[bengillies]

Ok, well that makes sense, but I suppose what I'm really asking (I already kind of assumed that training with barbells was good for you) is what's wrong with every other form of exercise?

To take two examples (these two because I am intimately familiar with them): Why should someone stop climbing or doing martial arts and start lifting barbells (by stop I mean assume said person doesn't have enough time to do both and must choose one or the other)? Both of the former seem (to me at least) really good for developing strength and, AFAICT do so in a much more realistic and natural way than lifting barbells.

[tehwalrus]

Lifting barbells allows you to control the weight much more than climbing or punching things.

If you read Starting Strength (Riptoe, mentioned many times on this thread) you'll learn about the recovery and response cycles to stress on the body. You should be regularly increasing the amount you're lifting regardless of your bodyweight (which is what you are always lifting in climbing,) in order to actually increase your strength over time.

Barbells also allow you to start with smaller weights at the beginning of the workout, and then move on to heavier sets when you're warm. AFAIK there's no way to do this with climbing.

Re: barbells not "natural" - firstly, more natural than most of the other equipment in the gym, and secondly it depends what you're doing with them. lifting them over and over, slowly is one way to use them (and builds strength), but speeding up your reps and/or performing power cleans will improve your power (literally rate-of-work) which is what is important in sports like martial arts and ball games. You can train for almost any sport with a barbell, with the right lift, rate, set lengths and intra-workout rest period.

[bengillies]

> Lifting barbells allows you to control the weight much more than climbing or punching things.

Ok so that makes a lot more sense. Thanks for the explanation.

> Barbells also allow you to start with smaller weights at the beginning of the workout, and then move on to heavier sets when you're warm. AFAIK there's no way to do this with climbing.

So with climbing in general climbing harder problems (smaller holds, further apart, more overhang, etc etc) works muscles more, and the harder you climb, the fitter and stronger you will be.

[pvnick]

Yes this will make you stronger, but not as much as barbell exercises

[poke111]

Any physical activity is obviously much better than living a sedentary lifestyle. If you only like running, that would be better than nothing (though your joints may not think so). But the argument here is that if you have limited time and are looking for the most benefit per hour of physical activity, strength training is much better than cardio. As for why barbell training in particular is so much better than other ways of getting strong, I recommend this article: http://startingstrength.com/index.php/site/article/strength_...