Best Bicep Exercise

[REPS]

The One Arm Barbell Preacher Curl is one of the Best Exercises you can perform for your Bicep. I realize the word BEST is relative to what head of the bicep you are trying to target. For instance Incline Curls target the long head of the Bicep due to the initial stretch placed on it. Behind the head Cable Pull Down Curls work the short head well, due to the fact that the long head is in a relaxed position and thus can not contract maximally. This in turn places the majority of the load on the short head of the bicep. However, for total bicep soreness, motor unit recruitment, difficulty of cheating and just how much fun it is to perform the lift, elevates the One Arm Barbell Preacher Curl to my favorite bicep exercise. It is the only exercise in which you can actually feel the load switch form the short to the long head! Don't worry if the bar moves throughout the lift when you first start the movement. It just takes a while for your CNS to learn to fire the motor units correctly and for your stabilizer muscles to get strong.



YouTube - 95 Pound 1 Arm Barbell Preacher Curl

This is not the prettist looking rep in the world due to my long arms. In order to train through a full range of motion, I had to set the preacher pad to high wich made me lean over the pad to far to grab the bar. This in trun made the fist part of the lift look bad, but I am sure you get the idea!

As you can see in the video, you use a standard 7 foot bar, but only hold it with one hand. If you are like me, you will only be able to use 80% of what you can normally use with a dumbbell. For example, if you currently use a 100 pound dumbbell on the preacher bench, you will have to drop to an 80 pound barbell. I performed a single in the video for fun, but it is not smart to perform singles on Isolation exercise, as the danger of hurting your self becomes to great. I have 20 years of lifting under my belt and I have performed the lift on and off for over a year and I do allot of warm up sets, so the risk of hurting my self was minimal.

I generally only do the lift when I am focusing on strength or functional-hypertrophy. The rep range I use when I perform the lift is 10X3 or 10 sets of 3 reps. You always keep the same amount of weight for the entire 10 sets. When following the 10X3 training protocol you never train to total failure, only tempo failure! The rep/set scheme is designed to induce strength gains by the high volume and intensity, "measured in percentage of 1RM" of the training program. As you can see in the video, the preacher bench was slightly too high in height for the starting position. This was due to the fact that when you lower the bar you do not want it to hit the stops. In order to utilize the preacher bench to the fullest of its potential, you must use a full range of motion! The lower portion of the movement is where the real growth potential lies, so do not short change your self by not using a full range of motion. However, if you are going to try a single, drop the pad one pin position, as it allows you to start the lift in a proper position where your are not bent over the preacher bench so much and thus you are able to make the lift easier in the bottom portion. When I did the single, I had to lean over the pad to far in order to grab the bar. This reduced the effectiveness of the lift, but it would have been fine for my usual triple.



When doing any kind of Preacher bench work it is necessary to use a properly designed preacher bench. A properly designed preacher bench has a convex or rounded surface. The rounded surface allows a greater amount of stretch over load to be placed on the bicep when you are in the bottom of the lift. More stretch overload equals greater motor unit recruitment and thus the possibility of greater muscular and strength gains. Now some people might claim that you might end up tearing a bicep due to a greater stretch overload. While there will be more stress placed on the bicep heads, you will not tear them unless you cheat or bounce the bar out of the whole. If you are prone to cheating when training biceps then you should stay away form this exercise! Also, if you ever broke your arm this exercise might place too much stress on your Radius and Ulna bones.

Properly Designed Preacher Bench:


Improperly Designed Preacher Bench:


Another advantage to a convex surface is that the curved preacher surface results in less strain on your elbow! This is due to the fact that the preacher surface will make contact on your triceps and not on your elbow like a flat preacher bench will! While this may not sound like a big deal now, it makes a large difference if you follow high volume/high intensity training protocols. High volume training on a preacher bench with a flat surface results in sore elbows. The curved portion of the preacher bench is also easier on the shoulders, as it allows them to rotate forward on the negative with less strain. I know some personal trainers that have zero formal education and only a 12 hour certification will say that your shoulders should never move when performing the barbell preacher curl exercise. However, that is not possible when your biceps are strong. Just look at the following image. You would need a Silverback Gorilla standing on your shoulders to counter balance the rotational torque placed on the shoulders.

