;)
Why is it always biceps curls?
Thursday, October 18, 2012 at 04:31PM I'm sure everyone has already seen the pictures of Paul Ryan at the weight bench.
But this isn't really about Paul Ryan. It's about biceps curls, probably the most useless weight exercise going for a regular person who wants to build muscle and stay in shape. I call them "the Doritos of fitness".
For some reason, someone curling a dumbbell has become shorthand for "weightlifting", and thus for "fitness". I guess it's partly the different angles you can photograph someone from. Squats can be kind of gross from the wrong angle, and someone doing bench presses is lying down. Plus, since those are real exercises, the subject's face gets all red and distended. And you can't keep doing them for long.
Still, it's time to get things like biceps curls and dumbbell side lifts out of the picture. They work tiny little muscles and really don't do much, which is why people like doing them: they don't make you hurt while you're doing them and they don't leave you exhausted afterward. Work movements, not muscles, and work as much of your body as you can. Do some pull-ups while you're at it. I think those would make a good replacement for the hackneyed biceps curl.
I'm sure Paul Ryan doesn't spend much time on biceps curls in his routine. I mean, that would be doing something with no real effect just for show, kind of like talking about cutting foreign aid or the public television budget as a way to try to balance the budget....
Reader Comments (4)
People notice biceps. Think of them as muscular shorthand.
A pull-up is essentially a biceps curl using your own body weight instead of a dumbbell or barbell. You can do the higher weight (few people can bar-curl their own body weight) in a pull-up because you aren't expending any energy to balance yourself and suspend a separate weight. Having done weightlifting for about 30 years, I can tell you that (a) most people do them wrong and (b) doing them correctly works not only the biceps but also the shoulders and your core (because you have to stand still while doing them and that takes muscle in the torso), they are far from a useless exercise. But then, frankly, most people do most weight exercises wrong because they forget the first rule---it's not the weight so much as the form.
Mark-
A pullup also works the lats and some other back muscles, which no curl does.
Speaking of which, I skipped them at the gym today telling myself I would do them on the bar screwed into a rafter right behind and above my chair here in the basement. Maybe you will inspire me to do them. In a few minutes....
---A pullup also works the lats and some other back muscles, which no curl does.---
Very true (although I would argue about the lower back---holding yourself still during curls works those muscles if the weight is high enough), but that is why the Verse invented the lat pull-down.
To be fair, the biceps curl is primarily a shaping exercise, but I have found it invaluable in building sufficient arm strength to do many of the other exercises that, as you point out, do so much more. However, there are very few hard and fast rules to this and we each must accommodate our needs and capacities. Despite what many seem to think, it is not a competition (unless you make it so) and your routine should always be tailored to your requirements and proclivities.