[quote]brownab wrote:
I’ve always shied away from curls because of a fear of becoming one of those guys with 20 sets of isolation exercises for each muscle. I’m already doing a ton of weighted chins and pull-ups, but the only thing that seems to be growing is my back. I think some bicep strength would help me at the top… What sort of curls do you suggest? How many sets/reps?[/quote]
It might be stupid, but this whole thread pisses me off. You want stronger biceps then CURL! You don’t want to curl for image reasons, yet want strong biceps?
[quote]beebuddy wrote:
brownab wrote:
I’ve always shied away from curls because of a fear of becoming one of those guys with 20 sets of isolation exercises for each muscle. I’m already doing a ton of weighted chins and pull-ups, but the only thing that seems to be growing is my back. I think some bicep strength would help me at the top… What sort of curls do you suggest? How many sets/reps?
It might be stupid, but this whole thread pisses me off. You want stronger biceps then CURL! You don’t want to curl for image reasons, yet want strong biceps?
WTF is wrong with this picture?[/quote]
I don’t have a problem with doing curls, I’ve just seen way to many people doing 3x10s dumbbell curls for a year and going from a 25lbs to a 30 lbs one and only adding a quater of an inch to their 11 inch arms. I fell in that category for a long time. What type of curl and # of reps and sets do you recommend to actually achieve something?
[quote]brownab wrote:
beebuddy wrote:
brownab wrote:
I’ve always shied away from curls because of a fear of becoming one of those guys with 20 sets of isolation exercises for each muscle. I’m already doing a ton of weighted chins and pull-ups, but the only thing that seems to be growing is my back. I think some bicep strength would help me at the top… What sort of curls do you suggest? How many sets/reps?
It might be stupid, but this whole thread pisses me off. You want stronger biceps then CURL! You don’t want to curl for image reasons, yet want strong biceps?
WTF is wrong with this picture?
I don’t have a problem with doing curls, I’ve just seen way to many people doing 3x10s dumbbell curls for a year and going from a 25lbs to a 30 lbs one and only adding a quater of an inch to their 11 inch arms. I fell in that category for a long time. What type of curl and # of reps and sets do you recommend to actually achieve something?
[/quote]
Dude, I dunno what set/rep scheme is gonna work for you, but curls WILL make your biceps stronger. I guarantee it.
I know little about getting to a one-armed chin, I am a long way from that, even though chins are now my primary training goal (for USMC PFT).
But if you just want pure biceps strength, Poliquin had a suggestion a few months back, I think it was in one of those emails T-Nation sends out every week, doing a drop set of 1RM barbell curls where you take off 2.5 or 5% of the weight each set, do a total of 5-7 singles.
Definitely got stronger on that, but also got a solid case of elbow tendinitis around that time, be careful.
[quote]GDollars37 wrote:
I know little about getting to a one-armed chin, I am a long way from that, even though chins are now my primary training goal (for USMC PFT).
But if you just want pure biceps strength, Poliquin had a suggestion a few months back, I think it was in one of those emails T-Nation sends out every week, doing a drop set of 1RM barbell curls where you take off 2.5 or 5% of the weight each set, do a total of 5-7 singles.
Definitely got stronger on that, but also got a solid case of elbow tendinitis around that time, be careful.[/quote]
Thanks for the advice, that sounds like a solid plan. With as many weighted chins as I do I’m no stranger to elbow tendonitis myself.
[quote]ninearms wrote:
Have you thought about doing one-arm chins using bands, reducing the assistance as you get better? [/quote]
I’ve been looking to get some bands for that reason. I built a pulley assist system, but the pulleys are so bad that it won’t be very useful until I get some with ball bearings.
[quote]brownab wrote:
For about the past 6 months I’ve been working towards a one arm chin-up. I’ve been doing a lot of weighted chin-ups and rows. My back has made great progress, but I think it does most of the work leaving my biceps untouched and now I feel my lack of biceps stength holding me back. Does anyone have any advice on strengthening them?[/quote]
Biceps can get relatively weaker if you focus exclusively on chins. This is one time I actually suggest people do curls. Do them with dumbbells, nice slow rhythm. Start out by doing a standard strength training regime on them (say 8 weeks working up to 5x5’s) then after that go into maintenance mode, where they are part of your warmup. I had problems with one of my biceps (tendonosis) and believe it or not, $1500 in PT did nothing, but curls fixed it almost immediately.
Erm, one-armed chins, at least in my experience, use a hammer-grip (thumb towards you) rather than thumb point outside (= palms facing) or thumbs inside (= palms away). Maybe its just my should structure, but I always rotate into this position when I do unilateral chins.
Since I do tons of these, I’ll just give you a few ideas. I’m a martial artist which means I need a lot of bodyweight/plyo stuff. Maybe this doesn’t apply to you, but here it is if you want it.
biceps help and you should train them isometrically. I like L-holds, where you grab the bar, thumbs out, pull up your legs and hang out for 30 seconds. Shift the load mostly to one arm or the other. You can vary the angle at the elbow for fun too (90 deg or 45 or straight or…)
To work up to one-armed chins, throw a towel over the bar and hold that. The lower your grip on the towel, the less that arm can do. Work your way to the bottom over the next several weeks. At some point it will do so little you can dispense with it. This is the safe way.
Always work several grips for pullups/chins. If you just stick with one, you might find weird imbalances in things (remember I do lots of these and have for years, so if you aren’t planning on making them a mainstay for your training, maybe this doesn’t apply to you). The basics are thumbs in, out, towards you and holding on to a towel (great for grip strength).
Once you get these down, go find a squat rack with all those weird grips and run through “sprints” i.e., mix and match different grips in a tabata protocol. Love the burn. If that doesn’t do it for you, add a burpee too.
Weight vests are a fun toy, but can be expensive. One problem with having external weights on a belt is a little hip swing allows you to cheat by setting the weight in motion. Can’t do that with a vest. Or you can do plyo work. Try them letting go then doing a handclap and regrab. If you don’t trust you can do a handclap, launch yourself up, let completely go of the bar but keep them a half-inch off for a spirited regrab if needed. Once you feel more confident, try it with the handclap.
I also organize my training around bilateral/unilateral movements. So, since you are practicing unilateral pulls, balance it with a unilateral push, i.e., one-armed pushups. Those are a riot too if you do them clapping (well, smacking yourself in the chest since your other arm is behind your back, isn’t it).