Flat Preacher Bench is Hard on the Elbows:


Curved Preacher Bench Reduces Loads on Shoulder:


If any of you are going to try the exercise post some pictures as it is a fun lift to perform.

[wala]

Thats a big article just for preacher curls....

Pretty good tho... you're not trying to sell preacher curl machines or something are you?! lol

[_Wolf_]

Originally Posted by wala

Thats a big article just for preacher curls....

Pretty good tho... you're not trying to sell preacher curl machines or something are you?! lol

i was thinking the same thing lol...

[IceDragon]

I've got to admit, my biceps are bigger now than they ever were before - and I no longer isolate them, I just do chin-ups, kickbacks and dips, shit like that.

Funnily enough, the same could be said of my calves - now I no longer train them by themselves, they're better than ever.

I couldn't read all that, though. Isn't it a little over-done for just one exercise?

[strawser9]

yeah...they're good every once in a while!

[_Wolf_]

Originally Posted by IceDragon

I've got to admit, my biceps are bigger now than they ever were before - and I no longer isolate them, I just do chin-ups, kickbacks and dips, shit like that.

did you just say kickbacks??? LOL...

[IceDragon]

Originally Posted by _Wolf_

did you just say kickbacks??? LOL...

Yep, since I've started concentrating on my tris instead of adding them in whenever I remembered to, my arms are considerably better than they used to be.

Laugh, but it's worked for me.

[_Wolf_]

Originally Posted by IceDragon

Yep, since I've started concentrating on my tris instead of adding them in whenever I remembered to, my arms are considerably better than they used to be.

Laugh, but it's worked for me.

i only laughed because you mentioned saying your arms have become better since you dropped isolation exercises...then you mentioned that you do kickbacks (in the same sentence). i found that funny.

ID, no offense, but IMO kickbacks are the most worthless exercises. Given that I am a strongman/powerlifter, we too have to strengthen our triceps and i like to do skull crushers (also an isolation exercise) and dips because they have the biggest carry over onto the big lifts.

think about it like this, ID: if you do kickbacks, which other lift does kickbacks help in? nothing. if they do, it is a marginal effect. now, consider other tricep exercises (isolations): skull crushers, various dumbbell extensions and pulley push downs. do these have carry over onto other lifts? yup. so which is more superior? skull crushers, various extensions and push downs

[IceDragon]

Originally Posted by _Wolf_

i only laughed because you mentioned saying your arms have become better since you dropped isolation exercises...then you mentioned that you do kickbacks (in the same sentence). i found that funny.

ID, no offense, but IMO kickbacks are the most worthless exercises. Given that I am a strongman/powerlifter, we too have to strengthen our triceps and i like to do skull crushers (also an isolation exercise) and dips because they have the biggest carry over onto the big lifts.

think about it like this, ID: if you do kickbacks, which other lift does kickbacks help in? nothing. if they do, it is a marginal effect. now, consider other tricep exercises (isolations): skull crushers, various dumbbell extensions and pulley push downs. do these have carry over onto other lifts? yup. so which is more superior? skull crushers, various extensions and push downs

They aren't the ONLY tri exercises I do, it was just an example I threw in here LOL

[_Wolf_]

Originally Posted by IceDragon

They aren't the ONLY tri exercises I do, it was just an example I threw in here LOL

oh...well, why didnt you say that?

[strawser9]

skulls are fuckin hell on tendons.

[IceDragon]

Originally Posted by _Wolf_

oh...well, why didnt you say that?

I thought I just did...

[REPS]

Originally Posted by IceDragon

I've got to admit, my biceps are bigger now than they ever were before - and I no longer isolate them, I just do chin-ups, kickbacks and dips, shit like that.

Funnily enough, the same could be said of my calves - now I no longer train them by themselves, they're better than ever.

I couldn't read all that, though. Isn't it a little over-done for just one exercise?

Compound movements are superior to isolation movements for the majority of time! I probably should have stated BEST BICEP ISOLATION EXERCISE

[Big Guns]

at first I thought::::::::::::::"this guy's a moron....using a 1 rep on an isolation". Bye-Bye connectors. But I do like the idea of the long bar, this would really cause the CNS to focus and could relate to some growth. I will try this next time. I am a BIG beleiver in Preacher movements for the peak. I think for size it is better than swingin the bar around. I get the muscle I want to train involved instead of the shoulders, back, calves.........
Good read!