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The 25+ Best Barbell Exercises (For Each Muscle Group)

The ultimate list of barbell exercises (By muscle group)

Whether you are looking to create a workout with bars or are looking to implement barbell exercises into your routine, you can refer to this ultimate list of barbell exercises.

To create a perfect barbell workout, these are the 25 best barbell exercises:

Not each one will be right for your goals, but after reading the full list, you can mix-and-match your favorites to create a custom program. 

Let’s dive in!

Barbell Chest Exercises

Barbell chest exercises target the following muscles:

  • Pectoralis Major
  • Pectoralis Minor

The pectoralis major (or pec major) provides the bulk of your chest muscles. Its functions are shoulder flexion (bringing your arm from your side to shoulder level), shoulder adduction (bringing your arm toward the middle of your body), and shoulder internal rotation (rotating your upper arm inward and forward).

The pectoralis minor, or pec minor, is a smaller pair of chest muscles that are underneath your pec majors. It acts to protract the shoulder blade (bring it forward around the ribcage) and helps with internal rotation (rounding the shoulders forward) and downward rotation (rounding the shoulders and shoulder blades downward).

1. Flat Barbell Bench Press

The flat barbell bench press is likely the most popular chest exercise and is often used as a marker for the strength performance of the chest muscles. The flat bench requires a bench press station or a free-weight bench that is wheeled into a squat rack.

How To Do It

  • Lie down flat on a bench with the barbell set up on the rack height that is low enough for you to unrack the barbell without allowing your shoulder blades to come out of a pinched back and down position.
  • Make sure that the barbell is above the top of your head and hold onto it with a wide grip.
  • Keep your feet underneath your thighs and push yourself so that you slide your upper traps (top of the upper back muscles) up the bench press. When you do this, make sure you stick your chest up and pinch your shoulder blades back and down.
  • When your eyes fall under the barbell, stop sliding up the bench press and unrack the barbell to bring it above shoulder level. Lower your hips to keep your glutes down on the bench.
  • Take a deep breath into your chest and brace. Descend the barbell in a controlled manner down to your lower chest level. Ensure that your elbows are underneath the barbell.
  • Press the barbell back and up to finish the barbell at the same starting position.
  • Repeat for the desired number of repetitions and rack the barbell back.

Benefits

  • Focuses on general chest muscle mass. As you are performing the bench press with a wide grip, you will stretch your pecs out more when you train through a full range of motion. Training muscles in a longer muscle length is generally better for building muscle.
  • Allows you to move more weight. Using a wide grip minimizes how much range of motion you use. This means you can leverage more weight on the bar, which makes it better if you want to increase strength.

2. Incline Barbell Bench Press

The incline barbell bench press is another popular chest exercise that targets the upper fibers of the chest muscles. You need to have an incline bench to perform this exercise. An ideal angle for the incline barbell bench press is anywhere from 15 to 45 degrees.

How To Do It

  • Set up a free-weight bench press to incline one to two notches up. This should ideally be anywhere between 15 and 45 degrees from horizontal.
  • Lie down on the bench with the barbell set up on the rack height that is low enough for you to unrack the barbell without rounding your shoulders forward.
  • Make sure that the barbell is above the top of your head and hold onto the barbell with your desired wide grip.
  • Keep your shoulder blades pinched back and down by thinking about sticking your chest up to the sky.
  • Take a deep breath in and unrack the barbell to bring it over above shoulder level.
  • Descend the barbell in a controlled manner down to mid-chest level. Ensure that your triceps are underneath the barbell at all times.
  • Press the barbell back and up to finish at the same starting position.
  • Repeat for the desired number of repetitions and rack the barbell back.

Benefits

  • Focuses on upper pec fibers. A comparative study from Coratella et al. 2022, showed that an incline bench press can activate more of the pec muscle fibers that are attached to the collarbone. These are your upper chest fibers. If you want to increase muscle mass in this region, the incline bench press is better.

Learn more about all the muscles used in the bench press.

3. Close-Grip Barbell Bench Press

The close-grip barbell bench press targets the chest muscles but with more emphasis on the triceps as well.

A shoulder-width or slightly wider-than-shoulder-width grip is considered close-grip. However, among the powerlifting communities, close-grip may refer to any grip that is narrower than the grip they use for competing.

