Why curls are useless

The biceps may not be the primary movers during bench presses, but their involvement in the exercise is higher than most people think. This is particularly true when benching with a wide grip. Furthermore, some Olympic weightlifters add curls to their programs as a form of elbow prehabilitation. In an old video of the Bulgarian weightlifting team, an athlete is doing hammer curls with a barbell plate for that specific reason.

One of the main motivations to lift is the acquisition of a physique that increases sexual attraction through the display of bodily aesthetics. For better or worse, bigger arms are part of the classic aesthetic physique.

The dynamic is superficial but also undeniable. Many trainers are tired of seeing naive kids pump up 50 sets of curls while flexing for Instagram in-between sets. Moreover, arm training is fairly easy on the CNS and does not develop primal barbell bravery nearly as well as big compound exercises. Hence why men who focus on the big lifts ridicule the curl monkeys. Marketing through superiority. The same experts ideologically demolished the mainstream bodybuilding blueprints while seemingly offering a powerful alternative to the masses eager to hypertrophy into glory.

Just like the magazines, the barbell scholars deployed images of bodybuilders and powerlifters with a questionable natural status to hype their programs. The main priority during curl selection is joint safety rather than mystical anabolism. If someone is telling you that they have a special arm exercise that will give you sleeve-bursting biceps in no time, they are lying to you.

If you like a curl variation, and it agrees with your joints, pick it. Barbells are nice as they allow you to overload the biceps with very heavy weights. Unfortunately, they are not kind to the wrists and elbows. This is where dumbbells come to save the day. The downside of using dumbbells is that the jumps are often two high whereas barbells can be micro-loaded. Micro-loading is a good thing when doing biceps isolation because the biceps are a small muscle group that gets strong slowly and even a 2.

If you choose to rely on dumbbells, you will have to get to a really high number of reps per set before moving to heavier bells. Purposefully Primitive. Our ancestors built their amazing functional fitness through intense, daily physical demands and a no-nonsense, super-basic diet.

Restore mobility — and protect yourself from injury — with this short upper-body warm-up. Equipment-Based Workouts Workouts. The Push-Pull Workout.

Even out your pushes and pulls with this fat-burning, muscle-building, full-body workout. Bent-over row Muscles Worked: biceps, forearms, deltoids, trapezius, latissimus dorsi, rhomboids. Renegade row Muscles Worked: biceps, forearms, deltoids, triceps, trapezius, latissimus dorsi, rhomboids, pectorals, abdominals, obliques, hip flexors For added difficulty, efficiency and fat burn, try a Man Maker. Rowing machine erg Muscles Worked: biceps, forearms, deltoids, trapezius, latissimus dorsi, rhomboids, abdominals, obliques, hip flexors, erector spinae, calves, hamstrings, gluteus maximus, quadriceps, several stabilizer muscles.

Sumo deadlift high-pull Muscles Worked: biceps, forearms, deltoids, trapezius, latissimus dorsi, rhomboids, pectorals, triceps, abdominals, obliques, hip flexors, erector spinae, calves, hamstrings, gluteus maximus, quadriceps, several stabilizer muscles.

If you are doing all 11 of those you will be well on your way to having a great body. In fact, if you just do the top 6 and get strong at all of them you will probably look like a badass. If you are strong in those exercises your arms will look good. I would say he also has some good genes but you still get the picture. Strong and muscular arms can certainly be made without curls.