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 handiest methods to progressively overload your biceps, making it perfect for gaining arm measurement and energy.
On this knowledgeable information, you’ll discover ways to do the barbell curl with correct type, perceive what makes it so efficient, uncover the very best options and variations, and extra.
Mastering Barbell Curl Kind
To grasp standing barbell biceps curl type, 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 somewhat wider than shoulder-width aside.
Get 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 type ought to look whenever you put all of it collectively:
Barbell Curl Advantages
Very best for Biceps Progress
Research exhibits that combining compound pulling exercises involving the biceps with focused biceps workout routines like barbell arm curls maximizes biceps development.
This method is efficient as a result of it means that you can practice your biceps at totally different angles and thru various ranges of motion, which produces extra balanced and full development than solely utilizing compound exercises.
It additionally ensures you practice your “bis” with sufficient volume (units) to stimulate development with out different muscular tissues changing into a limiting issue.
Very best for Gaining Energy
To build energy and measurement, it’s essential to regularly improve the load you raise—a course of known as “progressive overload.”
To do that constantly with out plateauing or risking injury, it’s often finest to extend the weights you raise in small increments.
Since dumbbells usually improve in fastened, 5-pound jumps, progressing isn’t at all times sensible—generally these jumps are too giant for isolation exercises like barbell curls.
Nevertheless, barbells provide extra flexibility, permitting you so as to add as little as 2.5 kilos per aspect. This makes common development extra manageable and helps you make extra sustainable energy and mass positive factors.
Simple to Study
The barbell curl has only a few transferring elements, so it’s simple to study, even for these new to weightlifting.
What Do Barbell Curls Work?
The primary muscular 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 Greatest 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 may 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 rigidity in your biceps all through your complete vary of movement, which trains your biceps in a different way from free-weight workout routines and should enable you construct larger arms.
3. Alternating Dumbbell Curl
The alternating dumbbell curl trains either side of your physique independently, so it’s helpful for locating and fixing muscle imbalances and making certain you acquire symmetrical biceps mass.
Program the Barbell Curl
The place you place the barbell curl in your exercises depends upon your training split.
For those who don’t do a devoted “arm day,” carry out the barbell curl towards the tip of pull or upper body workout 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 Bigger 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 often finest to carry out it close to the start of your coaching session. Right here’s the way it would possibly 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 acquire. 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
Research exhibits that controlling the eccentric portion (“reducing” part) of any biceps curl is a extremely efficient approach to enhance muscle development. As a common rule, it’s best to take the identical time to raise 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 raise heavier weights, many individuals shorten the barbell curl’s vary of movement. Nevertheless, whenever you solely full the highest or backside two-thirds of every rep, you scale back the effectiveness of the train.
To maximise biceps positive factors, decrease the load till your elbows are totally prolonged and raise it till they’re fully bent on each rep. When you possibly can’t preserve this manner, 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 strength training routine.
FAQ #2: Is the barbell curl the very best biceps train?
The barbell curl is an impressive biceps train as a result of it means that you can raise heavy weights safely and progress repeatedly. But it surely’s laborious to name it the “finest” 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 in search of the “good” biceps train, a greater choice is to incorporate quite a lot of biceps workout routines in your exercises that practice your biceps in several 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 finest for you, attempt each workout routines. If there’s one you favor, keep it up. Or, if each really feel tremendous, 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 strategy I advocate in my health books for women and men, Bigger Leaner Stronger and Thinner Leaner Stronger.
(And when you’d like much more particular recommendation about what workout routines to incorporate in your coaching program to succeed in your well being and health targets, take the Legion Strength Training Quiz, and in lower than a minute, you’ll know the right energy coaching program for you. Click here to check it out.)
Scientific References +
- Costa, Bruna Daniella de Vasconcelos, et al. “Does Performing Different Resistance Exercises for the Same Muscle Group Induce Non-Homogeneous Hypertrophy?” International Journal of Sports Medicine, 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 Application to Resistance Training.” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, vol. 24, no. 10, Oct. 2010, pp. 2857–72.
- Farthing, Jonathan P., and Philip D. Chilibeck. “The Effects of Eccentric and Concentric Training at Different Velocities on Muscle Hypertrophy.” European Journal of Applied Physiology, vol. 89, no. 6, 1 Aug. 2003, pp. 578–586, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-003-0842-2.
