Not Hitting Biceps

[Icarus]

thanks Warrior,

should I keep my elbow strictly pinned to my side, or allow them to move back and forwards a bit (in control) at the begining and halfway through the curl?

[Warrior]

thanks Warrior,

should I keep my elbow strictly pinned to my side, or allow them to move back and forwards a bit (in control) at the begining and halfway through the curl?

Keep them pinned to your side...

I was just discussing form today to someone at the gym... the analogy I came up with went like this...

When your body is put through extreme stress it wants to find the best way to cope. If I were to set you on fire, your first instinct would not be to run to the water fountain and throw dribbles of water onto your body. You would panic and roll on the floor - or whatever way you could employ to immediatly end the threat to your body.

Basically, the same thing happens during resistance training. Your body starts to panic... it shakes, quivers - trys to recruit larger and/or supporting muscle groups to make the movement easier. Curling a Barbell using just your Biceps requires a lot of focus when your body natually wants to find the best path to get the bar from point A to point B... but your goal is to get the bar from one point to the other isolating one muscle group... in this case, the Biceps. You have to fight that primal instinct to try and make the exercise easier. This mind-muscle connection is something that also strengthens in time... so long as you keep making proper form a priority in your training...

One thing I always do - and advocate to others is to not only begin with very light warm ups to warm the joints and localize blood flow - but to set the stage for proper form. The form used with a very light resistance should mirror the form used on the working sets.

[scottninpo]

geez, didn't expect a tirade about being a newbie! j/k I'm a newbie on this board but i've been training for 10 years, and have tried a lot of different things, not because someone said to do them, but through trial and error have found what works best for me, that is all is what i was saying, i also realize that when someone reccomends an unorthodox training method, like doing cheat curls, certain people, who are hopelessly locked into their mindset will tell you that you must be a stupid new person, so many bros are so quick to jump on others and rip their ideas, which is why for a long time i didn't want to post here, all i said was cheating worked really well for me on a certain movement, and it was something he may want to consider, i used the arnold reference to give it some creedence

[Dude-Man]

For me biceps are like anything else.. They only grow when i go heavy with very strict form. I like my work sets between 3-7 reps for any exercise.

[scottninpo]

i like to keep my rep range for upper body around 5-6, if i start getting 7 reps i move up in weight, i only use cheating techniques on bb curls, upright rows, and bent over row, if it didn't work, i wouldn't use it, i'm not saying it would work for everyone, but i have noticed that after 6 weeks of "cheating" i can go back to strict movements and am noticably stronger on those movements without cheating