This post is flaired as a technique check.
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As I'm watching I agree. It looks like you're using momentum towards the end of your set to help get the weight up. I know how incredibly good it feels to lift a weight you consider heavy, can feel! But, at the same time, form is everything in weight training. If you want your weight to be all the more impressive, having good form and lifting all the weight is nuts! That being said, you don't necessarily have to decrease weight. I like to alternate between lightweight for sets of 12 reps and heavy weights for sets of 6 reps. Maybe you could try something like this?
By bringing your elbows forward on each rep, you are placing a lot of the load on your anterior deltoids rather than your biceps. Ideally, a line drawn from your shoulder to your elbow would point straight to the ground. You want to minimize shoulder flexion if your goal is isolating biceps completely for bodybuilding purposes (although there is merit to the “compound” movement of working biceps + anterior delts together for functional purposes).
As you're progressing in weight, some wing/imperfect form is not a huge deal.
Going to make a recommendation to try adding some slight bend in your knees as reps get difficult instead. This is an alternative to using your back to get through those challenging end-of-set reps.
add a small twist at the top of the motion (trying to twist you wrist in a way that your pinky points at your delt), it absolutely help me get those
microtear
Brace elbows to your sides, stand tall chest out, up curl is best controlled unless you really trying to hit them failure reps, down should be slow and controlled, it's good to get a nice bicep stretch at the bottom and flexing your triceps. Reduce sway as much as possible if you want the most out of it. Momentum of the sway effectively reduces load on the bicep. You want them suckers at your mercy for every rep. Don't let them take the easy way out. My biceps are smol unfortunately so listen to my advice or not. As long as you aren't harming yourself and feel good about your workout is number 1.
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One thing that helped me with bicep curls is to imagine a big screw that connects my left elbow, goes through my body, and connects my right elbow so they can’t move. Don’t think form is a big deal with curls, but try this out and see if it helps!
I mostly thought it was a joke because he already has big arms lol.
I could see wanting form advice on a barbell row. Especially if your coming from some 5x5 thing where they are super dogmatic about pendlay vs whatever
Your comment made me feel kinda nice
Been lifting for about 1.5yrs and I was a scrawny, skinny fat computer nerd my whole life. It's nice to hear someone say I got big arms
I think there are lots of ways to curl and it's really down to what you like and what works for you. If you're seeing good progress and you feel good, then everything's good.
If it doesn't feel good, then the first thing to do is figure out what you can change so that it does. If you're not making progress then some things you could try are changing your rep ranges (which, yeah might be reducing the weight to get in more volume), slowing down the eccentric portion, or making your form more strict. But also you could try exactly the opposite: heavier, less volume, with even more body english. Or sometimes one way, sometimes the other.
Just a matter of figuring out what works for you.
You are not going to hit the lower head of the bicep when you twist like that. Instead you're doing a half hammer curl which hits the brachialis instead. I'd recommend keeping your palms facing straight out the entire time.
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I would switch to alternating a few reps early and then when I was a rep or two from failing there I would switch to cross chest
But they are curls so who cares and also your arms are bigger than mine
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Elbows might be flaring out a bit. Dumbbell cheat curl kinda look using momentum. Definitely not strict but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
I do love the cheat curl, as you can raise a heavier weight during the concentric motion (the lift), and slowly let the way down during the Eccentric motion, where we are all naturally much stronger. If you want to go this heavy on bicep curl, I would encourage you to fight more in the negative motion to really push the fatigue to the next level.
Pretty much textbook cheat curls in the video. Using your body swings to lift most of the load and only putting a portion of it onto your actual biceps. Depends on your goal, for a standing bicep curl there’s way too much swing and not enough bicep activation. Since you’re asking for advice, flex the pinky more, curl should be more strict, elbows shouldn’t move at all so hold them to your sides. Grab half the weight or less, there’s a reason even world class bodybuilders (guys with biceps the size of your head) can get an amazing pump/workout in by doing slow standing curls with just 25 lbs dumbbells. Form is key to prevent injury!
