What's going on Nation? And welcome to bench break episode 9 how to maximize your barbell bicep curls
Inside grip versus outside grip now before we get into this video
I want you guys to know that genetics will play a role in the shape of your biceps
For example, some people have shorter biceps which seems to be like they have a higher peak as well
Which is the kind of bicep that I have where others have those long biceps that seem to take up the entire arm
Which I can kind of mimic if I turn my wrist out like this
But no matter what shape your bicep is you can always increase the size of the muscle mass by training properly
So we're going to do today in this video is I'm going to show you guys my top two favorite
exercises to work both heads of the biceps and all it's going to do is
Really focus on having to change your grip on the bar in order to target both heads. So what are both heads?
Well, you have the inner head which is also known as the short head of the bicep, which is pretty much right here
And then you have the outer head or the long head of the bicep, which is you can kind of see the separation
It's right here. You can see it more from the side as well
Before we get into the exercises though
I want to talk to you guys about some reasons as to why your biceps might not be growing
The number one reason is going to be proper form and form involves a few different things
It involves utilizing the full range of motion of all the exercises
And it also involves making sure that you're not swinging into your reps
Some people especially they start to get heavy or even beginners and they're trying to curl too much weight
they get into the habit of doing this and they're basically
Swinging the barbell up and down not really isolating the bicep and working in as hard as it needs to be worked
Now your genetics can also play a role in how your body
responds to your workout whether you're working your biceps or any other body part and what I mean by that is
Some people get better results by lifting with heavier weight and shorter rep ranges
Where other people get better results building muscle and strength by doing bigger rep range
so maybe the short rep range would be like the five the six area where others like to stay in the 8 to 10 a
10 to 12 rep range and do a lot of drop sets and burn sets and super sets
Basically infusing a lot of volume into the workout if you've been training for a while
You probably know what
Which way your body responds better whether it's training heavy or with a lot of volume if you're a beginner and you don't know yet
Pick one of these ways to train and do it for two to three months and then switch to the other way and you'll quickly
Be able to see which one your body responds better to
now as far as the
Exercises first we're going to do is talk about my top two favorite exercises
To work the inside head or the short head of the bicep
The first exercise is going to be a wide grip barbell bicep curl and for this exercise
What you're going to do is grab your barbell outside of shoulder width
Get a nice tight grip on the bar. Keep your chest up
hold your elbows in front of your hips and then bring the barbell all the way up and
Then all the way back down just like this and that's the full range of motion
You want to really feel your elbows fully extend at the bottom if you're not used to doing that or if you have a hard
Time remembering a lot of people will curl and then they'll kind of do one of these and bring their arms back and not fully
extend them
Try to like flex your tricep to push your elbows forward to make sure you get a full extension at the bottom of the movement
bring the bar all the way up and
All the way down
Another trick you can do if you're trying to lift heavier weight is you can focus on utilizing that internal belt
So basically take in a breath keep your core nice and tight
Perform the entire movement and then don't reset your breath until you reach the bottom of the movement again
The second exercise I like to do to focus on the inner head of the bicep
once again
You have to use a wider grip on the bar is going to be a wide grip preacher curl and as you guys can see
I've made my very own custom preacher curl
Machine over here. It's just not painted yet
But for the preacher curl what you're going to do use the EZ curl bar
use the outside grips of the bar and
once again focus on a full extension and
Then bringing the bar all the way up to your chin. Just be careful. You'll hit yourself in the teeth of the forehead
control the bar on the way down in on the way up and
Make sure you do full range of motion on every single rep if you catch yourself doing one of these
This isn't full range of motion. That's probably why you're not growing your biceps
so full range of motion on the preacher curls
And now my two favorite exercises to work the outside head or the long head of the bicep
The first one is an inside grip EZ curl
So using the EZ curl bar
Just like this
Getting a nice tight inside
Grip now for some of you you might have a hard time holding your arms in front of your body like this
You want to make sure you're not pushing your shoulders forward when you do this keep them nice and neutral
But try to get your arms in front of your body so you can fully extend them and then the same thing
Bring the bar all the way up and then make sure you go all the way down and you fully extend your arms
All the way up
All the way down just like this
All the way up
All the way down
And now on to the last exercise
Which is my other favorite exercise to do when trying to target the outside head of the bicep is a drag curl
Now for the drag curl, you're gonna grab a close grip on the bar
But more of a narrow grip just about shoulder width or a little bit inside of shoulder width on the barbell
and
Then from here what you're going to do
is once again make sure you have a full extension in your arms elbows in front of your hips and
As you curl the bar, you're gonna drag it up your entire body as high as you can
So curl
drag it up as high as you can and
Then bring it back down
Continuing to drag the barbell down your body
So that's one rep. We'll do another one
Curl it all the way up
And then bring it down
drag it across your body and
We'll do one more. So on this exercise you are letting your elbows go backwards pass your hips
Bring it up
And then bring it back down and that's how you do a drag curl
So you guys have it my top two exercises to work the inside head in the outside head of the bicep
Just by switching your grip on the barbell
If you guys want to learn more great exercises in order that really boosts your bicep routine
You can join us over here in the forum post about the bicep curls in this video and for more great tips
exercises routines and recipes be sure to join us on Scotthermanfitness.com and as always
More good stuff coming soon. See guys
If you're looking for a quick way to switch things up log into your SHF profile and go to the workout section of the website
Once there click on the muscles you want to train then you'll be brought to a page where you can further filter down your search
Now you have a complete list of all the routines that target your chest and utilize only a barbell or dumbbell
From here. You can rate the routine add it to your routines on your profile
And if you scroll down you can see a write-up of the entire routine as well as photos of all the exercises
You can also download a printable PDF just by clicking on it