A barbell is a long metal bar with heavy round weights on each end. You lift it with both hands to make your body stronger. The weights can come off, so you add more as you get stronger. People use a barbell when they squat (bar on the shoulders, sit down and stand up), when they pick it up from the floor, or when they lie on a bench and push it up. Though actually, a lot of people just say “weights” for any gym lifting. A barbell is the long bar for two hands. The short one you hold in one hand is a dumbbell — that is a different thing. There is also a body piercing called a barbell, because the little bar with a ball at each end looks like a tiny gym barbell.