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Straight bar curls
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Extra_Strong
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i do not think straight bar are any better than dumbells if you do straight bar you will be stronger at straight bar. and vise versa.
I
Introspective
Guest
Hair curls are the best, my gran swears by them, also toe nail curls are good.
Cynical Simian
New member
No question about it. They're the most effective exercise out there for getting huge, but only if done in a squat rack while wearing a bandana and yelling "Oh yeah, feel the burn!!!"
Protobuilder
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Better than weighted chins?
MsBeverlyHills
New member
Recruit said:
you need to gain weight to get your arms bigger. expect to gain 10-15 lbs of lean mass in order to gain 1" on your arms.
silver_shadow
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yea, but you have to be dressed in a & f too...Cynical Simian said:
overcome73
New member
I remember reading a long time ago that arms grow from movements like chins, rows, bench and so on. The idea was that these are the movements when you handle the most weight and as the entire body grows, arms grow accordingly. It also spoke about not being afraid to put on some fat while bulking, as this was almost unavoidable to attain maximum size. I remember thinking yea right.....However, hiving done curls and pushdowns far toooooo much in my life, I can honestly say that my arms have responded better from compound movements more than anything else.
gjohnson5
New member
For the people that said thier biceps best respond to pulls and rows (compound movements), have you removed isolation completely from the picture?
I generally did isolation (curls) as well as those things such as all back exersize which also work biceps. But I also wonder if those folks who are getting great bicep workouts on back day , maybe thier form is not up to par on the back exersizes, because those pulling motions should be done with your back and not your arms...
comments?
I've removed chins because that basically is a bicep exersize
I generally did isolation (curls) as well as those things such as all back exersize which also work biceps. But I also wonder if those folks who are getting great bicep workouts on back day , maybe thier form is not up to par on the back exersizes, because those pulling motions should be done with your back and not your arms...
comments?
I've removed chins because that basically is a bicep exersize
xblitz44x
New member
gjohnson5 said:
In my last training cycle I removed curls altogether. Like I said, I only did curls two times in 9 weeks - the rest was all chinning, and rowing. I don't have big arms - not by a long shot - but I saw more growth in those 9 weeks than I did in the years past when I'd blast my biceps weekly with something like: barbell curls, preacher curls, cable curls every workout.
I did find room to fit barbell curls into this cycle - just once a week.
If what you're doing now is working for you then by all means, don't switch it up just because heavy chins and rows worked for me. But for those who are sick of banging away at dumbell curls and cable curls and not seeing results, maybe their body would respond better to heavy compound movements.
And I disagree that chins are just a bicep exercise. From the bottom hanging position up to about where you're eye level to the bar it feels primarily like a lat workout, then the last few inches recruits the biceps heavily.
gjohnson5
New member
xblitz44x said:
I was thinking that too, but then I noticed how many pullups I can do as compared to how many chins I can do and I feel that chins hit biceps much more then pull ups. The difference is the grip. A narrow hand position and reverse grip make biceps do most of the work. The back is involved at the bottom of the movement. How many people actually go all the way to the bottom on that exersize? I don't because it takes pressure off the biceps.
I generally save that for back day?
gjohnson5
New member
But to get back on the subject, I jsut odn't like the idea of "it's a compound movement , so just go through the motions"
Even with a compound movement I want to take the primary mover and concentrate on that muscle group. So in a back exersize, I want to focus on my back. Such as cable lat pulldowns. Arch the back and pull down with the elbows will result in a latissimus squeze. If you arch the back , the bar should never touch your head only your traps and you can go full range on motion with only limited bicep involvement.
Even with a compound movement I want to take the primary mover and concentrate on that muscle group. So in a back exersize, I want to focus on my back. Such as cable lat pulldowns. Arch the back and pull down with the elbows will result in a latissimus squeze. If you arch the back , the bar should never touch your head only your traps and you can go full range on motion with only limited bicep involvement.
DannoMight
New member
My bi's get slightly pumped on back workouts but I always use very strict form and a full range of motion. Your bi's are going to get at least some pump as they are a secondary muscle group in most back exercises. But I do see a bunch of people training back that are nearly laying down on seated cable rows or doing some type of shrug/row standing straight up instaed of a bent over row. Hell Hammer strength equiptment even has handles on their row machnes to kep your chest on the pad.gjohnson5 said:
Maybe it's just the old school bucket-head in me, but I give isolation exercise a WTF-WhyNot evaluation. My switch to Westside training was a quantum leap in terms of quality time spent in the gym. On the other hand my goals aren't centered on competition, so I can afford some non-essential training. I like to keep things proportional. If something looks weak, or if I feel the need to be intuitive, I'll get in a few sets at the end of the day- bis, calves, whatever. In actuality, I have to agree with those that say heavy compound lifts are mostly all that's needed. But it's nice to have another tool at my disposal for when the need arises.
Protobuilder
New member
gjohnson5 said:
My curl strength went up after dropping bicep isolation work and just working on compound rows & pullups during a 15 week run of the single-factor 5x5. I was actually pretty surprised. I think the point is, you can build decent arms just by getting stronger on compound movements. But I see a place for isolation exercises. The problem is, many guys have arms that way outpace their core muscles and legs. Girls like it, LoL, but when you see a guy who ignores the rest of his body and is doing endless amounts of curls and kickbacks, it indicates a lack of training knowledge. And those guys who don't know how to get results on anything but arms (and maybe shoulders and chest) should probably learn how to train the rest of their body, and this might include teaching them how to train without their precious curls. LoL They may be surprised at what happens.
gjohnson5 said:
Interesting point. I was going to argue against it, but when I think about things like the Olympic lifts, if you were to get a great tricep workout during jerks or a great bicep workout during cleans, you're doing something wrong, I think. So . . . dunno. But in some compound exercises, if you're really moving as much weight as possible, you're going to involve the arms heavily. You should obviously focus on using the prime movers, but I think you'll still get a ton of arm activation. E.g., the flat bench . . . primarily chest, but still a ton of tris for most people . . . and doing it so you don't use the tris (if possible) means you're probably having to use considerably less weight. And if you believe moving the most weight = the most overall growth, then it doesn't make sense to limit the activation of secondary muscle groups. So, some of it probably comes down to training philosophy -- if you really focus on 'squeeze' in the prime movers, you probably want to limit use of secondary muscles, and then isolate them later . ... but if you're trying to use heavy compounds to hit the most muscles as possible using the heaviest weights possible, you probably want to use the secondary msucles to the fullest extent possible, so long as its not at the expense of the prime movers.
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