The barbell curl is a quintessential biceps mass builder.
It’s been a staple in bodybuilding routines for many years as a result of it’s one of many easiest and simplest methods to progressively overload your biceps, making it very best for gaining arm dimension and energy.
On this skilled information, you’ll discover ways to do the barbell curl with correct kind, perceive what makes it so efficient, uncover the most effective options and variations, and extra.
Mastering Barbell Curl Kind
To grasp standing barbell biceps curl kind, cut up the train into three steps: arrange, curl, and descend.
1. Arrange
Place a barbell on the ground and cargo it with plates. Seize the bar along with your palms dealing with away from you a bit wider than shoulder-width aside.
Rise up straight, take a deep breath, and brace your core.
2. Curl
With out leaning backward, curl the bar towards your chest till your forearms are roughly perpendicular to the ground.
3. Descend
Reverse the motion and return to the beginning place.
Right here’s how correct barbell curl kind ought to look if you put all of it collectively:
Barbell Curl Advantages
Ideally suited for Biceps Progress
Analysis reveals that combining compound pulling workout routines involving the biceps with focused biceps workout routines like barbell arm curls maximizes biceps development.
This strategy is efficient as a result of it means that you can prepare your biceps at completely different angles and thru various ranges of movement, which produces extra balanced and full development than solely utilizing compound workout routines.
It additionally ensures you prepare your “bis” with sufficient quantity (units) to stimulate development with out different muscle tissues changing into a limiting issue.
Ideally suited for Gaining Power
To construct energy and dimension, you need to progressively enhance the load you carry—a course of known as “progressive overload.”
To do that constantly with out plateauing or risking damage, it’s normally greatest to extend the weights you carry in small increments.
Since dumbbells sometimes enhance in fastened, 5-pound jumps, progressing isn’t all the time sensible—typically these jumps are too massive for isolation workout routines like barbell curls.
Nonetheless, barbells provide extra flexibility, permitting you so as to add as little as 2.5 kilos per facet. This makes common development extra manageable and helps you make extra sustainable energy and mass beneficial properties.
Straightforward to Study
The barbell curl has only a few shifting components, so it’s straightforward to study, even for these new to weightlifting.
What Do Barbell Curls Work?
The principle muscle tissues labored by barbell curls are the biceps brachii (“biceps”), the two-headed muscle on the entrance of the higher arm between the shoulder and elbow.
It additionally works your brachialis and forearms to a lesser extent.
Right here’s how the biceps look in your physique:
The Finest Barbell Curl Variations & Options
1. EZ-Bar Curl
EZ-bar curls and straight bar curls are equally efficient for constructing biceps mass. The distinction is that the EZ-bar has a curved deal with, which might take pressure off your wrists and elbows and make curling extra snug.
2. Cable Biceps Curl
By utilizing a cable, the cable biceps curl maintains fixed stress in your biceps all through the complete vary of movement, which trains your biceps in another way from free-weight workout routines and should make it easier to construct larger arms.
3. Alternating Dumbbell Curl
The alternating dumbbell curl trains both sides of your physique independently, so it’s helpful for locating and fixing muscle imbalances and making certain you achieve symmetrical biceps mass.
The best way to Program the Barbell Curl
The place you place the barbell curl in your exercises will depend on your coaching cut up.
If you happen to don’t do a devoted “arm day,” carry out the barbell curl towards the top of pull or higher physique exercise when you’ve completed your whole compound weightlifting for the day. For instance, right here’s how I like to recommend programming the barbell curl in my 4-day Larger Leaner Stronger pull exercise:
- Deadlift: 3 units of 4-to-6 reps with 2-to-4 min relaxation
- Cable Row: 3 units of 4-to-6 reps with 2-to-4 min relaxation
- Chin-up: 3 units of 4-to-6 reps with 2-to-4 min relaxation
- Barbell Curl: 3 units of 6-to-8 reps with 2-to-3 min relaxation
Alternatively, if you wish to embrace the barbell curl in an arm exercise, it’s normally greatest to carry out it close to the start of your coaching session. Right here’s the way it may look:
Widespread Barbell Curl Errors
Utilizing Momentum
Counting on momentum to “hump” the load up reduces the work your biceps do and, thus, how a lot muscle you achieve. To forestall your self from utilizing momentum within the barbell curl, preserve your torso, hips, and knees nonetheless throughout every rep.
