Single-Arm Dumbbell Scott Curl

Scott Curl

Target: Short head of the biceps.
In Your Routine: Place this move at the beginning or middle of your day when your muscles are still fresh.
Sets & Reps: Do 3–4 sets of 8–12 reps

While we don’t know a single lifter who doesn’t want to build up his peak (long head), know that every peak has a foundation. And in terms of your biceps peak, that foundation is the short (inner) head, which is best hit with preacher curls in which your arm is in front of your torso. But here’s where you’ll take the preacher curl to the next level: When you flip around the angled arm portion of the bench, you’re forced to place your triceps flush against a vertical surface so that the arm is perpendicular to the ground. That position elevates your arm in front of you to an even greater degree than during the standard preacher curl, and because you’re curling from further down, the degree of difficulty increases. Muscular tension on the long head is diminished even more, placing the onus squarely on the target head!

The Scott curl, named after former ’60s bodybuilding champion Larry Scott, increases the biceps time under tension most especially at the point of peak contraction since there’s no chance to rest or relax at the top. Because you’re using one arm at a time, it’s possible to use your free hand to self-spot to complete additional reps past initial muscle failure.

Do It Right

START: Sit or stand reversed against a preacher bench set to a fairly low position (some gyms have preacher benches with no vertical pad, in which case you can possibly use the backside of an incline bench) so that your underarm sits securely atop the bench. Allow your arm to hang toward the floor while holding a dumbbell with a palm-up grip.

MOVEMENT: Without swinging, curl the dumbbell as high as possible straight up toward your shoulder. Squeeze the biceps at the top for a count, and then slowly lower to the start, coming to a full stop before going into the next rep.

REPS TIP: If your gym’s preacher bench doesn’t have a vertical pad to place your triceps flush against (as shown), be extra diligent with your form. No pad means you’ll alleviate elbow joint discomfort, but it also means you need to be careful not to use momentum. Allow the dumbbell to steady for a brief second before starting each rep.

Seated Barbell Curl

Target: Both short and long heads; emphasis on strongest portion of the range of motion.
In Your Routine: Place this move at the beginning of your workout when your muscles are freshest.
Sets & Reps: Do 3–4 sets of 6–10 reps.

During a standard barbell curl, you seldom exhaust the muscle fibers over the upper portion of the curl simply because you typically fail at the point at which you can’t move the bar past the parallel point. We’re sure you’ve been there. But the point of failure indicates your weakest area of the range of motion; in fact, you’re strongest over the top half of the curl. But most likely you’ve never fully challenged that portion.

The reason you fail during the lower portion of the curl is because that section of the curl is governed predominantly by the brachioradialis, not the stronger biceps brachii. With the seated curl, the stronger brachii are better isolated so that you’re able to train them to fatigue.

Do It Right

START: Sit backward on a decline bench, with your feet facing where a spotter would normally stand if you were doing a decline bench press. Sit up straight, chest up and shoulders back, directly in front of the bar. Grasp the bar at shoulder width and unrack it (if using a decline-bench station), lowering it to your lap.

MOVEMENT: Take a deep breath and curl the weight toward your shoulders, keeping your elbows back. Squeeze and slowly lower the bar to your lap (don’t allow it to touch) and repeat.

REPS TIP: Once you reach muscle failure, you don’t have to terminate the set. Carefully stand up and continue doing curls until you reach failure from a full-range perspective (remember, you won’t be fatigued yet through the lower portion and you’ll have the benefit of a slight bit of momentum because you’re standing). When you can no longer raise the bar a few inches from your quads, you’ve fully exhausted the muscle through the entire range of motion

1. Single-Arm Incline Cable Curl

Target: Long head of the biceps (peak).

Single Arm Incline

In Your Routine: Use this move near the end of your routine to flush and pump the muscle.
Sets & Reps: Do 3–4 sets of 12–15 reps.

The highest peak of the biceps is what everyone reaches for, but few guys know that you have to actually reach back for it. That’s because the peak is the biceps long head, and to put that particular muscle under the most tension you have to draw your arm behind your body. There’s probably no better move to accomplish that than the dumbbell curl on an incline bench.

