Performing straight barbell curls for biceps

The standing biceps curl is accessible to everyone – from beginners to professionals. It has remained a major movement for many people for decades. It is technically simple, can be performed with heavy weights, and has even become a competitive movement. Yes, some people compete in this exercise and even win international competitions. There are two main variations of the movement - a straight lift and an exercise with a curved barbell. The latter is done to relieve the load on the hands.

Execution technique

Initial position

1. For most people, it is convenient to do biceps curls while standing with slightly bent knees; with straight legs, the body may collapse;
2. You need to carefully take the barbell so that it lies evenly in your hands and does not twist from side to side;
3. It is better to use a closed grip, not a monkey grip, with the thumb completely encircling the bar

Movement

1. By contracting the biceps, bend your elbows;
2. Exhale together with the effort produced;
3. As you inhale, slowly lower your arms down and straighten your elbows.

Attention

• As with other biceps exercises, cheating is prohibited. There is no need to bring the barbell to your shoulders with your body, throw it and push it with your legs;
• Large weights that are lifted in a “pendulum” mode can cause injury. It’s worth starting with a feasible barbell weight;
• Leaning your back backwards can put dangerous stress on your spine and is therefore prohibited;
• Resting with your elbows on your stomach and tilting your back back is prohibited, as it takes the load off the target muscle

This is the STANDING BICEPS CULL, baby.

Execution options

• Bent barbell lift . The purpose of using such a bar is to relieve stress on the hands. The biceps are also worked in the curling exercise;
• Variations in grip width . A narrow grip is considered a priority for the long head of the biceps, while a wide grip prioritizes the short head. But both exercises are considered complex;
• Overhand grip . Serves for working out the forearms;
• Strict barbell curl . This is the name for any option completely without cheating, but in practice it can be a variation with your back resting against the wall

What newbies face

The main question for beginners is how to quickly build up biceps? But, only troubles happen quickly! Any progress takes time. You can inject a pharmacological drug into the muscle, and for a while you will get ideal forms. But in the end, under the skin there will be just an elastic mass, not muscles. And if there is the slightest violation of sterility during the injection, there will be a large abscess instead of the biceps, and everything will end in surgical intervention.

Muscles cannot grow quickly, except in cases of powerful artificial stimulation. It is given by the very drugs that you will need to sit on constantly, killing your body.

Therefore, when looking for information about biceps, how to quickly pump up these muscles, etc., you should not pay attention to supposedly magical remedies. It is much wiser to cool your ardor a little and come to terms with a gradual but qualitative increase in mass. After all, we want to not only increase its volume, but also make it stronger, right?

This means that there is only one way left to achieve our goal - to swing on our own, using the maximum potential of our body.

The information below will help you make your biceps grow as quickly as possible naturally. At the same time, the advantages are obvious: the muscles retain their volume and shape longer after stopping exercise, there is no harm to the body.

The second problem that beginners face is overestimating their own capabilities at the initial stage. The guys are in a hurry, trying to lift heavy weights on their biceps. The technique is lost, the quality of the exercises tends to zero. Progress stops.

The third problem is the lack of technology. Ideally, it would be nice for a trainer to show you how to do the exercise correctly and watch you. To do this, you need to take personal training from him. But not everyone has this opportunity, and most people start training on their own.

Another problem on which we will end the list is the desire to have super huge biceps - like those of top bodybuilders. Let us repeat that this super-result can only be achieved through unnatural means and hours of daily training. Are you ready to live in the gym and stuff your body with drugs? Let's be a little more modest, you're the Hulk.

To solve all these problems, you need to be patient and study the exercise technique and the laws of working in the gym. Go!

Anatomy exercises

The barbell curl or biceps curl is an example of a single-joint isolation exercise. Sometimes they write that this is “basic for the biceps,” but this simply means the basic exercise for pumping up this muscle, and not “base” in the context of “multi-joint exercise.” In the version where the forearms are pressed to the sides and the elbows are stable, most of the load is shifted towards the lateral head of the biceps. To engage the medial, athletes move their elbows back, behind their backs, and try to grab the bar a little narrower.

Although this is an isolation movement, the auxiliary muscles involved are:

• Brachialis;
• Brachyradialis;
• Teres brachii muscle;
• Extensor carpi;
• Anterior delta

Biceps are as simple as five cents

From a biomechanical point of view, when the arm is flexed, the biceps brachii muscle becomes fully tense. That is, there are no special movements to tension the inner or outer head of the biceps. And there are no special exercises to create a biceps peak like the legendary Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The shape of the hand is a genetically determined factor. The peak of the biceps is either present and clearly defined, or it is weakly expressed or absent altogether. You just have to come to terms with this. In any case, well-developed arms look great regardless of their genetically determined shape.

