Top 5 Bicep Curls for Bigger Arms (Most People Skip #3)

5 best exercises to training your biceps and getting bigger arms. And you want to stick around to the end of this video because I'm going to be showing you how to manipulate the resistance profiles and the strength curves on every exercise. This is exercise number 1. We're going to be showing the folks a preacher curl. We did speak that we were going to be talking about angles and resistance profiles. So, okay, without grabbing the bar, I want you to get into a preacher curl position. The elbow position is forward in front of his body and he's protracted. Most folks do it, which is you slouch forward, which and getting to this position, but what I really want on a preacher curl is for you to be depressed through the lats. So all of this is retracted. Now by doing that, we are gonna be offsetting and making sure, ensuring the load is really in that insertion point of the bicep. So as he comes through, you can see there's a maximum tension point at the end. So rather than mid, we're really at the end. Now, the other thing we wanna do on that preacher curl is we wanna pull, and most bicep exercises, is pull the wrist back. So he's in a nice position. Now always on this, you want to be careful of going too far long. Curl. Too far long, this is an exercise where people can tear their bicep if they don't have the strength and the full range of the motion. So that's good what you're doing there. Perfect, and back up. And do keep your chest up. So you can see here, there is a lot of tension, particularly at the endpoint. So not so much when he's here. So the resistance profile here, we have a lot of tension from come up, all the way through there, and then it gets a little bit easier. So as we said, we're going to manipulating angles. Really, most of the tension on this one is it's that, that starting point, that initiation. So, and we're really working biceps here. We're not working the bicep brachialis. We're really getting into that end point, that start point. So we're going to now move to reverse curls. So we've got our fat bar here, and the reason for that is we don't want to be shy about the fact that we are trying to enhance the bicep brachialis when we do this. And now when we do that, we want to cock the wrists back. So pull those wrists back for me.

Perfect.