How To Do It

  • Lie down flat on a bench press with the barbell set up on the rack height that is low enough for you to unrack the barbell without letting your shoulders come off the bench.
  • Make sure the barbell is above the top of your head, and hold onto the barbell with a close grip. For most people, a close grip should be shoulder width or slightly wider than shoulder width.
  • Keep your feet underneath your thighs and push yourself so that you slide your upper traps (top of the upper back muscles) up the bench press. When you do this, make sure you stick your chest up and pinch your shoulder blades back and down.
  • When your eyes fall under the barbell, stop sliding up the bench and unrack the barbell to bring it above shoulder level. Make sure to keep your buttocks down on the bench.
  • Take a deep breath into your chest and brace your core to create rigidity through your entire midsection. Descend the barbell in a controlled manner down to your lower chest level. Ensure that your elbows are underneath the barbell.
  • Press the barbell back and up to finish at the same starting position.
  • Repeat for the desired number of repetitions and rack the barbell back.

Benefits

  • Increases muscle strength due to increased range of motion. Research from Pinto et al. 2012 has shown that training through a longer range of motion can be more beneficial for increasing strength gains in the muscles trained. The close grip barbell bench press can be beneficial for increasing bench press strength gains.
  • More concentration on the triceps. Using a close grip means there is more range of motion going through your elbows. As such, the close-grip bench press trains your tricep muscles more. This is useful if you are training for powerlifting. The triceps are more active at higher weight intensities for bench pressing, so the close-grip bench press can be used as a bench press accessory. The close-grip bench press is also useful for bodybuilders who want to focus more on growing the triceps.

Barbell Bicep Exercises

Barbell bicep exercises target the following muscles:

  • Bicep Brachii
  • Brachialis

The biceps brachii is commonly just referred to as the biceps. There are two heads to the biceps: the long head and the short head.

They act to flex the elbows and rotate the forearms outward. The biceps also have a weak ability to flex the shoulders i.e. perform a front raise.

The brachialis muscle is another elbow flexor muscle that bends the forearms toward the upper arm.

1. Standing Barbell Bicep Curl

The standing barbell bicep curl is one of the simplest barbell bicep exercises. It requires you to engage your lower body and core to stabilize your posture and center of gravity. 

How To Do It

  • Hold onto a barbell with an underhand shoulder-width grip and stand up straight with your head facing forward.
  • Take a deep breath in, brace your core to create stiffness in your midsection, and engage your legs.
  • Curl the barbell as high as you can and exhale while keeping your elbows tucked close into the side of your torso.
  • Slowly lower the barbell back down until your elbows are fully extended while breathing in again.
  • Repeat for the desired number of repetitions. 

Benefits

  • Challenges the core and legs to maintain posture. When you perform the standing barbell bicep curl, your center of mass moves back and forth on your feet. This may encourage you to overextend your back to stay balanced. For this reason, your abdominal, hip, and leg muscles have to work together to make your posture as rigid as possible.
  • Increase bicep strength in bilateral pulling exercises. When you train the standing barbell bicep curl, you can strengthen your biceps if they are a weak point in pulling exercises that use both arms at the same time, such as bent-over rows and chin-ups.

2. Barbell Preacher Curl

The barbell preacher curl is an isolation bicep exercise that relies on using a preacher station. Preacher stations are a seated setup with an arm pad on a 45-degree incline.

You can do this exercise with a straight barbell or an EZ curl bar. The hardest point in the range of motion is the bottom of the curl.

How To Do It

  • Set up the height of the seat so that when you are seated and place your arm on the arm pad, your armpit is positioned exactly on the top corner of the arm pad.
  • Select and load the appropriate weight on the barbell and leave it in the preacher curl station rack.
  • Grab onto the barbell with an underhand grip with your palms facing the sky, and hold onto the barbell with a shoulder-width grip.
  • Try to turn your elbow pits to face the sky as much as possible. This will help stretch your bicep muscles more, which will maximize the range of motion.
  • Take a deep breath in, and exhale as you curl the barbell as high as possible. Stop before the end of the elbow wants to come off the arm pad.
  • Inhale as you descend the barbell back down until your arms fully extend.
  • Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

Benefits

  • High tension when biceps are stretched. The benefit of the barbell preacher curl is that the most amount of tension is felt on the bicep when it is most stretched out (i.e. when your arm is extended as much as possible). This is when the bicep is also the weakest, which makes the preacher curl one of the better bicep curl exercises for bicep strength.
  • Good for managing asymmetries. As you are set up with your upper arm isolated on the arm pad, you can pay attention to keeping a symmetrical setup as well as a more symmetrical movement during execution. This will help make sure that your biceps are more balanced.

