Equipment

Barbell exercises

The barbell is the best tool there is for building strength, because it loads a movement heavier than anything else and lets you add weight in small, repeatable steps. Every classic lift is built on it: the squat, the deadlift and the bench press.

The atlas covers those core patterns and the variants that shift the emphasis: narrow and wide grips, the bar in front and behind, versions from the floor and from the rack.

Barbell exercises by muscle group

Pick the muscle group you want to train and see which exercises cover it.

Quads55SquatsFront delts23Overhead pressGlutes18Hip thrusts and deadlifts

More muscle groupsBiceps 16·Upper back 16·Triceps 8

Exercise library

All Barbell exercises

173 exercises
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Training guide

About training Barbell exercises

Choose one movement, perform it well, then progress it over time.

Where do you start with a barbell?

Pattern first, weight second. Spend a few weeks on the empty bar or something light, until the movement repeats itself the same way every time. Progress in that stretch comes from technique, not from kilograms. Adding 2.5 kg a week only makes sense after that.

Picking a variant for your goal

The back squat lets you move the most weight. The front squat loads the quads harder and forces an upright torso. A wide grip on the bench emphasizes the chest, a narrow one the triceps. The conventional deadlift asks more of the back, sumo more of the glutes and adductors.

Safety

A heavy barbell needs a spotter or a substitute for one: safety pins in the rack for squats and bench, or the certainty that you can set the bar down safely. Use collars every time except when you bench without a spotter, where sliding the plates off is the easier way out of trouble.

Where to start

Progress the movement

01

Repeat the last set

The same weight twice a week, until the last set looks like the first. Only then is the bar ready to get heavier.

02

Add the smallest plate

The barbell is the only equipment where progress can be genuinely small: 1.25 kg a side is 2.5 kg on the bar. Use that.

03

Watch that the range does not shrink

If the bar travels less at the new weight, drop back one step. A logged number is worth exactly as much as the rep behind it.

Explore further

By muscle group

Quads55Front delts23Glutes18Biceps16Upper back16

Other equipment

DumbbellSmith machineCable

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