Dumbell to barbell bench ratio?

[IronMan]

Do any of you guys push dumbbells? If so, what kind of weight do you use and how does it compare to the weight you use on a barbell?

[Nate]

I'm a weak bencher and even weaker DB bencher. With DBs, I might be able to get 55% of my barbell bench up once... maybe. Then again, maybe I'm doing it wrong.

[Músculo-Tonto]

After rehab from another bad injury, I'm finally back on TM again, and using dumbbells for my mid-week light day Bench Press.

Whatever I use for the barbell, the simple useful rough calculation for me is to take that barbell weight and multiply that by 90%. With that new number, divide it in half for each dumbbell. Now if the number isn't even, I round down to the nearest even DB increment (which would end in 0 or 5). Note that I only press dumbbells on my TM light-Wednesday (but use barbells for Monday's 5x5 and my PR day on Friday), which means I don't have to worry about precise calculations.

However, if I was converting for a normal 3x5 on LP, or a 5x5 for a TM Monday volume day, I would still take the barbell weight and mulitply it by 90% (then divide by two) to get my DB weight. The difference would be that I would find incremented small-magnets to keep the weight precise (no rounding down or up.) This would be experimental, and not 100% the best idea, as when you get heavy, calculating DB from BB is not an exact science by any means.

The Dumbbells present a whole new bench-pressing scenario, IM.
You'll like them.

My calculation above is based on different starting points from what I inquired about below, but Andy's advice about not calculating DB from BB in correct. Whole new ball game. However, my modified calculation above works for me in this instance and it feels comfortable on Wednesdays, requiring about as much effort as if I would have used barbells.

http://startingstrength.com/resource...ad.php?t=46039

Hope this helps.

M-T

[IronMan]

Excellent thanks guys. I'm also curious about how much weight you bench for both.

[Meshuggah]

Fascinating

[IronMan]

Fascinating

How much you bench bro?

[Meshuggah]

Fascinating

How much you bench bro?

Thanks to a shoulder injury 14 months ago, I can now only do inclines... "Bro"
My best flat bench was 310

[hamburgerfan]

You should have done 315. No one benches 310.

[Meshuggah]

310 was all I had.

[Músculo-Tonto]

Excellent thanks guys. I'm also curious about how much weight you bench for both.

My upper body never came back at a decent rate after my second injury.
My current 5x5 Volume day is only 200lbs, and my PR is 225 (whereas before, 225@5x5 wasn't heavy enough for VD. -- What the hell happened to me?)

Anyways, my Wednesday "light day" bench press for a barbell would be 180lbs (90% of 200). Now dividing that by 2 would give me a 90lbs DB in each hand, which would be too much. So I took 90% of 180lbs, and came up with 162. I divided that number by 2, and so use 80lbs DBs for Wednesday's 3x5.

Remember that, especially if you start using DBs for 5x5 VD bench, or all 3x5 bench days on LP (which require precision), the weight actually gets progressively more off as you increase the DB size, *because the hand bar that goes through the center of all the ten plates get longer to accommodate the additional plates*.
So a 60 pound DB will have 6 tens, plus roughly a 10"-11" rod through the center at Xlbs/inch of length.
Now a 100 pound DB will have 10 tens, plus roughly a 16" rod through the center at Xlbs/inch of length.

Try looking here, too.
http://startingstrength.com/resource...hp/t-7097.html

http://startingstrength.com/index.ph..._dumbbell_rack

M-T