Gerard Thorne: Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding: The Ultimate A-Z Book on Muscle Building
Bill Phillips: Body for Life: 12 Weeks to Mental and Physical Strength
John R. Little: The Wisdom of Mike Mentzer: The Art, Science and Philosophy of a Bodybuilding Legend
John R. Little: Beginning Bodybuilding: Real Muscle, Real Fast
Arnold Schwarzenegger: The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding
Mid point. Bad
You will see from photo that the body has changed its position and is trying to help the biceps. This then stops the exercise from being effective. To do the exercise correctly you need to train in a relaxed state. Only the muscle that you want to work must be under stress. Remain in a comfortable seated position. Use the bicep to do the lift.
Top Position
Here is where you can make this into an excellent exercise. Once the weight is at the top, you should try to flex or contract the bicep muscle. Similar to what you would do if you were showing someone else how big your biceps are. With this contraction at the top of the movement, you will pump extra blood into the muscle fibres. This creates an excellent burn in the muscle which will speed up the growth of the bicep. You will find that you will get fantastic growth without too much extra effort. It is all about how well you train and not about how much you do. Make each rep count when you train and you will reap the rewards.
Mid Point Position
As you can see, it's only the bicep that's taking all the strain. They rest of the body must be totally relaxed. What is really important is the movement through this position - both up and down must be controlled. The positive part of the exercise is when you bring the weight up to the chest and the negative part is when you are lowering the weight to the full out stretched arms. It will be controlled when you are in the positive stage, as you are working the weight up to your chest. When you return the weight, the negative part of the movement, you must be in full control. You must guide the weight down slowly. This will help to stimulate the muscle fibres in the bicep which will cause excellent growth. If you allow the weight to return down too quickly, you will miss out on a really important part of the building process.
Start position
It is considered that preacher curls are one of the finest exercises for building biceps. Many people don't do them is because they are a very strict exercise. Because they are so strict, you will find you cannot use much weight when you do them. This has an effect on the ego, so rather than let people think that we can't lift too much, it's better to do an exercise that is not quite so strict - like normal bicep curls.
You will see from the photo that in the open part of the rep, the arms must be straight. What often happens at this point is the arms are slightly bent, which is not quite correct. It is advisable to have a very slight pause in this position so you get the bicep to do all the work. Be careful not to adjust the body to compensate for the weight.
When you start the curl from this position, the biceps are put under a great deal of stress and they really have to work. This will help with the overall growth you are going to get from the exercise.
I thought it would be a good idea to show you what not to do. This is what will happen when you are training with weight that is too heavy, and you are trying to impress the people at the place of your training. You can see the position of the elbows. They are completely wrong and you will see that the traps are having to work along with lats and a bit of the shoulders.
When your form goes out the window because of the amount of weight you are trying to train with, none of the muscles will benefit. Leave your ego in the changing room - it really has no place in the gym.
This is where you make a good exercise into an excellent exercise. At the bottom of the movement, when the arms are fully extended, you need to pause for just a moment. At this point contract or flex the triceps. The harder you can contract the better. You will be forcing in extra blood into the muscle. The burn you will get after just a few reps will be quite incredible. I have found that doing this gives a much better result in a very short space of time. There really is nothing better than a genuine focused training.
You can see from this photo that the elbows are still tucked tight to the side of the body. This is what good form is all about. It is not a quick rush movement to get the weight up and down. You will get the most from the exercise when you take it slightly slowly. Make sure you can feel the muscle (triceps) doing all the work. During each rep make sure you are really focusing your mind on the full movement you are doing. When you use your mind with your training you will get quicker and better results than with a rushed "getting the exercises done" method.
The triceps muscles make up about 2/3rds of the bulk of the arm so it makes sense to really get involved and train them right.
You will see from the photo that, at the start of the exercise you need to have your elbows tucked tightly to your side. You have to be careful that you keep them as still as possible during the movement or you will tend to let the lats help with the exercise. Then you are not going to get the full benefit of the workout. Make sure you stand quite straight. You can lean slightly forward but not like I have often seen in the gym where the person is leaning far forward. That would normally indicate that the weight is too heavy and that is the only way they can do it.
This is the top of the movement doing the bicep curl. Again, in this particular movement, I did not want to do any variation with the exercise but keep the curl to a basic strict curl. One thing I have learned is, if you can flex/contract the muscle at the top of the movement, you put a tremendous amount of added stress to the muscle. You can imagine how great this will work. Try standing and flexing the biceps like you are doing a pose. Hold it for a little while flexing as hard as you can. You will feel the muscle stressing and a slight burn taking place in a fairly short space of time. Now think of how much more of a stress will take place if you do the same but with weights.
It is these little things that you can do that take a good training session and make a fantastic training session.
In the picture you can see the weight half way through the movement. You will notice that the elbows are tucked into the sides. You will also see that the back stays straight upright and there is no backward slant of the back to aid lifting the weight. The weight is not being assisted with a “swing”. The bicep muscle has to do all the work.
It must be a controlled movement so going both up and down is deliberate. The return or negative part of the movement is really important - especially toward the end of the set when the muscles are fatigued. It is at this time that you will “Cheat” slightly with a bit of a swing to get the weight up. As it comes down slowly and controlled, you are putting maximum resistance on the muscle and you will get the best growth.
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