Length Matters

Is longer better?

The debate over whether length matters is an argument I gladly avoid. Being married for 20+ years lets me be past caring, and I’m probably on the losing side of that anyway.

But when it comes to weight training, length matters a lot. When you wrap your fingers around a steel hard shaft, you want it to be good and long. 

OK, I’m going too far with this. So let’s get to the point. When we weight train....

We use barbells. 

Olympic style. 

The standard is 86.5” long. That’s just over seven feet.

There are shorter options. My 4’11”, ninety five pound wife uses a 66” bar that’s lighter with a more narrow grip. 

But for us men, we use the standard olympic barbell. The full seven feet with the 2" thicker sleeves at the end.

How about short 12-14” dumbbells? 

In the beginning when we’re starting the Core 4, we may lack significant strength and need really light weights. That’s when it’s possible to use dumbbells. 

But when we gain strength, it’s all barbell from there. 

As we get stronger and the weight gets heavier, dumbbells lack the stability to keep us safe. Hoisting up heavy dumbbells into a starting position can get us injured before we even begin the exercise. 

Barbells give a set, specific starting and ending position for each exercise that requires little effort to get into. It’s my personal experience that injuries are more common with dumbbells, and rare with a barbell. 

Safety is one of our core themes with 2nd 50 Strong, so when the weights get heavier, dumbbells are out. 

We can also go up in weight by smaller amounts using a barbell. Injuries caused from using too much weight are greatly reduced. With an Olympic sized barbell, increasing the weight by a total of 2.5 lbs or less is easy to do.

By using barbells, we focus on the exercise motion as a whole, and how well we’re performing it. 

We don’t think about which muscles we’re using. 

Strengthening the body’s natural movements, instead of targeting specific muscles, makes our new strength usable throughout our day. 

Bodybuilders use a lot of dumbbells. They look big and muscular, but they lack the useful strength that improves their life performance. It’s all show, and no go. I figured this out the hard way.

Exercise equipment is out. Even with the ability to move seats or levers, our joints get stressed when they’re forced to go through a fixed motion that doesn't match their body composition.

I’m 5’10’ with stubby legs and a long torso. My friend is 6’2” with legs like a flamingo and a short upper body. When standing next to each other, he’s 4” taller than me. When sitting down, I’m 1” taller than him. We used to laugh our butts off standing up and sitting down over and over again. 

There’s no way any one piece of exercise equipment would be safe for both of us to use. The freedom of motion a barbell gives takes all unnecessary stress off our joints, and lets the exercise adapt to our personal body shape. 

That’s how it is with us humans. We come in all shapes and sizes, and only barbells can accommodate us in the safest way possible.

I know long barbells give the impression of being hardcore, but really, our bodies love using them.

So there it is. Longer is better. 

At least when it comes to weight training.

Grow or Die,

Ken Kowalsky