The cable version of the incline curl is a double whammy because the cable places a pull on that muscle immediately and throughout the range of motion. Typically during incline dumbbell curls, the bi’s are able to rest a little at the top of the motion, but with the incline cable version, since the line of pull comes from an angle, even to keep your arm in that same top position requires greater work, so there’s no resting whatsoever.

Do It Right

START: Place an incline bench facing away from a low pulley with a D-handle attached. Set the bench at between 45 and 60 degrees. Grasp the handle and sit back squarely against the bench, allowing your arm(s) to be pulled behind you.

MOVEMENT: Keeping your elbow(s) fixed in place and your upper arm perpendicular to the floor (throughout the move), curl the handle forward. Squeeze your biceps hard, and then slowly return to the start position.

REPS TIP: Be sure to do a little trial and error with the bench position. Too close to the stack and you won’t have enough tension on the biceps, but too far and you’ll feel it too much in your shoulders as the angle of pull becomes more severe. Also, go ahead and complete all of your sets for each arm before switching, which will save time on bench adjustments.

Long … or Short

As mentioned, how the nerve signals are transmitted to each of the biceps heads is what characterizes a move that emphasizes either the long or the short head — or both.
• For example, with your elbows behind the plane of your back (as in the incline bench dumbbell curl), the long head gets a better stretch (meaning it’s therefore capable of contracting more strongly).
• With your elbows in front of your torso (like your favorite go-to preacher curls), the long head isn’t stretched, so the short head picks up the bulk of the work.
With those concepts in mind, let’s take your biceps training to a new and uncharted level. We’re not only going to give you the kind of variety that’s sure to spark change, but we’ll also introduce you to some of the best moves — period — that you can do for biceps.

Biceps Brachii Muscle

When your arms plateau (and they will), it’s time to amp up your training with these 5 unique variations of moves you’ve probably never done before.

Everybody makes gains when they first start training arms, but eventually growth comes to a grinding halt. So, you respond by attacking your biceps with an array of muscle-building techniques and schemes. But even those approaches reap diminished gains after a while and you’re confronted with choices, most notably these polar opposites:

Choice 1: Continue doing what you’ve done, in which case you shouldn’t expect demonstrably different results.

Choice 2: Consider an altogether different solution in which your focus is on exercise selection, an approach that can stimulate the muscle fibers in significantly different ways.

One reason the latter approach can be your best option is that the biceps, unlike all the other major muscle groups, don’t have an arsenal of compound (multi-joint) moves available to them. In compound moves, more than a single pair of joints are at work, which allows you to use the heaviest weights. Hence, to encourage lasting biceps growth, it becomes even more critical to keep mixing up your training.

For starters, let’s examine a typical biceps workout. It would generally consist of: 1) a barbell curl; 2) an alternating dumbbell curl of some kind; and 3) a finishing exercise, like a preacher bench move.

If this approach sounds familiar or you need to jump-start your biceps workout, then a good dose of variety, especially with various angles, is absolutely in order.

We mention the idea of angles with regards to biceps training because a change in elbow position in relation to your torso allows you to emphasize either the long or short head of the upper arm (remember, biceps equals two heads). The basic goal never changes: Innervating as many of those muscle fibers as possible, either individually or together, to maximize gains in strength and size. The best way to accomplish that feat is to put your arms in different positions relative to your torso. Here we’ll cover five fairly unique variations that you can easily insert into your arm workout to keep those muscle gains coming.

Bodybuilding is the use of progressive resistance exercise to control and develop one's muscles. An individual who engages in this activity is referred to as a bodybuilder. In competitive amateur and professional bodybuilding, bodybuilders appear in lineups doing specified poses, and later perform individual posing routines, for a panel of judges who rank competitors based on criteria such as symmetry, muscularity, and conditioning. Bodybuilders prepare for competition through a combination of dehydration, fat loss, oils, and tanning  which make their muscular definition more distinct. The winner of the annual Mr. Olympia contest is generally recognized as the world's top professional male bodybuilder.

We start from Biceps Workout.

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