
A nice bonus is that curling will grant you better grip strength as your hand grasps the handle tightly and your forearms - which act as the bridge between your elbows and hands - are engaged throughout the movement. Really, the main selling points are bigger and stronger biceps. When it comes to training, your biceps assist in pulling movements such as deadlifts, cleans, and pull-ups.Ī stronger pair of biceps means you’ll be more able to handle heavier loads for those aforementioned movements. Anytime you bring a protein shake to your lips or pick up your phone, you’re performing a curl. How often do you flex your elbow on a given day? We can assure you it’s a lot. The biceps muscle has a small but important job - to flex your elbow. Video can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Barbell Curls with Chains: NFL Training with Adrian Hubbard () Why Train Biceps? Because it’s essentially a more wrist-friendly barbell curl, many lifters will find themselves able to lift a bit more weight than they can with a straight barbell. However, some companies do also make EZ-bar cable attachments as well.Įxercise Tip: If you’re going to go heavy, use the EZ-bar. This movement is often done either standing or seated in a preacher curl setup. A straight bar makes you stabilize your wrists in a straight position, which increases the torque placed upon them - making it an uncomfortable movement for some, especially if you’re using heavier weight. Also, the slightly inward angle of the bar takes the pressure off your wrists. Why Do It: The EZ bar is a specialty bar that is designed to have the lifter use a slightly angled grip which can target the biceps differently. Video can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Conquer the EZ-Bar Preacher Curl, Max Out Your Biceps () EZ-Bar Curl This movement’s unique setup makes the preacher curl exercise very versatile, one that can be done using a wide array of equipment, such as barbells, dumbbells, cables, and specialty bars.Įxercise Tip: Don’t expect to lift as much weight on the preacher curl as you do on the standard dumbbell curl since you won’t be able to rely on momentum to lift the weight up.

Since you have to stabilize your elbows on the bench for this movement, you’ll also target your brachialis and brachioradialis - the elbow flexors. “This move allows you to take the stability factor out of the exercises, which concentrates almost all of the force on the biceps,” says Cody Braun, Openfit fitness specialist. Why Do It: The preacher cul has you curl a weight with your elbows fixed on a preacher bench. Video can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: How To: Seated Incline Dumbbell Bicep Curl () Preacher Curl Sets and Reps: four sets of eight to 10 reps. This will take the stress off of your biceps off - which is exactly what you don’t want. Simply put, you can lift more weight with this variation than any other on this list.Įxercise Tip: Be sure to stabilize your elbows, so you don’t sway and use momentum to lift the barbell. This will be one of the best general strength and mass-building biceps movements for most individuals since it allows lifters to load up with significant amounts of weight.

Why Do It: The barbell curl is a well-known biceps exercise variation that can be trained with various grips, tempos, and loads.

Below, we’ll break down 10 variations that we think are worth knowing about and then give you some reasons to try them (or not try them). Some curls are easier on the wrists.įeeling overwhelmed by the borderline unnecessary number of curl variations that exist? Don’t sweat it. (Hey, it’s ok not to go balls to the wall every training session.) The thing is, biceps curls may be simple - but there are plenty of variations that may better suit your particular training goals. They’re simple to do, lead to a killer pump, and won’t leave you questioning your existence like a 20-rep set of squats will.
