And so, with no need to have to concentrate on this decision at all, just like that,
the Concentration Curl gets the big red X as one of the worst bicep exercises.
What's up, guys Jeff Cavaliere, Athleanx.com. What you see behind me is a bunch of different bicep
exercises, many of which you've either done in the past or you're still doing them today. However,
after today, you might want to get rid of a few of them. Because what I'm going to
do is going to help you to rank them from the worst to the best, leading with only
the best bicep exercises that are capable of delivering the gains that you're after.
And so, as always in our Exercises Rank series, their criteria for the selection matters.
What makes one curl variation better than the other? We're going to focus on hypertrophy as
we have in the entire series. Which of these exercises is most capable of delivering those
gains above all else? Secondly, can it do it safely? As a physical therapist,
I want to deliver those gains, but do so without causing any harm along the way. And finally,
we have to let the anatomy of the bicep muscle deliver the exercise selections, too, because
it doesn't just bend the elbow, it does far more than that. So, if we can tap into what the actual
function is, then we have some good exercise selections. So that being said, let's start
breaking them down from the bottom to the top. And so just like that, we start at the bottom of
the barrel. Here are the worst of the worst and work our way up. And for that, I don't have to
concentrate very long on this first pick because it's going to be the Concentration Curl. And this
exercise here isn't inherently bad, it's just that it's most commonly mis-performed. In other words,
it's one of the most popular bicep exercises and one of the most popular mis-performed exercises.
And that's because the position of the elbow matters a lot. A lot of people will just simply
rest their arm on top of their thigh, creating almost a seesaw effect that takes a lot of the
potential work away from the biceps. Or they'll take that elbow and drive it into their thigh,
which just creates a strong leverage for the biceps, once again, taking away some
of the effectiveness of the exercise because the biceps aren t doing all that it can.
Throw in the fact that while you may feel a good contraction in the biceps while doing it,
you're certainly not tapping into the bicep s full capabilities, as you'll see here shortly.
It just isn't one of my favorite choices and for that reason, guys, the Concentration Curls
gets the first in the bottom are the Worst. By the way, if you love Concentration Curls
and you still want to do them, at least do them right. Do me a favor and watch this video over
here when this one is done, and I'll show you exactly how to make sure you do every time.
Moving on, we have an exercise that proves that just because you throw the word curl
after the first part of the name, it doesn't make it a bicep exercise. And that's because the
Reverse Curl is not a good bicep exercise. What we've got here is a good brachialis exercise or
brachioradialis exercise, but still not a bicep exercise. Because one of the main drivers of
function for the biceps and one of the unique abilities it has is to supinate that forearm.
If you fully pronate in order to grab this bar with an overhand grip, you are minimizing the
contribution of the biceps to the exercise. Sure, it will be there to help the flex that
elbow and bring the bar up, but as the third line of defense, not when we're trying to create
hypertrophy guys. And for that reason, the Reverse Curl just because it has that important second
part of the name is not one of the important exercises as we work our way up to the best.
And so if we confuse the right way to do the Concentration Curl and got confused with what
muscles the Reverse Curl does, this exercise is just plain confused. We're talking about
the Biceps Pushup. It's just not a bicep exercise. It never is. It never will be. And for those that
think, Yeah, but for calisthenics? No. But not even.. ? No, not at all. Yeah, but.. Nope. How
about just a little bit? Unfortunately, no. I mean, even just It just doesn t.
There's just no way in human creation to convince me that the Bicep Pushup is a good bicep exercise,
let alone a good bicep building exercise. We're talking about a pushup, you know, a pushup for
chest triceps or shoulders. You're not working your biceps. And the eccentric overload argument
isn't a strong one either. It just is not a good exercise, guys. It should never bear the name of a
Bicep Pushup. For all these reasons, it only bears a big red X right through its name, and that's why
it belongs here at the bottom of the list. And so, with that I nugget to break out my
blue marker as we work our way up into the Better Category, all good exercises, all good exercises,
just different levels of effectiveness based on some of their inherent limitations. And if you're
looking for a bodyweight exercise that actually works the biceps, then let's start looking at
this one, the Inverted Chin Curl. Because what this does is it checks all the boxes in terms
of bicep function. In order to pull yourself up, you're going to have to flex the elbow.
