Along with dumbbell curls, barbell curls are the most common method of building the biceps with free weights. In fact, many people prefer barbell curls which are more effective for performing cheat curls when loaded with heavier weight. As anyone who has curled will testify, barbell curls with a straight bar can feel a little awkward and when a person tries curls with an EZ Curl bar, they often don’t go back to using a straight bar.
EZ curl bars are cambered bars which allow the palms to be placed in a more neutral position as opposed to absolutely supine making the movement more comfortable. But, does it make curls more effective? According to respected strength coach Mark Rippetoe, author of the ever-popular Starting Strength book, no. In fact, he goes as far as saying EZ curl bars just “don’t work”. I’m sure you now want to know why, so this article will reveal why.
Not every curl (underhand, overhand or hammer/neutral grip) hits the biceps optimally!
When your palms are completely supine (upward), your biceps muscle fibers are in their prime pulling position – hence the reason why they go rock solid when flexed when your palm is turned towards you. The more you turn your palms away from you and flex your biceps, the softer your biceps go because the fibers are elongated and more bunched up.
The more prone (overhand) your grip, the more of a mechanical disadvantage your biceps are in when performing curls.
Therefore, the further away from supine your grip becomes, the more emphasis is placed on the brachioradialis and brachialis elbow flexors and the less on the biceps brachii.
And… that’s precisely what an EZ curl bar does: Forces the grip into a less supine position!
Therefore, to build the actual biceps brachii a more supine grip is preferred. This also holds true for curls with dumbbells – the more supine throughout, the better it hits the biceps brachii.
For sure, the EZ curl bar will build the biceps and overall upper arm size, but it’ll never compare to a straight barbell for building the biceps brachii – so I recommend you do most of your curls with a straight barbell.
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And while I don’t agree with Mentzer’s sometimes protracted rest periods (1 week or longer between workouts), the FACT is that the growth you desire occurs in the rest periods between workouts. If you interrupt this process, you delay or impede the growth, not accelerate it.
So much for the “more is better” doctrine.
The Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports reported on a study [1] by Finnish scientists looking into this idea.
8 trained men did 4 sets to failure of leg extensions. The researchers then measured their levels of adrenalin, noradrenalin, testosterone, cortisol, and growth hormone.
2 days later when the subjects had NOT recovered and were still experiencing soreness (DOMS), they repeated the procedure.
RESULT: Firstly, the subjects were LESS strong during this second workout. Furthermore, hormonal levels dropped across the board (except testosterone); growth hormone decreasing the most (-45%).
Since this issue is ignored all too often by the bodybuilding orthodoxy, I coined a term for this a while ago: PEAK OVECOMPENSATION POINT (POP).
Stated simply, POP is the length of time it takes for your body to fully recover and grow from a workout, but not so long that you begin to atrophy again. The sweet spot, if you will.
The following is from my free THT4.0 book…
“Sufficient rest or recovery between stresses, or training sessions, must be allowed for adaptation to occur. Adaptation will only occur during the inter-training recovery periods.”
And…
Any adaptation can return to a genetically determined, pre-training state if the stress is not maintained or developed properly.
So it should be obvious here that training again before you are fully recovered is a bad idea in terms of strength and size gains.
So, what is a budding trainee to do to hit his sweet spot and ensure continuous and CERTAIN gains?
Well you’ve got 2 options. Both work, and both should employed in CYCLES.
You can do 1 or 2 sets to failure, and hit each body part 3 days a week e.g. Monday, Wednesday, Friday- full body workouts.
Or you can do multiple sets per body part (6 or more) in a 5-day split, hitting each body part once a week.
Both of these approaches work very well. And all of you in the know, know that this is exactly what we do in Targeted Hypertrophy Training (THT).
For those of you not in the know, simply add your name and email into the form at the top-right of this page to get your FREE copy of THT training, and start training intelligently right away!
Size and strength gains are not a dream with THT, they are a CERTAINTY! Expect to succeed!
Train With Passion!
Mark
[1] Resistance exercise-induced hormonal response under the influence of delayed onset muscle soreness in men and boys. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21039902
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Im really glad I read this today. 2 yrs into a transformation and following much of your programs, I found myself losing strength and motivation over the last 3 months. I’m not that old but approaching 37. Doing the bread and butter deads and military as heavy as possible, I was NOT rotating or spacing my programming enough.
The last month I cut back in hopes to revitalize. Today was tons of jumping rope and KB high pull’s (still heavy). Back and forth. I broke a sweat and got a good pump.
Maybe I just hit a plateau? There’s always room for improvement, but I think those of us with some gray do not give ourselves enough credit. Dropping 50lbs and being able to take your shirt off…while looking better than 90% of the other dudes on the beach is a big accomplishment heading towards the big 40.
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Cutesy intro, blah, blah, blah…
1)Make farmers walks a regular part of your program. They build your traps, core and grip while developing tremendous total body strength and stability. If you don’t own farmers walk implements simply grab the heaviest dumbbells you can and walk around the gym with them until your grip gives out. Do this for 2-3 sets at the end of your workout.