Letting the Weight Fall
Analysis reveals that controlling the eccentric portion (“decreasing” section) of any biceps curl is a extremely efficient solution to increase muscle development. As a basic rule, you need to take the identical time to carry the load as you do to decrease it to the beginning place—round one or two seconds for every is an effective goal.
Shortening the Vary of Movement
To squeeze out extra reps or carry heavier weights, many individuals shorten the barbell curl’s vary of movement. Nonetheless, if you solely full the highest or backside two-thirds of every rep, you scale back the effectiveness of the train.
To maximise biceps beneficial properties, decrease the load till your elbows are absolutely prolonged and carry it till they’re fully bent on each rep. When you’ll be able to’t preserve this way, it’s time to finish your set.
FAQ #1: What do barbell curls and dips have in widespread?
Not that a lot, really. Barbell curls are an isolation train for the biceps, whereas dips are a compound train that trains your pecs, shoulders, and triceps.
About the one factor they’ve in widespread is that they’re each efficient, muscle-building workout routines that deserve a spot in a well-designed energy coaching routine.
FAQ #2: Is the barbell curl the most effective biceps train?
The barbell curl is an impressive biceps train as a result of it means that you can carry heavy weights safely and progress commonly. However it’s onerous to name it the “greatest” biceps train as a result of every particular person is exclusive—what’s optimum for you may not be for another person.
As an alternative of on the lookout for the “excellent” biceps train, a greater choice is to incorporate plenty of biceps workout routines in your exercises that prepare your biceps in numerous methods. That’s the actual ticket to maximizing biceps development.
FAQ #3: What’s the distinction between the EZ-bar curl and barbell curl?
The first distinction between the EZ-bar curl and barbell curl is the form of the bar: the EZ-bar has a zigzag form, whereas a barbell is straight.
The sensible significance of that is that some individuals discover curling an EZ-bar extra snug as a result of it relieves pressure on their wrists and elbows. For others, the distinction is negligible.
To see which works greatest for you, attempt each workout routines. If there’s one you favor, keep it up. Or, if each really feel high-quality, a very good choice is to alternate between them each 8-to-10 weeks of coaching.
That is how I personally like to arrange my coaching, and it’s much like the tactic I advocate in my health books for women and men, Larger Leaner Stronger and Thinner Leaner Stronger.
(And in the event you’d like much more particular recommendation about what workout routines to incorporate in your coaching program to achieve your well being and health targets, take the Legion Power Coaching Quiz, and in lower than a minute, you’ll know the right energy coaching program for you. Click on right here to test it out.)
Scientific References +
- Costa, Bruna Daniella de Vasconcelos, et al. “Does Performing Completely different Resistance Workout routines for the Similar Muscle Group Induce Non-Homogeneous Hypertrophy?” Worldwide Journal of Sports activities Medication, vol. 42, no. 09, 13 Jan. 2021, pp. 803–811, https://doi.org/10.1055/a-1308-3674.
- Schoenfeld, Brad J. “The Mechanisms of Muscle Hypertrophy and Their Software to Resistance Coaching.” Journal of Power and Conditioning Analysis, vol. 24, no. 10, Oct. 2010, pp. 2857–72.
- Farthing, Jonathan P., and Philip D. Chilibeck. “The Results of Eccentric and Concentric Coaching at Completely different Velocities on Muscle Hypertrophy.” European Journal of Utilized Physiology, vol. 89, no. 6, 1 Aug. 2003, pp. 578–586, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-003-0842-2.
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