Check. Have the forearm in a supinated position to have that underhand grip. Check. And had the
shoulders in a flexed position out in front of our body, the most overlooked component of a true
biceps complete contraction. Check. What holds this exercise back, however,
is simply loading it becomes a lot more difficult. When you're looking for progressive overload,
this may not be the best choice. But you're looking for a good bodyweight bicep exercise,
did I mention is better than the Bicep Pushup? Then this one is the one that you're going to
want to use, and it belongs as the first with the blue circle and the Better Category.
And so, we took a giant step up from the worse to better in our body weight category. Let's take
another step up when we talk about the Reverse Curl, and this is what this is Zottman Curl. So
at least with the Zottman Curl, the first portion of the concentric part of the lift is going to be
performed with the forearms supinated. So, we're going to get that much better bicep contribution.
However, the problem comes in with what we do next, and that is just simply providing to perform
the eccentric component or lowering part of the lift. Guys, remember, you are actually strongest
in the eccentric part of the lift and when you're trying to grow a muscle, tapping into your ability
to handle more weight or slow down the eccentric on the muscle you're trying to grow is important.
The Zottman Curl is taking away that opportunity and for that reason, it's half good, but not good
enough. And that means it's going to get a circle here for a Better exercise, but not great.
And so next up in the Better Category is an improvement on once again, an exercise in the
Worst Category, those Concentration Curls. And this time we're looking at the Preacher Curl.
Again, it's a great exercise for building up bigger biceps, but it has some limitations. Most
importantly, for me, I'm a little confused by how people load the exercise. I think it comes from a
false sense of security, of thinking once again, with those elbows driving back into the pad,
they have that additional leverage that oftentimes convinces them they should and could handle more
weight than their biceps can handle. If you need some more convincing about that this isn't always
the case, I'm going to give you a three second countdown to look away. Three, two, one. All.
Yeah, that's ugly. But I did give you a heads up. Not to worry, though it's not going to happen
to you if you take my advice here and do the exercise as it's supposed to be performed with
a much more responsible load. Don't fall for that false sense of security that you get for
driving your elbows into a pad. And by the way, when you actually start to free those elbows up,
better exercise options await you. We're going to encounter those later in the list. But for now,
the Preacher Curl just gets the blue circle for a Better exercise.
And wrapping up the Better Category we have one of those exercises where its limitation
is actually is benefit. We're talking about the Cable Curl. You see, if you've ever performed
this one, you know, it's one smooth exercise and it feels really damn good placing the biceps in
that peak contracting state with peak tension in that portion of the rep. However, its limitation
is it doesn't have a whole hell of a lot of resistance in the beginning of the exercise,
making it a little bit uneven. But this is where the benefit comes in because those that have
elbow issues or elbow tendinitis, they feel most of their discomfort when they're first starting
out a curl. That's where most of the load is being placed on that fully extended elbow.
So having an exercise that can relieve some of that tension in the beginning,
part of the range of motion is a godsend. That's where the Cable Curl steps up to the plate.
Of course, this is all determined by the position of the cable in relation to your forearm. If
it's more perpendicular, there's more force being generated into the biceps. If it's more parallel,
there isn't. So, one quick fix for those that are looking to take this even to the next level,
just don't go down as far when you lower the cable down. Start about here and you'll see you
can maintain that perpendicular relationship and keep the tension high. Either way,
if you're looking to offset some of the load on your elbow and feel good or just want to step
it up to another level here, the Cable Curl is one of those really solid, better exercises.
And so now I get to break out my yellow marker as we continue our way up the charts, this time
to the Better Still Category. Exercises that are slightly better than everything we just covered,
and we start right away with another cable exercise that takes it up to another level.
