Starting Strength

flexion are harder to find, since raising things overhead is generally accomplished with a prone hand and a pressing motion that relies primarily on the deltoids and triceps. Shoulder flexion with a supine forearm pretty much exclusively occurs during exercise. But since the biceps do perform this function, it should be incorporated into biceps training so that this function gets worked – curls should involve shoulder flexion because they can. Barbell curls allow for both elbow flexion and shoulder flexion, they utilize a normal function of the arms, and they do not require specialized equipment (again, the bar being considered non-specialized). So barbell curls could be considered a functional exercise in the strict sense of the definition.
     

    Figure 7-56. Three ways to work the biceps. (A) Elbow flexion in isolation: a strict curl. (B) Shoulder extension with elbow flexion: a chin-up. (C) Elbow flexion with shoulder flexion: a barbell curl as described in this book.

    There are as many ways to do curls as there are muscle-magazine authors. If you’re going to spend time doing all these variations, you have missed the point of this book. Let’s assume that you haven’t, and that you want the best way to work the most biceps in the least time. That way is the barbell curl, done with a standard Olympic bar. It is performed standing (since it cannot be performed seated), and it is best done out of a rack set at the same height that it would be for the press.
    Approach the bar with a supine grip, with the width varying between somewhat closer than shoulder width and several inches wider. The wider the grip, the greater the degree of supination that will be required to maintain that grip; the greater the supination, the more the biceps will be contracted at full flexion. Depending on individual flexibility, a grip just wider than the shoulders will allow the full effects of the exercise to be expressed (this will be about the same grip used for the chin-up, for the same reasons).

    Figure 7-57. The effect of forearm supination on biceps contraction. The biceps brachii is the primary supinator of the forearm, and the biceps is not in complete contraction unless the forearm is fully supinated.

    This version of the barbell curl starts at the top, with your elbows in full flexion, as opposed to the more common method of starting at the bottom with extended elbows. When the bar is lowered to full extension and then raised back into flexion without a pause at the bottom, the biceps get the benefit of utilizing a stretch reflex to contract harder, thereby allowing the use of more weight. Breathing is done only at the top, with none of the supportive pressure released at the bottom. The elbows are kept against the rib cage and start from a position in front of the bar.
    The barbell curl, like the goodmorning, intentionally uses a bar path that deviates from the mid-foot balance point. You lower the weight eccentrically in an arc, away from your body. In doing so, you create moment arms – between the bar and your elbows, between the bar and your shoulders, and between the bar and the mid-foot – so that you are intentionally manipulating the mechanics of the system to create the resistance. Keep your elbows against your ribs, in front of the mid-axial line that separates front from back. As your elbows get almost straight at the bottom of the curl, they slide back into a position behind this line. The elbows never straighten completely, because doing so would mean that tension is off the biceps, but they get close. Some tension is needed to initiate the concentric flexion that comprises the essence of the movement, and perfectly straight elbows make this very hard and inefficient.
    Start the upward phase of the curl by sliding your elbows forward as you move the bar in the same arc that it moved in on the way down. Elbows stay against the ribs the whole way up; this keeps the hands in supination by maintaining the supine position of the forearm. A good cue for this position is to think about pushing the medial pad of the palm – the part just above the wrist and on the little-finger side of the hand – into the bar, as if this were the only part of the hand in contact with the bar.

    Figure 7-58. The medial chunk of the palm – the “hypothenar eminence” (see Figure 3-10 ) – is the key to ensuring maximum supination during a curl. Push the bar up while thinking about using this part of the hand.

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