The most important thing is that developing them is not difficult if you do it wisely both from the point of view of physiology and the training process.

Preparing for the exercise

If arms are done on a separate day, biceps curls will likely be the first movement. Then you should perform a full joint warm-up, warm up your wrists, shoulders, elbows, and all joints of the body so that the position with the barbell is stable. An athlete should not neglect joint warm-up, even if he plans to only work out his arms.

The first warm-up approach is performed with light weights. Further options are possible depending on the weight of the bar. Someone goes to the working weight, adding 2.5 kg, someone immediately “hangs” everything and performs 3-4 working approaches. This is individual, you need to observe the body and train exclusively as it is more convenient.

If arm and back training is combined, one warm-up approach is usually sufficient. In terms of training, the barbell curl may well be the only movement for this muscle, since more exercises can be performed on the back.

Exercises for biceps. Barbell curls.

Important differences between exercises with a barbell and exercises with dumbbells.

Barbell vs dumbbells

• The dumbbell exercise allows you to supinate your wrist more. And it's not a bad workout either.

Supination

– (lat. supino, supinatum turn over, throw back) - rotational movement of a limb or part of it outward.

• When alternately bending your arms with dumbbells, you can focus on one of the biceps, and this is important, for example, in working out the relief of your non-working arm.
• The “hammer” exercise, when the palms are turned inward, allows you to work additional muscles that are not active when lifting the barbell.

Exercises with dumbbells and a barbell are fundamentally different, and all of them, working in one program, allow you to achieve the maximum.

Proper execution

• The main secret of the exercise is to lift only with your biceps, do not swing your body, and do not try to lift the weight with your legs. Cheating appears at heavy weights in all athletes; it is the norm. Therefore, the conclusion is obvious - you need to use feasible weights, and not try to impress anyone with this movement. Cheating can only be considered a technique for sports that require speed. In addition, it is used as part of drop sets by experienced athletes;
• As part of the normal technique, the elbows are not supposed to move forward and backward; they should be fixed at one point. This will eliminate unnecessary involvement of the core muscles in the work;
• “Bending” your wrists forward towards your shoulders is also not recommended. The movement is accomplished by bending the elbow joint; there is no need to lift the barbell with your hands;
• Extending the body backwards places stress on the back muscles and should therefore be kept to a minimum. It is recommended to rest your back against the wall if this movement occurs “by itself” on any weight scale;
• It is not recommended to hold your breath during the exercise; muscles work more effectively in the “exhale with effort” mode, and not when holding air in the lungs;
• There is no need to “rest” by throwing the barbell over the front deltoid. Many people think that peak contraction occurs at the top point, but in fact it is dead. The contraction occurs 4-5 cm from the shoulder, and you just need to tense the biceps as hard as possible at this point, and not higher or lower;
• It is not allowed to “drop” the bar downwards due to inertia, and “fall” from the bottom point due to a push with the hips;
• “Inserting your elbows” at the bottom point is not necessary; on the contrary, when lowering the barbell, it is important to keep the muscles tense, so that the biceps receive more load;
• Slowly lowering the barbell from the top point is a technique that allows you to increase arm strength

Errors

• Help with the hips in lifting the barbell;
• Tilt of the back, which allows you to bring the projectile out of the dead center;
• Twisting the hands to the shoulders;
• Transferring body weight to the front of the arch of the foot and shifting the load to the legs;
• Bend the hands down at the lowest point of the exercise;
• Lifting with a barbell that exceeds human capabilities;
• Bringing the projectile to the dead center at the top, and stopping without tension;
• Shift your weight to your heels and tilt your back back

Recommendations for improving efficiency

1. To enhance concentration and lift only within the amplitude, the body should be slightly tilted forward;
2. The exercise works better if you do not completely relax the biceps and do not insert your elbows in the lower part of the amplitude, and also do not place the barbell on your chest in the upper part.

By performing the movement with a regular straight bar, the athlete receives the following benefits:

• The ability to use a wider grip to engage the muscles in a different way;
• A more convenient apparatus for performing exercises with a reverse grip;
• Good grip for those with long fingers

The reverse grip is more suitable for those who want to work their forearms, not just their biceps. Within the same workout, the exercise can be performed with both a forward and reverse grip, so as not to lose the benefits of both options.

Barbell Curls (Biceps Curls)

The favorite exercise of all young guys who have just reached the gym, along with the bench press. And both of these exercises are usually done incorrectly, which negates any progress.

