BICEP CURL SERIES

If barbells intimidate you, try an EZ Curl bar. Also, incorporate dumbbells AND barbells into your training. Use a Variety of Hand Positions and Arm Angles For Bicep Curlsįor balanced biceps development, vary the arm angle and hand position you use. Plus, it works the short and long heads of the biceps well while also hitting the brachioradialis and brachialis muscles. The hammer curl has the benefit of placing less stress on your wrists than other types of curls.

When you do hammer curls, your palms are positioned midway between pronation and supination with the palms facing each other. A strong grip helps you when you do a variety of upper body exercises as weak wrists and grip strength can be a limiting factor for some weight-training exercises. Using a pronated grip strongly activates the brachioradialis muscle in the forearm and can help you develop greater grip strength. Pronated is where your palms face down as you hold the dumbbells and is the positioning you use when you do reverse curls. This is the position you use when you do a standard dumbbell or barbell curl. Supination is where the palms are facing toward you. When you grip a barbell or dumbbell, you can hold them in a pronated, supinated, or neutral position. Altering Your Grip When You Do Bicep Curls Alternatively, shifting the arms behind the torso when you curl places more focus on the short biceps head. If you position your arms in front of your torso by doing a concentration or preacher curl, you target the long head of the biceps more. Remember, you want to work both for symmetry.Īnother way to target the long or short head of the biceps more is to change the position of your arms relative to your torso. This positioning favors the short head of the biceps. When you move your hands beyond shoulder width part, you turn the movement into a wide-grip curl.

When you move your hands closer together on the barbell and do a close grip curl, you shift the emphasis toward the long head of the biceps, an important part of the upper arm, since it helps with shoulder stabilization. Ideally, you want both heads to get a thorough workout and changing how your hands are positioned ensures that both heads get the attention they need. The way you position your hands switches the emphasis from one head of the biceps to the other. The brachialis is a major flexor of the elbow joint while the brachioradialis extends into the forearm and flexes your forearm at the elbow. You have two other important muscles in the front of your arms – the brachialis and brachioradialis. How does this relate to how they look? Development of the long head makes your biceps look larger from the side whereas developing the short head gives your biceps definition from the front. The large head is what gives your biceps its “peak” while the short head gives your biceps thickness. The long head is along the outside of your biceps close to the lateral head of the triceps muscle while the short head is toward the inner aspect of your arm. Your biceps are made up of two heads called the long head of the biceps and the short head. Two, it shifts the focus to different parts of your biceps. One, it changes the stimulus it places on the biceps and doing this helps you avoid plateaus. So, why should you ever change your hand positioning? Two reasons. Using this common grip helps maximize the amount of weight you can comfortably lift as your curl. How and where you place your hands when you curl can impact the degree of muscle activation and the results you get from curling.Ĭhances are when you do biceps curls, you use a standard grip on the barbell where your hands are shoulder width apart. Your muscles will respond better, especially if you’ve been training for a while, by adding little variety and with biceps curls, it’s not hard to do. Sound familiar? Using this approach won’t maximize the gains you get when you curl. We might do a few sets of hammer curls and standard barbell curls and then move on to other exercises.

BICEP CURL SERIES

Most of us get into a rut where we do the same series of curls over and over again, especially when we always use the same grip and hand position. Although curls are an isolation exercise, one that works only a single muscle group, it’s one of the best for activating these muscles that flex your arm You may not get the same calorie burn that you do when you do push-ups but you really isolate the biceps and this helps them grow and become stronger. That’s because there’s no exercise that better targets the biceps than biceps curls. If there’s one exercise almost everyone includes in their weight training routine, it’s bicep curls. Shop Cathe Fitness Equipment & Accessories.

Bicep curl