This is the Flex Curl or something we call the Lip Buster Curl. And the main difference
here is with that high anchor point comes the shoulder flexion required to grab the
handle in the first place to hit that second all important component of bicep function. Of course,
as we bend the elbow and curl in, we're going to feel that good peak contraction at the top.
If you bend your wrist back just slightly here to keep the forearms out of the move,
which is very easily done with this exercise, you feel even more of a complete contraction.
This is a really solid option, particularly when you're looking for a good cable bicep exercise
and therefore it gets the first yellow circle in the Better Still Category.
Next up is an exercise that's unique from all the ones we've actually talked about so far.
And it's what places it right here squarely in the Better Still category and we're talking about
the Drag Curl. Because this exercise is uniquely hitting the long head more effectively than any
others that we talked about. Why? Because we're changing the elbow position. Everything else we
talked about so far had the elbow out in front of the body. But when we get the elbow traveling back
behind the body, one very important thing happens: we get more of a stretch on the long head of the
biceps. Because the long head is the only one that has a tendon that crosses the shoulder joint. So,
by getting our shoulder back into extension, we can place more stretch on that long head
and get a better activation of it. If you want to start seeing better long head development
and therefore better bicep peaks, this is one you're going to want to make sure you include
and it's one that we are going to definitely include in our Better Still Category.
And so if the Drag Curl was great at hitting the long head, what's our short head option that gets
us to that Better Still ranking? For me, it s going to be the Spider Curl. And what we get
here is a better option than the Preacher Curl for the reasons I mentioned before, a little bit
more freedom of movement. However, take note of the position of the arms again. This one is now
not going to be behind our body, but those elbows are going to be positioned slightly out front.
And by simply dangling ourselves over an incline bench like this, they're going to be in slight
flexion. As we curl up, the peak tension on the biceps is going to occur at that peak moment of
contraction, making it a very good exercise for helping those that can't feel that muscle
connection. Not to mention because those elbows are not driving back into the pad, creating that
leverage effect that I didn't like in the Preacher Curl, we have the ability to perform the exercise
more safely. The Spider Curl is definitely going to belong in this Better Still Category.
And finally, if it's those bicep picks that you're trying to develop, there's one more left here in
the better still category you're definitely going to want to do. And it's the Dumbbell Waiter Curl.
And I love this exercise because it places that long head of the biceps in direct line of pull
because of its more proximal attachment on the radius. What we've got here is an exercise with
built in effectiveness by simply having to grab the dumbbell in the first place. With the hands
cuffed under the end of the dumbbell, you're going to get a little bit of wrist extension taking the
forearms out of the exercise, particularly as you lift up to the top. A lot of times curls
can be dominated by the forearms. This exercise won't allow that because you have to keep the
top of the dumbbell parallel to the ceiling. At the same time, with the hand slightly rotated
in again, that alters that line of pull to really target that lateral long head more effectively.
I've said before what you see is what you train. If you can see a little bit more of the outside
of the bicep, you're more effectively hitting that long head. If you see more of the inside of
the bicep, stay tuned, that's coming, then you're hitting more of the short head. This Waiter Curl
checks all those boxes and gives you that peak contraction at the top. There's nothing better
when you re trying to build bicep peaks and long head development, and that's why it's going to get
the last spot in this Better Still Category. And so with our exercise options dwindling behind
me, now, I get to break out my green marker as we work our way up into the Almost Best
Category. And for this, we're going to go back to those long head targeted movements. This time
slightly better than the Drag Curl we're talking about, the Inclined Dumbbell Curl. And the main
difference here is we're still going to have the arm back behind our body, we're actually going to
get it into a more passively stretched position. Meaning just by sitting on the incline bench,
my arm is going to fall into the proper position to place the stretch on that long head.
But from here we not only get the opportunity to curl from that extended position,
but even add somewhat of that shoulder flexion as we come closer to the top. Now, granted,
this exercise can be somewhat difficult for people that have shoulder or wrist or elbow issues.