Right now come up Beautiful. And we can see the veins starting to come out of Kay's arms. So some teaching points on this exercise. We want Kay to be protracted forward. See when we protracted him how his elbows moved forward as well. Now go ahead, go do it. So that's a much better position. And we're going to enhance that bicep brachialis as he goes through and lock out the tricep as you do it. So all the way down, all the way down, stick your butt out just a tiny bit for us, hollow out those abs. Now come up, cock those wrists back. That's beautiful. Look at that. And now we're really getting into that bicep brachialis, which runs through. So we're using a different part of the arm now. We're not going same, same, same. So this is why all these exercises, it's not a matter of it being which one's better or which one's worse or which one should I use. We want to be using all of these in our toolkit depending on what part of the arm and what part of the strength curve we're trying to manipulate. So pull those wrists back. That is beautiful there, Kay. Let's just do one more for the folks. And you can see we're really hitting that bicep brachialis. Now if I put this in a string of exercises in a program, I can fatigue his forearms and then hit his biceps like we're about to do. We're going to move over to the incline curl. So our third exercise is incline bicep curl. Now we can be a little gentler about the incline bicep curl, which is what it's set up currently, or we can be more aggressive and put it at a 45-degree angle. This stretch, if we're looking at resistance profile, we're really creating a stretch, they're always getting to shoulder extension through here as well. And they're really stretching out that bicep. So whereas we said before about the preacher curl, so if Kay lifts up, the preacher curl, the arms are forward and we're curling, which is placing a a lot of tension through this point. Here, we're really placing a lot of tension through that upper part of the bicep belly. So this is a great one. It's a great one to maintain range of motion through the biceps. So we want our wrists to be out flexed, and this is going to be all biceps. So you can see how much of a stretch this is too. So you're not going to go super, super heavy on this one. That's really nice. So this is a lot harder for a lot of folks. So nice and controlled down, and you can see the range of motion, how much more elongated it is, and how it's placing a lot more stress and strain that top half of the bicep. And again, and you can pop your head up a tiny bit, a tiny bit. That's it. You can see that's a really nice— so we're playing with angles, we're playing with strength curves, we're manipulating it as he goes through his workout. And another cue that I like on this exercise, because a lot of people stop short, they don't come all the way down, which he's doing a perfect job of, is flex the triceps at the end. So it's another real key cue. So as he comes up, comes down, and and he flexes the tricep. Perfect. So now we're going to be moving to the Zottman curl. Now, Zottman curl can be done seated, it can be done standing, it can even be done on an incline. Lean forward for me a little bit with your torso. That's better. Just lean a little bit more. That way, again, we're manipulating angles here. Protract a little from the shoulders. Now curl, curl, nice and strong curl. Now turn, turn, turn, turn, turn. And you can see as he turns, it really gets into that bicep brachialis. Now slowly down, pull the wrist back as you do it as well. Really get that bicep brachialis working. Now another thing that you see Kay's doing, and maybe because we've done a few exercises now he's doing it subconsciously to help him make it easier is he's bringing these elbows back behind his body. So as you as a coach, he's a trainee, we want to make sure we make this hard for him. So I'm going to just pop his elbows forward. So he comes and you can see the veins that are coming out. Now he turns, he keeps his elbows there. Now he comes down. Now one variation of this that I really love, come up, you're going to come up all the way. Now I want you to come turn, turn, turn, turn. Now I want you to pause midpoint, pause just there, pause just there. That's beautiful. And again, this is another great one like the reverse curl, that's really going to enhance that bicep brachialis, which is key, absolutely key. One of my mentors, Charles Poliquin, would talk a lot about training the bicep brachialis as a way to get bigger arms and the most neglected muscle group in people's arm training. We are going to go to the last one, which I just love as a finisher because there is no hiding on this exercise. This is a barbell curl with hybrid hooks. Now, when we're doing the barbell curl, we want to get into that protracted position. On the cables, at the top, we have the most resistance on the bar at the bottom. We have the most resistance. If we're just using the bar, he would have least resistance at the top. If we're just using the cable, he'd have least resistance at the top. So now that we're using both of these, we're combining resistance profiles. So it's hard at the bottom and it's hard at the top. Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill. Good. And control and go.

Pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull.

Good. And of course, if you want big arms, you've got to bring the intensity. So hips out, hips out, hips out, up, up. Let's get our pump on. Good. We're going to go to failure on this. Keep your belly button into your spine.

Go, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull.

All the way, all the way, all the way. Now I want you to lean to me. I'll spot you. Lean into me as you do it.

Go, pull.

Keep your body stiff.

Pull, pull, pull, pull.

I'll spot you, I'll spot you, I'll spot you. Give me one more like that. Give me one more.

Pull, pull, pull, pull.

Go, go. Excellent. This is exactly where we want to be. We want that failure. Now I want Come up, come up, come up, come up. 6 seconds down. Hold, hold, hold, hold, hold, hold, hold. Just resist. Hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it. The beautiful thing about using hybrid hooks is— here you go, here's a present. Now let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go.

Pull.

So you'll see now we've got the weight off and we can really just force a couple more reps. Keep those elbows forward, keep those elbows forward, keep those elbows forward. Chin up, chin up, chin up. Let's really get this pump on. Come on, elbows forward, elbows forward, chin up, elbows forward.

Good.

Chin up, chin up, chin up, chin up, chin up. Don't move your body. You're just arms right now. You're just arms.

Pull, pull, pull, pull. Good.

Come on. And again. And again. Good. Lock your elbows up.

Good.

Hips back, hips back. Hips back, hips back. Don't sway, don't sway. Go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Again. Good. Let go. And again.

Pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull. Pull.

Keep your legs straight. One more, one more.

One more.

One more with me. And ten second Neck up. Up, up, up, up. Hold up higher. Up higher. Up higher. Up higher. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6.

Push.

Push against me. Push against me. Push against me. Push against me.

Good.

Excellent. Relax.