Gethealthyfreedom For example, one-legged squats are a great muscle-building exercise that also challenges your balance. When done with a barbell on your back, though, it can create a potential injury opportunity. However, when performing one-legged squats with dumbbells, the lifter can simply drop the dumbbells and eliminate the injury concern. Novelty. Dumbbells provide a unique training stimulus simply because the load placement differs compared to performing the same exercises with a barbell. When performing barbell squats or lunges, the bar is placed on the back. In contrast, when performing these exercises with dumbbells, the load is held in the hands. Even when performing an exercise that requires the barbell to be held in the hands, such as a straight leg deadlift (SLDL), the load placement still differs because the barbell is held in front of the legs, in contrast to performing SLDL's with dumbbells where the dumbbells are held to the sides of the legs...