a former PR. This got me thinking about barbell training, and I wanted to share with you why I have dropped the barbell as one of my tools of choice in the past few years.

Disclaimer: I am not against barbell training at all. I place this training tool on a hierarchy of value with all other training tools, and it is above and below other tools depending on the training goals. It may sound like I’m anti-barbell, but that’s not true. I’m anti-barbell for MOST training goals, especially since I believe the barbell is one of the most misused and abused training tools in fitness culture. If you use barbells regularly, I challenge you to question why you use them and consider the idea that there may be a better alternative depending on your training goals.

In my forthcoming article, The Hierarchy of Training Tools, the barbell is ranked number 9 on my list of 15 training tools.

9. Barbells

Defined: A barbell is usually a steel bar that is 5 to 7 feet long. The diameter often varies from thick to thin, but it is usually about one inch, and is engraved with a knurled crosshatch pattern to help lifters maintain their grip. Weight plates are slid onto the outer portions of the barbell on either side to obtain the desired total weight. These weight plates are usually secured with collars to prevent them from sliding off during the exercise (which can result in injuries). A barbell is used in weight training, Olympic weightlifting and powerlifting.

Barbell Training is Best Used For:

The barbell shines most bright when used for heavy weight training. Thus, it is the tool of choice for competitive powerlifters, olympic weightlifters, and to an extent bodybuilders. There is no better tool for measuring the body’s ability to lift raw weight up and down than the barbell. The best barbell exercises are compound lifts such as back squats, front squats, overhead squats, zercher squats, deadlifts, rack-pulls, stiff-leg deadlifts, sumo-stance deadlifts, bent-over rows, bench presses, overhead presses, cleans, jerks, snatches, power cleans, push presses, and power snatches.

*For more information about the effects of compression-creating activities, listen to my interview with Scott Sonnon here:

Put bluntly, the only way to elicit a training adaptation with a barbell is to lift moderate to heavy weights that place a lot of stress on the body. This stress, while adequate from a musclebuilding standpoint, is damaging to overall health, and will limit the amount of progress you can achieve long-term.

We see this most obviously when powerlifters and many olympic weightlifters need to retire early from their sports because their bodies simply cannot take the injury anymore. Those nagging, little injuries that popped up every now and then were signals that should have been heeded. Instead of paying attention to the warnings the body sends, a lifter may train around them, and not only ignore the problem, but exacerbate it. There comes a point, when taking a week off from training isn’t enough and an injury progresses to being incapacitated to lifting weights.

Lifting weights is one of the highest risk activities when it comes to getting injured – even higher than martial arts and football. I’ve read horrifying statistics, that say 80% of all new trainees need to quit their exercise programs due to injury in the first 6 weeks! No doubt, many of these trainees were compressing their joints without releasing the accumulated tension. All training must be balanced to be successful and repeatable, and it’s a difficult balance to achieve with a program that relies heavily on barbell training which is exclusively hard-style in nature.

The other major disadvantage to barbell training is that it is only performed in one plane of motion. The barbell is only lifted up and down. You don’t lift a barbell forwards or backwards, or left or right. Gravity is the only means of resistance, and it’s common sense that everyone encounters resistance in all 6 degrees of movement freedom. We see this most obviously in sport, but it rings true for everyday life activities as well. Not only does training exculsively in one plane of motion create strength deficits from a movement standpoint, it also creates imbalances throughout the body. This could be a whole article in and of itself.

Furthermore, there is plenty of research and evidence that strength adaptations from barbell training don’t even transfer to other activities. Improving your strength under the iron, only improves that specific strength, which will not necessarily improve your strength on the field, the court, the mat, or in the ring. This is true because of the law of . So, while a lifter may be getting stronger in the gym, that strength is basically useless if it cannot be transferred in an applicably athletic way.

Common mistakes:

• The most common barbell mistake is using it excessively, for purposes other than competitive lifting. This will often lead to injury due to the heavy loads being placed on the body which compresses the joints. The impact this has cannot be understated!

• Not compensating for barbell training in your program. Compensating can take the form of , , , or even if performed properly (yoga can actually hurt you more than it can help you if practiced improperly).

• Trying to lift too much weight for your skill level, or trying to progress too quickly.

• Rounding your back or tilting your head backwards during most compound lifts.

• Not sticking with the same exercises for long enough to allow adaptation.

• Performing near-max lifts (1-3 rep range) if you are not competing in powerlifting or weightlifting.

Fitness Professional and Barbell User For 10 years

P.S. A far better alternative for the pursuit of functional strength is the clubbell, which naturally decompresses the joints by pulling away from the body. Learn more about it at the official site here:

The kettlebell is also a great tool for compression-based exercises, yet being a much lighter weight that can produce equivalent adaptations in the body. I recommend only .