The main mistake is that the elbows are brought forward , and this cannot be done. The elbows should remain in place, as shown in the video above. In this case, the load falls only on the biceps brachii muscles, and there is no moment of their relaxation in the peak position.

If your elbows are under the barbell, the load will go into them (the force vector is directed downward), and the biceps will relax. Naturally, there is no talk of peak reduction. It is impossible to do it in this position.

As for the grip, grab the bar approximately shoulder-width apart so that your hands do not bend in the horizontal plane. In addition, do not bend your hands towards yourself at the top position of the barbell. They always remain in the same position.

Having raised the barbell to the top position, hold for 0.5 seconds, “squeezing” the muscle into peak contraction. When lowering the projectile down, do not relax your arms and do not fully extend them.

I also recommend using a curved bar, which will allow the hands to be in a natural position, turned inward at about 45°. This practice will prevent them from overexerting themselves as the weight increases.

Inclusion in the program

Arm training usually begins with either this movement or with a close-grip pull-up, and then continues with a biceps curl. The exercise is performed with more significant weight than concentrated lifts and movements in the Scott bench.

A simple test will help you choose the right projectile weight. You can lift a correctly loaded barbell without jerking, accelerating with your hips, or other unnecessary movements of your legs and body. If you cannot bend your elbows without the help of the body, the weight must be reduced.

Standing dumbbell curl

An alternative to doing dumbbell curls while sitting on an incline bench.

The technique of performing the exercise is similar to that of lifting dumbbells for biceps with a “Hammer” grip, but there is supination of the hand in the upper position.

The shoulder blades are brought together, we keep the elbows at body level, we don’t move them forward, we do a peak contraction at the top, and we don’t relax the arms at the bottom.

You can raise both arms at once or alternately, without fully extending them at the bottom. In the latter case, we maintain a slight tension in the “resting” hand.

Contraindications

• Active injuries to the wrists, elbows, lower back and shoulders are a contraindication to performing the exercise with heavy weights;
• Protrusions and hernias in the lumbar region usually force people to switch to seated raises, or perform a concentrated version with their back to the wall;
• It is not recommended to perform the exercise without wrist wraps if the wrists are overloaded with a large amount of work in the bench press with a heavy weight;
• The exercise is not recommended for those who have inflamed ligaments or arm muscles; in this case, a couple of days of rest are required for the body to recover.

Barbell Curl for Biceps

Igor June 20, 2019

Hammer Grip Dumbbell Curls

This exercise is mainly aimed at developing the small muscle between the biceps and triceps - the brachialis .

It gives the arm a more impressive, athletic shape, so to speak, increases its thickness and has a good effect on the development of overall strength of the shoulder and forearm.

We perform the exercise standing, shoulder blades retracted, elbows held in a natural position at body level, do not move forward, perform a peak contraction at the top, do not relax the arms at the bottom.

You can raise both arms at once or alternately, without fully extending them at the bottom. In the latter case, we maintain a slight tension in the “resting” hand.

What muscles are involved?

In this exercise, whether you do it standing or sitting, with dumbbells or a barbell with a straight or curved bar, slightly different muscle groups will work to varying degrees in the grip position:

• Overhand grip (palms facing down) – the brachial and brachioradialis muscle groups will be involved.
• Reverse grip (palms facing up) – loads the brachialis muscle and the biceps brachii itself.

In addition, the work will include the brachialis, extensor carpi and anterior delta.

Biceps workout

You can train your biceps several times a week. The number of workouts is determined by the individual characteristics of your body. To understand these characteristics, the trainer needs to work with you for a month, decide on the best exercises, and optimally adjust the training program. This work is not easy, so choose an experienced and competent trainer.

The greatest effect is achieved in most people if you train your biceps twice a week.

The biceps muscle itself does not occupy the largest part of the arm. A significant part of the volume falls on the triceps (more than half). The development of the biceps muscle gives the shoulder that very masculine relief. Therefore, the question of how to pump up large biceps can be answered evasively - this is not the largest muscle. If you want not only sculpted, but also voluminous arms, pump up your triceps too. And this does not mean that pumping up the biceps is unnecessary and useless. When your hand becomes wider even by 2 cm, from the outside it will look very impressive, see for yourself.

You need to pump up the biceps muscle with different exercises, diligently and patiently.

When pumping any muscle, it is important to focus on the sensations in it. This is especially true for beginners who do not yet know how to do the exercises correctly. After all, in order to work out the body better and more efficiently, you need to monitor your movements and do everything consciously. Then after training you will have pain in exactly those muscles and their parts that you planned to train.

Let's move on directly to the exercises.