What's going on nation?
I'm Scott from muscularstrength.com and today we're going to be comparing the
barbell biceps curl to the cable biceps curl to finally determine which is best
for building bigger biceps.
But before we get started,
but before we get started,
be sure to subscribe and click the notification bell so you never miss a new
video upload from me. Also guys,
give that like button a tap before you forget.
I mean we are talking about biceps growth here,
so we should be able to easily get the likes to over 5,000 for this video,
right? Hell yeah, we can!
So how do you determine how effective an exercise is? I mean at
the end of the day,
lots of people have built amazing physiques training in very different ways.
So the only way you guys will be able to understand my choice is to first
understand more of the anatomy of the biceps.
First off the biceps is a two headed muscle bicep, right?
That mainly controls elbow flection and forearm supination. However,
those of you who have been watching my videos for some time also know that the
long head of the biceps or the outer head actually crosses the shoulder joint
and controls shoulder flection to a degree as well.
So this means that not all arm curls are identical in terms of muscle size and
strength. Yeah.
Any exercise you choose will incorporate some sort of elbow flexion
but it's actually the position of your elbows through space that will determine
which head of the biceps is emphasized the most as well as which part of
the range of motion you're getting stronger at.
And not too many people think of this when they put their routines together.
What I mean is when you do something like an incline dumbbell curl,
it might look the same as an overhead cable curl,
but in fact they are fundamentally opposite and that's because the incline dumbbell
curl will position your elbows behind your torso.
So there will be more shoulder extension and thus it will emphasize the stretch
of your biceps throughout the range of motion. On the other hand,
when you do an overhead cable curl,
which positions your elbows more in front of your head,
so there's more shoulder flexion
This will emphasize more of the contraction of your biceps when performing
repetitions. Therefore,
it really does matter which exercises you decide to incorporate in your
workouts, especially considering that each one of us has different goals,
different weak areas and lagging body parts we need to focus on.
So now that you know a bit more about the biceps,
let's talk about the exercises. Beginning with the barbell curl,
I want you guys to think of the barbell biceps curl as the granddaddy of all
biceps exercises. In fact,
it's probably the first bicep exercise that was ever invented,
most likely around the same time we started styling our hair.
Therefore, it's a very difficult exercise to top in terms of potential gains.
So let's first compile a list of pros and cons of this movement.
So pro number one,
holding the bar though forces your arms into super nation at the bottom of the
movement, which is actually the sticking point.
And this is going to activate your biceps to a much greater degree
right from the get go, guys forearm supination is one of the three functions of
your biceps and skipping it is just as terrible as doing half reps on bench,
but a con to this is that forcing your arms into supination can be hard on your
wrist, especially if you have poor wrist mobility,
the solution would be to work on your mobility and maybe even try to stretch
your wrists between sets. This isn't the kind of pain that you want to avoid guys.
It's the kind you want to fix or else it will just get worse over time.
Pro number two,
you can overload with much heavier weights than any other biceps exercise,
especially when compared to dumbbell or cable exercises with the barbell if you
need to, you can use a bit of momentum to force out some super heavy reps.
now you can do the same thing with cables,
but when the weight starts to get really heavy it tends to be a bit awkward due
to the fixed position of the cable.
Also trying to spot on something like this really sucks,
but a con to overloading is because you can cheat easier with a barbell.
This will give beginners who don't know better every opportunity to cheat, curl,
and possibly injure themselves. And I see a lot of this in my gym.
I know you guys do too new lifters using their legs, hips, lower back,
upper back and shoulders to lift weight that's they're not ready for.
But now that we're done with the pros and cons of the barbell biceps curl,
let's compare it to the cable version and see if given the option which one is
best suited for more gain. Before we dive in, guys,
click the link in my pin comment below.
That way you can go to your subscription manager and make sure notification
settings from my channel are set from occasional to all.
That way you never miss a new video upload. All right,
so cable bicep curls pros and cons pro number one.
Once in starting position,
there's constant tension on the biceps throughout the entire range of motion.
And because of this,
the strength curve is much different when compared to the barbell curl for the
barbell curl,
it's harder at the bottom and gets progressively easier as you reach the top of
the range of motion. With the cable curl,
though the difficulty remains the same from start to finish.
The con to this is that you can't really overload as great with this exercise
when compared to the barbell version. Sure,
you can become progressively stronger over time,
but the cable curl doesn't really allow you to handle really heavy weights.
This is mainly because most cable weight stacks,
they don't go high enough in weight and using momentum to push through the
concentric phase of the movement can be very difficult and awkward when compared
to the barbell curl pro number two, if your workouts are getting boring,
the cable curl will give you the opportunity to introduce variety into your
training. We all love variety, right?