If one of your biceps is bigger than the other and you want to make them more even, check out How To Even Out Biceps If One Is Bigger Than The Other.

Barbell Tricep Exercises

Barbell tricep exercises target the following muscles:

  • Tricep Brachii Lateral Head
  • Tricep Brachii Medius Head
  • Tricep Brachii Longus Head

The triceps come in three heads.

The lateral head of the triceps is the outermost tricep muscle. This muscle acts to extend or straighten the forearms at the elbows.

The medius or medial head of the triceps is located in the middle of the back of the arm. It also acts to extend the elbows.

The longus, or long head of the triceps, is slightly different. As well as functioning to extend or straighten the elbows, it contributes to shoulder adduction (bringing the arms closer to the body).

1. Barbell Flat Bench Skull Crushers

The flat bench barbell skull crusher should form part of the best barbell workouts to emphasize the triceps. You can do it with a regular straight barbell or an EZ curl barbell. The difference between the barbells is that the EZ curl barbell is angled, so it does not challenge your wrist flexibility as much.

Normally, this exercise is performed on a flat bench, but you can do it on the floor too.

How To Do It

  • Lie down on a flat free-weight bench and hold onto a barbell with straight arms above your shoulders and an overhand grip.
  • To enhance the range of motion of the triceps, you can tilt your arms back toward your head and hold your arms at a 10-degree tilt.
  • While keeping your elbows as close as possible, lower the barbell toward the forehead or the point just above the top of your skull.
  • Make sure you keep your wrist straight throughout the execution.
  • Straighten your elbows by extending your arms back to the original start position.
  • Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

Benefits

  • Standardizing range of motion. The barbell flat bench skull crusher is good for keeping a consistent range of motion throughout your set as there is an obvious start point where your arms are straight and an end point where the barbell is either by your forehead or just on the bench. This makes it reliable for tracking improvements in tricep performance.

2. Barbell Overhead Tricep Extension

The barbell overhead tricep extension, also known as the French press, can be performed seated or standing. By starting in an overhead position, the tricep muscles are maximally stretched out, which can produce greater hypertrophy and strength gains. 

How To Do It

  • Set a free-weight bench pad to be upright or to a slight 10-degree angle from vertical.
  • Sit on the seat and press a barbell overhead with a shoulder-width overhand grip.
  • While keeping the elbows tucked close to your head, bend your elbows and allow the barbell to go back behind your head or bench.
  • Once you reach the maximum range of motion, extend your elbows until your arms reach full extension again.
  • Make sure that your elbows remain stationary throughout the range of motion.
  • Repeat for the desired number of repetitions, and when you are done, control the barbell back down in front of you.

Benefits

  • Good transfer for overhead strength. By training the triceps with your arms in an overhead position, you get a good transfer of tricep strength to overhead pressing exercises such as the military press.

Barbell Shoulder Exercises

Barbell shoulder exercises target the following muscles:

  • Deltoids
  • Rotator Cuffs

The deltoids provide the bulk of the shoulder muscles but are attached to multiple places around the shoulder area. They are made up of the front delts, side delts, and rear delts. 

The front deltoids act to flex at the shoulders or bring the arm up in front and internally rotate the shoulders (rotate the shoulders forward).

The side deltoids are located at the edge of the shoulder. They act to abduct or bring the arm outward to the side.

The rear deltoids are located at the back of the shoulders. They act to bring the upper arm down and back and rotate the shoulders out.

The rotator cuffs are stabilizer muscles for the shoulder. There are four major rotator cuff muscles: the supraspinatus, subscapularis, infraspinatus, and teres minor. The rotator cuffs act to support internal or external rotation at the shoulders.

1. Standing Barbell Overhead Press

The standing barbell overhead press, also known as a strict press or military press, is a great exercise for targeting the deltoids and triceps. It is often used as a measure of overhead str as a measure of overhead strength. 

How To Do It

  • Set up a barbell on a squat rack at about a shoulder-level height with the desired weight.
  • Grip the barbell with your hands just outside your shoulders and unrack it.
  • Take 2-3 steps back from the rack and stand with your feet about hip-width apart.
  • Take a deep breath in, brace, and engage your hips and legs before pressing the barbell above your head until your arms are next to your ears
  • Inhale as you slowly lower the barbell back down until it reaches your shoulder level.
  • Repeat for the desired number of repetitions and then rack the barbell.

