8x Mr. O Lee Haney breaks down the best way to curl There’s hardly any one exercise that’s “better” than another. Every exercise hits your muscles in different ways, and each one can be of value to you. Think of them as separate, but equal. When it comes to biceps training, this is especially true. Curls are pretty much the only thing you can do to build your biceps, but there are a number of variations of this movement. Those you choose to incorporate into your routine depend on your personal training goals. Let’s assume that your goal is to add a good deal of muscle. Maybe you’re even thinking that one day you’d like to step onto a bodybuilding stage. In this case, I suggest you incorporate both standing and seated incline dumbbell curls into your biceps program. Here’s why. Standing dumbbell curls are an excellent mass builder. You can go heavy with them. Although good form is always important in bodybuilding, you can get a little loose, if necessary, to move the big weights. Whether you choose to perform them one arm at a time or with both in unison is up to you. I used to do them single-arm, but today I like to do them with both arms simultaneously — like doing a barbell curl, but with the freedom of dumbbells. Seated incline dumbbell curls give you an excellent stretch at the bottom of the movement and a really good peak contraction at the top. It’s also a stricter movement than standing curls, so you can’t go as heavy as you would standing. They’re performed at an angle, and are excellent for stretching and developing the biceps along the complete line of the insertions. You might want to consider switching this to preacher curls every few weeks. While we’re at it, I might as well give you an entire biceps routine. Start with standing dumbbell curls and perform four sets of six to eight reps. I like using a lower rep range for this mass-building exercise. Then move on to seated incline dumbbell curls or preacher curls. Do four sets of 10 to 12 reps, keeping your rest between sets as short as possible — 30 seconds at most, if you can. From there, move on to concentration curls, which is a great movement for peaking the biceps. Again, four sets of 10 to 12 reps. Perform this last exercise every other week. I believe it’s relatively easy to over train biceps, so eight total sets followed by 12 during alternate weeks is plenty.
Posted on: Sun, 26 Jan 2014 21:01:15 +0000
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