Welcome back to Training Tip Tuesday! Today we are breaking down Bicep Curls.
Why should we train our biceps? Well, beyond the fact that pumped-up biceps look incredible, strong biceps promote healthy shoulders and perfect posture and can help reduce upper-back strain.
Do you have any training goals for doing chin-ups or pull-ups? Strong biceps will be a huge help in achieving that goal.
Not to mention, stronger floor-work and partnering skills! That’s because any time you need to bend your elbow, your biceps kick in.
So, now that we’ve covered why we are talking about bicep curls, let’s talk about how to do them without cheating!
Stop Cheating Your Bicep Curls!
I’m sure you’ve seen people at the gym holding enormous weights recruiting your entire body to curl the weights with their momentum.
Or maybe you’ve seen the person who curls the weight but releases the tension too early on the way down – letting the weights flop to their sides between each rep.
These are two of the most common cheats people use to lift more weight than they are ready for.
You see, the bicep is actually a fairly small muscle and it doesn’t take much weight to challenge it – especially if you are strict about your form!
How to Bicep Curl
The Mind-body Connection
As mentioned earlier, your bicep is an elbow flexor and the primary mover for bending your arm.
So, when you do bicep curls, you want to build the mind-body connection between a bicep contraction and bending your arm.
Do this by intentionally thinking about squeezing your bicep to curl your weight up. You can even touch your bicep with the opposite arm to reinforce that central nervous system communication from brain to muscle.
Go ahead and practice that without weight, then we’ll get started with the actual lift.
Grab Your Weights
Remember when I said that bicep curls promote healthy shoulders? Well, they can’t promote healthy shoulders if you let the weight fall behind you, rotating your shoulders forward. This will put unhealthy pressure on that shoulder joint!
Instead, imagine you are squeezing newspapers under your arms to anchor your shoulders down and back.
Now, double-check that your arms are hanging directly toward the ground- no bent elbows!
Finally, ensure the weight is either directly by your sides or slightly in front of you.
*If your weight is really heavy, you can achieve this by ever so slightly hinging your hips back – but keep your spine and core long and braced.*
Now it’s time to utilize that central nervous system communication we practiced without the weight!
Contract that bicep and curl the weight only until your bicep is fully contracted. Bicep curls are all about time under tension. So, instead of curling the weight all the way to your shoulder, curl it just until you reach the peak of your bicep contraction.
Then, slowly release. Make sure, as you release down, you don’t “drop out” of the tension too early. Control the release all the way down to increase the time under tension and boost your gains.
And there you have it, a complete breakdown of how to perfect your bicep curls. Try these tips next upper-body day and let us know how it goes!
Want more training tips and fitness hacks? Check out these blog favorites: Practicing Emotional Self Care: Common Mistakes High Performance Humans Make, Training Tip Tuesday: The B-Stance Squat, The Confidence Corner Workout: For Any Beginner at the Gym