Benefits

  • Improved coordination of your upper body, core, and lower body. When you are pressing weights overhead your head, you need to be able to coordinate your whole body to stay balanced. Your core needs to engage to keep your posture as rigid as possible, and you need to keep your legs tense, so you don’t bend at the knees and lose balance.
  • Increased pressing strength. Any pressing movement will rely on having strong shoulders and triceps (which is what the standing overhead press activates), whether it is an overhead pressing or a bench pressing type movement. Training the standing barbell overhead press transfers well to most pressing movements. 

Learn more about how the overhead press can help improve your bench press in Does Overhead Press Help Bench Press?

2. Standing Barbell Behind The Neck Press

The standing barbell behind the neck press is a challenging shoulder exercise that requires pressing a barbell from behind the head. It requires good shoulder mobility.

It is a popular exercise amongst Olympic weightlifters, who often bring the barbell all the way down to the upper back after an overhead lift.

How To Do It

  • Set up a barbell on a squat rack at about a shoulder-level height with the desired weight.
  • Walk underneath the barbell and place your traps (the muscles along the base of your neck and upper back) under it, then unrack the barbell with a wide grip.
  • Take a deep breath in, brace, and engage your hips and legs before you press the barbell above your head until your arms are next to your ears.
  • Make sure your head is slightly forward and your elbow pits face the barbell.
  • Inhale as you slowly lower the barbell back down until it reaches your upper traps (above the shoulder level but not at the neck).
  • Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.
  • Rest the barbell back on your traps, then walk the barbell back into the rack.

Benefits

  • Activation on traps and side delts. As you press the barbell from behind the head, there is a greater emphasis on the traps and side delts. This is helpful if you are looking to widen your frame when bodybuilding for a better physique.
  • Good transfer for Olympic weightlifting. This exercise variation has good carryover to Olympic weightlifting movements such as the snatch since you are dealing with a barbell overhead with a wide grip.

3. Seated Barbell Shoulder Press

The seated barbell shoulder press is a similar shoulder exercise to the standing barbell shoulder press and the Z press. The major difference is that this exercise is performed while seated on a bench with your knees bent. It also doesn’t require as much hip or hamstring mobility as the Z press.

It’s an excellent option if you want to overhead press in a room with a low ceiling.

How To Do It

  • Set up a free-weight bench inside a squat rack, and set the barbell to be shoulder level when you sit upright on the bench.
  • Sit with your feet underneath your hips and unrack the barbell with a shoulder-width apart or wider-than-shoulder-width grip
  • Take a deep breath in, engage your abs, then exhale as you press the barbell up above your head.
  • Finish with your arms by the sides of your ears and lean forward slightly when your arms fully lock out.
  • Breathe in as you lower the barbell to the starting position and lean back by 5 to 10 degrees.
  • Repeat for the desired number of repetitions, then re-rack the barbell.

Benefits

  • Postural control for pressing movements. The seated barbell shoulder press is good at teaching you to engage your abdominals to keep a flat back during standing overhead press movements.

Barbell Trapezius Exercises

Barbell trapezius exercises target the following muscles:

  • Trapezius
  • Rhomboids
  • Levator Scapulae

The trapezius muscles (or traps) are located in the middle of your upper back along the base of your neck. They act to:

  • Pinch the shoulder blades back or retract the scapula
  • Elevate the shoulders
  • Bring down the shoulders
  • Upwardly rotate the shoulder blades
  • Extend the neck
  • Bend the beck sideways

The rhomboids are a pair of mid-back muscles that act to retract, elevate, and rotate the shoulder blades.

The levator scapulae is a muscle located at the neck portion of the spine and attaches to the shoulder blades. It functions to elevate the scapula and rotate it downward.

1. Yates Row

The Yates row is a variation of the barbell row made famous by former Mr. Olympia Dorian Yates from Great Britain. It has a higher torso angle, which makes it target the upper back and trapezius more due to the direction of the pull.

How To Do It

  • Stand up straight with your feet at a hip-width stance, and hold onto a barbell with an underhand grip that is shoulder-width apart.
  • Bend at your hips and let the barbell slide down until it is just above the knee cap. Make sure your shins are vertical and your armpits are above the barbell.
  • Exhale as you row your barbell up along your thighs into your hip crease with your elbows as far back behind you as possible.
  • Keep pressure on your mid-foot throughout the whole execution, and maintain a flat back with your head stacked in line with your torso.
  • Inhale as you slowly lower the barbell back toward the starting position, and with your arms extended.
  • Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

Benefits

2. Barbell Pendlay Row