Dr. Darden,
what is your opinion of these machines, i.e.best for bicep development
and was Arthur wrong about performing bicep curls with the elbows elevated above the shoulders as in the nautilus compound machine
i have a choice between the preacher curl and the hammer bicep curl, your opinion
Others opinion are welcome also
The best biceps and triceps exercises for me are full range chins and partial dips.
I believe doing both machines, in an alternating manner, would be better than focusing on just one.
I was actually thinking the same…you taught me well, 
I never tried a bicep machine I liked … none felt too good on my elbows.
My best feel on biceps come from low incline hammer curls followed by one dumbbell curl - the dumbbell is on end and your hands under the top end, palms up. You can’t go all the way down to a straight arm or you’ll lose the dumbbell but following the hammer curls, it doesn’t matter. Two sets of each and that’s it.
I do these following back where biceps got worked hard with rows and pulldowns.
This!!! Chins are probably what’s made the biggest difference in my biceps. Be careful of course and control the descent, no need for bicep tears.
partial dips, bottom partial or top
Be careful with doing partials at the bottom of dips. I personally would not do it. It’s a good way to wreck your shoulders.
Partials are all the rage as of late. On some exercise they can be dangerous and stupid.
With dips if you lean forward enough and go to where the back of your upper are are parallel to the floor. That hits your chest,front delts,and triceps just fine.
Even then you still need to be careful. I used to do heavy negative only dips. Now I just do regular dips. I use a fairly slow cadence. After failure I might drop the weight and do a few slow body weight negatives.
As of late I have been doing a triceps exercise like extensions near the end of my routine. Same thing with curls. I do them last with chins somewhere in the beginning of my routine. Before or after squats
I think he may have suggested if your don’t have a nautilus machine you can put your arms in the contract position like in the machine.
So your elbows would be back by your ears. The palms of your hands will be parallel to each other as well as the floor. Then twist your hands into a supinated position and squeeze your biceps.
Do this immediately after a set of barbell curls. I did and my biceps cramped up right away. I held it for about 5 seconds. That was enough for me.
I only did this a times. On different workout days of course. Try it and curse my later.
you’re so right… i program around the same sequence as your last paragraph
and iv been an advocate for full rom and seen greater results from full rom chins as opposed to partial chins (bottom partial)
im just speaking on the validity of partial at the contracted position as barbell exercises by nature provide very little resistanct at the strongest most contracted position, the community of partial training seems to be only training partials at the weakest part of the rom instead of the strongest maximum contracted partial, which is what im seeking if it is an answer to a lagging part of the body.
for example with chins if you skip the top part of the movement you end up with thin upper back.
trust me it i has happened to me and i thought it was because i wasn’t doing rows, no it was because i was skipping the top part to conserve my energy for the weak bottom part.
now to the dips-
I was wondering if training the top partial of dips would be more effective or less effective? in my experience full rom at less weight gives better hypertrophic gains, but it can be exercise specific.
I would say try it and see how it works for you
