Developing big biceps is a dream of everyone who begins training with weights, and one of the first exercises they are likely to try is barbell curls. With big endorsements from legends like Arnold Schwarzenegger who accredited much of his biceps mass to using heavy barbell curls, it only makes sense to do them. Given most gyms have specialist curling bars – cambered bars – more commonly known as EZ curl bars, it only makes sense to use a bar which is designed especially for curling, you may think – after all, it must be the best option?
Unfortunately, that’s just not the case. Like a lot of things in life, just because something is very popular doesn’t mean it’s the best – it just means it’s the most popular. And, if you want my advice, you’ll do most of your curls with a straight barbell because they are in fact the best, and I’ll tell you why:
When your palms are facing as upward as can be, your biceps are at their most mechanically advantaged. The more you twist your palms towards neutral and then facing downwards, the more mechanically disadvantaged your biceps are.
When your biceps are mechanically disadvantaged and you attempt curls, your brachialis and brachioradialis muscles become more directly involved.
And what do cambered bars do? That’s right – make your grip less supine!
Now, for overall arm development, hitting the brachialis and brachioradialis is important so there’s nothing wrong with performing curls with a cambered bar, which does also hit the biceps – but just be aware that your biceps brachii training is at it’s best when your grip is supine, and only a straight barbell will give you that.
What about dumbbell curls? Most people start with the palms facing inward and twist reaching supine at the top. As you will now have guessed, that too takes the biceps brachii out of the movement somewhat for the portion in which the palm is anything less than supine. But, again, twisting curls, hammer curls and overhand curls can all be used for overall arm development, it’s just they’re not optimal for hitting the biceps brachii.