But interestingly, it's tendon accommodation that you're looking for here. It's been shown that
people that don't take their biceps through full range of motion with that elbow fully extended,
and in this case, the elbow back behind the body, they tend to have the weaker tendons,
more susceptible to injuries and tears. This is not a heavy exercise, but it's one that
does what it needs to do for that long head, like we talked about. And it gets the first spot here
in the Almost Best Category. And next we go back to the bodyweight
exercises and who knew a bodyweight exercise would fall into the Almost Best Category? For me, it's
always going to be the Chinup. This exercise is an amazing way to overload the biceps, particularly
if you realize the function of the biceps is being maximized. Here we've got elbow flexion
and pull ourselves up, we've got that simulated underhand grip on the bar and we've got shoulder
flexion. Now for those that might be saying, But wait, aren't you extending the shoulder
from a flexed position on the way down? You have to understand that when you end the exercise,
you are still in a flexed shoulder position. So, at peak contraction you've got all three
components in place making this a great choice. The ease of accessibility here is another great
option because it's easier to set up than the Inverted Chin Curl. And all you need to do is
grab a pull up bar and throw it in your doorway. And for those concerned about the last taking
over too much of the work, we've got an easy fix. You simply increase the angle of the elbow maxing
out at 90 degrees as you pull yourself up, which will force the biceps to take on more of the load.
The Chinup is one of the best ways and one of the easiest ways to build your biceps.
That's why it's going to belong here in the Almost Best Category.
And so, with a bit of sadness and a little bit of a tear in my eye, I have to wrap up my Almost
Best Category with one of my almost favorite exercises of all time, and it's the Barbell Curl.
Now, why is it not the best? There's one limitation here, guys. We all know about
the ability of this exercise to be overloaded to develop big biceps. It was my staple exercise as
a developing teen. I could perform it in cheat style that allowed me to swing the exercise
up through the concentric in place, that all important eccentric load on every single rep.
Or I could perform it in strict style up against the wall, which demanded more work being done
from the biceps. It's simply one of the best bicep building exercises out there. The one limitation,
the fixed bar. You have no option to split the hands up right or left,
meaning you have no way to expose any underlying muscle imbalances,
right side versus left side. On top of that, you have to move that weight through space
all at one time, demanding a strong core. Whether it's 60 pounds or 80 pounds or 100 pounds,
it's all moving up and back at one time. You have to have the core strength necessary to
stabilize your torso against that posture driven weight movement. That being said,
you can be undermined by a lack of core strength here. We can fix that by one simple modification,
which we'll get to in the next step. But for me, rounding out the category is the Barbell Curl.
And so with more curls than I can count behind me, I get to stick with my green marker, but this time
crown it as the king of curls with the Green Star. And this time we're talking about the Alternating
Standing Dumbbell Curl. By switching out that barbell in favor of individual dumbbells, I'm more
easily able to overcome those right and left side muscle imbalances. I can cut in half those core
demands that might be holding back your ability to build your biceps and overload them specifically.
And the built in versatility here is just immeasurable. There are so many different
things I can do with this exercise to take it in a direction that I want to. I've shown you before
the ability to offset the dumbbell in your hand to more effectively overload the supination component
driving new gains. I showed you the ability to overlap strength curves by incorporating a band
at the same time that you could do the curl to make sure the exercise is hard, not just through
the mid-range but all the way to the end. For all those reasons and because there can only be one on
our list of the Best of the Best, this is going to wear the crown as the king of curls, for me,
this is the best exercise for your biceps. Remember, guys, when it comes to building bigger
biceps, though the movements may all look similar it's the nuances and how you perform them that
makes the big difference. Hopefully now with this list, you're armed with the right exercises to
build those arms of yours starting today. If you're looking for more in this series, guys,
make sure you watch the shoulder exercises ranked in the chest exercises ranked, among others. If
you haven't done so, guys, make sure you click Subscribe and turn on your Notifications,
so you never miss a new video when we put one out. Also, if you're looking for programs step-by-step,
we have them all over at Athleanx.com. All right, guys, see you soon.