With the barbell curl you have just that.
You stand there and you curl the bar.
But with the cable curl you can drop the pulley all the way to the ground and
perform a standing cable curl. You can raise the pulley all the way to the top,
sit chest down over a bench and curl over your head.
You can lie on the floor and curl towards your face and you can even do that
thing where you sit down and pin your elbows to your thighs.
And I'm sure many other exciting opportunities that curl probably exist that I
don't even know of but belong in a future episode of INSTA-GAHHBAGE
But the obvious con to this guys is you need a cable station and not everyone
has access to one, especially if you're training at home while not us,
we got a pretty sweet cable machine at our home gym.
But that's thanks to you guys. So, Hey, thank you so much for the support.
Well now that we've gone over the pros and cons for both movements,
I think it's pretty obvious what the better choice is,
but at the same time it's not always black and white.
And this is one of those cases. Sure.
If you only had time to perform one bicep exercise in the gym,
I'd go with the standing barbell curl,
even if I did have access to a cable station. But why?
It's because the barbell curl allows you to utilize heavier weights,
progress easier over time.
And because I can overload more with heavy negatives,
I personally feel a lot more biceps activation when compared to a cable curl.
Now some of you might point out that I mentioned that when doing cable curling,
there is constant tension during the entire range of motion.
So you would think that that would be better, right? Well also remember this,
you are always going to be about 40% stronger in the eccentric of any exercise,
and that is where the most muscles damaged for regrowth happens as well.
So to put it simply,
you will never be able to curl up what your biceps can max out on the way down.
And this is why the overloading principle is so important. Now,
does this mean the cable curl has no place in your workouts? Of course not.
Guys. In fact now that you have a bit more knowledge of anatomy of the biceps,
you can use the different elbow positions that the cable curl offers to focus on
either the flex or the stretch portion of the movement.
I also enjoy ending my biceps workout with a big drop set finisher,
which is much easier to execute using a cable because of how easy it is to drop
the weight after each set.
I hope you guys learn a lot from today's video and if you want to check out all
of the versus series videos,
I will drop the link to the entire playlist in my pin comment below,
as well as during the end screens.
So make sure you watch until the end because before I sign off,
I want to leave you with a new biceps workout to try out.
So your next biceps workout guys,
it's going to consist of three exercises.
Exercise one is going to be a barbell biceps curl. You're doing four sets,
eight reps, eight reps, six reps, six reps,
and obviously when you do six make sure you're lifting more weight
than when you did the sets of eight. As soon as you're done,
you're gonna move over to an incline dumbbell curl,
three sets of 10 to 12 repetitions,
and then you're going to finish it all off with cable biceps curls, three sets,
12 reps, but perform a drop set for each set to,
for example, set one would be 12 reps as heavy as you can.
Then drop the weight and do another 12 reps and then drop the weight and do another
12 reps and if there's room drop the weight away and do another 12 reps.
Now you can do this workout on your arm day.
You can combine it with back and shoulders. You can do it on your chest day.
If you're doing a full body routine, you can put it into your workout.
If your biceps are lagging you can do a little extra biceps work.
At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter guys,
but if you do need some help with your exercise selection or current weekly
routine,
you can always go to the forums on my site muscular strength and post there.
I actually have created a special private group where I'm very active and
promise a response within 24 to 48 hours.
You can ask me about your routine,
your meal plan macros or even post form videos for me to look at and correct and
if you're interested just send me an email to Scott@scotthermanfitness.com
and I'll send you more information and as always,
more good stuff coming soon.
I really like doing the versus series guys and I'm actually kind of sad that it
took me this long to jump back in the saddle and get these videos going again.
But don't you worry if you enjoyed this video,
you can check out the entire playlists over here.
There's a lot of really great videos comparing exercises in the gym to give you
a better understanding of when and how to use them.
Then there's only a couple videos where I say this exercise is garbage I'm
pretty sure tricep kick back is in there somewhere.
Even though some of you guys got upset in the last video that I said it was a
terrible exercise, but I didn't just say it was terrible. I said,
it's terrible if because of this reason.
And then I also gave a reason when I would use it,
but the people who got upset probably stopped watching the video before they got
to the end and saw the part where I said,
this is when I would use it because I had to write that in the comment section.
Anyways, I'm just ranting. Click this video over here. Check it out.
More great videos down here for you to click on and enjoy more playlist.
How to videos on every single exercise to do in the gym. And of course,
if you haven't already, download my app,
muscular strength link down below. I'll see you guys later.