2)If your knees bother you when squatting try doing 2-4 sets of glute ham raises first. I’ve seen this help out quite a bit with clients who had knee issues but still wanted to squat.
3) If you’re too weak to do glute hams properly you can flex at the hip, thus shortening the lever arm which will make them easier.
4)Forward and backward sled dragging before squats is another good idea for the beat up or older lifter. That warms up the knee and gets a little pump in the muscles.
5)Another good pre squat ritual is doing terminal knee extensions with a band. Everyone could benefit from doing this before squat workouts, not just older or beat up lifters. Do 2-3 sets of 15-20 reps.
6)When doing any type of rowing or chin up variation think about driving back with the elbows instead of simply pulling with the biceps.
7) If you need to bring up your calves try doing single leg calf raises followed by single leg hopping in place. Do 10-15 reps on the calf raise with a heavy weight and then immediately hop on that leg until you can’t get off the ground anymore. Rest and repeat for 3-5 sets.
8) Beginners can train their core by simply squatting, deadlifting and overhead pressing. That will be enough for them. Advanced guys who want to bring up their squats and deads need more ab work, though. Lots more. The worlds strongest lifters do quite a bit of loaded abdominal work. Some of the best choices are Power Wheel rollouts, partial range Turkish get ups, Janda sit ups, decline sit ups, hanging knee/leg raises, suitcase deadlifts, 1 arm farmers walks, Pallof presses, anti rotation cable exercises and full contact twists.
9) When doing rotational core work be sure to rotate from the hips and not just your lower back. Rotating from the lumbar spine can be dangerous and lead to injury. Always brace and get the hips involved.
10) If you have shoulder issues do all of your rowing exercises with a weight that allows you to hold a peak contraction for a second or two. That will ensure that the load isn’t so heavy that it could lead to more potential injuries.
11) If you’re doing unilateral (single limb) exercises in hopes that your strength levels will one day be equal in each limb you can stop now. The two sides will never be 100% even. So don’t put that in your head. If there is a huge disparity then you should do them and to try to close the gap. Just know that it will never completely even out.
12)When you decide to implement jumps into your routine for the first timestart with box jumps. The kind where you jump on the box and step off. Those are the easiest on the body and should always be your first progression.
13) Broad jumps are another great power exercise but be very, very careful when introducing them for the first time. Your knees, shins and core can take a pounding on those if you’re not ready. On the first day I wouldn’t jump at more than 75-80% of your max. Ease into it over time and let your body adapt.
14) On deadlifts remember to pull back, not just up.
15) If you’re over 40 you may find that you getter better results from doing heavy deadlifts once every other week instead of weekly. Even once every three to four weeks could be enough if you’re strong.
16) If you’re working up to a single on a big lift and make too big of a jump, leading you to miss a weight you should have gotten try waiting a few minutes and then reducing the load by about 5-10%. So if you thought you should have been able to hit 315 but missed it because you jumped from 275 right to it when you probably should have done 295 first try doing this…
Reduce the load back down to 285-295, wait two to three minutes and then blasting out a single with that. By getting a strong rep with that weight your performance on the next attempt will usually be significantly better. This is a little trick I’ve used with great success plenty of times.
17)For shoulder health do some type of pushup variation on a regular basis.
18)Try a thumbless grip on military presses. This seems to work wonders for getting the bar path right and making the exercise feel better on the elbows and shoulders. Thanks to Smitty from the Diesel Crew for introducing me and several others to this idea.
19)Most people could stand to improve their ankle mobility. This is one of the reasons some of you can’t squat to parallel while maintaining a neutral spine. It can also lead to injuries for athletes. Doing something as simple as standing on one foot and writing out the alphabet with your other foot a couple times each day can go a long way. I’m doing it right now as I type this at my standing desk. Give it a shot.
20) Having said that, a pair of Olympic lifting/ squat shoes will improve almost everyone’s squat instantly. It will also make the lift a lot safer because it will drastically reduce the likelihood of tucking at the bottom. You wear specific shoes for basketball, bowling, football and golf, why not get some that are specifically designed for squatting? It’s an exercise you’ll probably be doing quite a bit and one that pays huge dividends. Click HERE for the squat shoes I use and recommend to all my clients.
You have shoes for every other sport, why not squatting?
21) If you’re going to squat or deadlift on Wednesday it would be a good idea to avoid lower back intensive exercises such as heavy bent over rows on Monday or Tuesday. Opt instead for a chest supported or inverted row variation.
22) When in doubt, do more low rep warm up sets. This will always lead to a better performance on your top end sets than fewer high rep warm up sets. If you jump straight into your heaviest set without properly warming up and exciting your CNS the weight will always feel heavier than it should.
23)Join the Renegade Inner Circle. You’ll get a brand new Renegade training program designed by me each month, access to our private community where you can ask me all of your questions on daily basis as well as tons of other great info that will lead to you possibly dating the models of your choice, winning MVP trophies and getting elected to office. Or possibly not. Tough to say. You’ll only know if you join.
Hopefully you picked up a tip or two there that will help you gain some new size and strength. Let me know if you have questions or tips to add of your own in the comments section below.
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Thanks
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You have shoes for every other sport, why not squatting?
