PART 1 – PART 2 – PART 3 – PART 5– PART 6
Standing Barbell Curls:
The purpose of this exercise is to develop the overall size of the biceps and is considered the most basic and most popular of all exercises for the biceps. Standing with the feet only a few inches apart, hold the bar with an underhand grip with hands about a shoulder’s width apart letting the bar hang down in front of you at arm’s length. Curling the bar out and up in a wide arc, bring it up as high as possible with the elbows stationary and close in to the body. Keep the bar’s arc long and wide instead of bringing the straight up; which would make the movement too easy, fully flexing the biceps at the top of the movement.
Lowering the weight, follow the same arc and resist the weight all the way until your arms are fully extended down. A small amount of body movement is acceptable due to this being a mass-building movement, but body movement should be kept to a minimum unless you are deliberately doing ‘cheat’ curls. If you bend forward or lean back, you will cut down on your range of motion.
Cheat Curls:
To develop extra mass and power in your biceps stand holding the bar as you would for bicep curls but using enough weight to make it hard to do more than a few strict reps. At this point, begin to swing the weight upwards making use of the shoulders and back to help the arms. The trick to this movement is to keep the biceps working as hard as possible, cheating only enough to keep the set going, keeping the elbows stationary at the waist. One can combine barbell curls and cheat curls, doing a normal set and when the arms become too tired for strict reps, load on extra weight and do some more cheat curls.
Preacher Curls:
The purpose of preacher curls is the development of the lower biceps and lengthening the bicep muscles. Good for anyone with space between their lower biceps and elbow joint, preacher curls fill and shape this area helping to create thickness throughout the bicep. Preacher curls are even stricter in movement than normal barbell curls.
1. Positioning yourself chest against the bench, extend your arms over it at an angle, thus transferring stress to the lower biceps. Then take hold of the barbell with an underhand grip.
2. Hold your body steady and curl the bar all of the way up, lowering it again to the fullest extension. Resist the weight on the way down. You can utilize an E-Z curl bar for this or use the bench for one-arm dumbbell curls. Don’t lean back as you are lifting the bar and deliberately flex the muscle extra hard when coming to the top of the movement where there is only a little actual stress on the biceps.