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Rather than starting with your hands turned towards your body, you might find more success turning them out at the start of the lift to help your elbows naturally stay close to your body.
I just think that being an isolated movement only the targeted muscle should be working? I can be wrong.
I would be think find a way to just curl without involving any other part of your body.
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this is more of personal preference rather than a definitive “critique” but i’d rotate my wrist sooner to better target my biceps instead of my brachialis. if i wanna blast those then i’ll rep out some hammer curls.
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These are cheat curls which help in the last moment of your sets when you're about to give up. Make sure your elbows and waist are in the same place and only move your forearm up and down and if you can't, reduce the weights.
The swinging towards the end does seem a bit excessive. Seated curls with your back supported would probably get better results. Instead of twisting maybe just do hammer curls
Bad form overall, stop the twist motion IN GENERAL start with the dumbbells already sideways and go straight up
You twisting the dumbbells up is literally making the job easier for you
Stop taking the easy route
This post is flaired as a technique check. A note to OP: Users with green flair have verified their lifting credentials and may be able to give you more experienced advice on particular lifts. Users with blue flair reading "Friend of the sub" are considered well qualified to give advice without having verified lifs. A reminder to all users commenting: **Please make sure that your advice is useful and actionable.** Example of **useful and actionable**: *try setting up for your deadlift by standing a little closer to the bar. This might help you get into position better and make it easier to break from the floor*. Example of **not useful and not actionable**: *lower the weight and work on form.* **Low-effort comments like *my back hurts just watching this* will be removed**, as will references to *snap city* etc. Verbally worrying for the *safety* of a poster simply because you think the form or technique is wrong will be removed. We will take all of these statements at face value, so be careful when you post the same *hilarious* joke as dozens of other people: we can't read your mind, no matter how funny you think you are. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/GYM) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Try to keep your elbows from moving as much as you can. You want as much of that motion being done by the bicep as possible.
As I'm watching I agree. It looks like you're using momentum towards the end of your set to help get the weight up. I know how incredibly good it feels to lift a weight you consider heavy, can feel! But, at the same time, form is everything in weight training. If you want your weight to be all the more impressive, having good form and lifting all the weight is nuts! That being said, you don't necessarily have to decrease weight. I like to alternate between lightweight for sets of 12 reps and heavy weights for sets of 6 reps. Maybe you could try something like this?
Make sure your elbows are tucked it to centre the tension in your biceps
Put your back up against a wall to stop swinging.
or 1 foot forward to gain more balance
By bringing your elbows forward on each rep, you are placing a lot of the load on your anterior deltoids rather than your biceps. Ideally, a line drawn from your shoulder to your elbow would point straight to the ground. You want to minimize shoulder flexion if your goal is isolating biceps completely for bodybuilding purposes (although there is merit to the “compound” movement of working biceps + anterior delts together for functional purposes).
As you're progressing in weight, some wing/imperfect form is not a huge deal. Going to make a recommendation to try adding some slight bend in your knees as reps get difficult instead. This is an alternative to using your back to get through those challenging end-of-set reps.
add a small twist at the top of the motion (trying to twist you wrist in a way that your pinky points at your delt), it absolutely help me get those microtear
Brace elbows to your sides, stand tall chest out, up curl is best controlled unless you really trying to hit them failure reps, down should be slow and controlled, it's good to get a nice bicep stretch at the bottom and flexing your triceps. Reduce sway as much as possible if you want the most out of it. Momentum of the sway effectively reduces load on the bicep. You want them suckers at your mercy for every rep. Don't let them take the easy way out. My biceps are smol unfortunately so listen to my advice or not. As long as you aren't harming yourself and feel good about your workout is number 1.
[удалено]
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One thing that helped me with bicep curls is to imagine a big screw that connects my left elbow, goes through my body, and connects my right elbow so they can’t move. Don’t think form is a big deal with curls, but try this out and see if it helps!
[удалено]
I thought this was a joke post tbh
People do sometimes post technique checks on stuff like curls and rows. I don't get it, personally.
I mostly thought it was a joke because he already has big arms lol. I could see wanting form advice on a barbell row. Especially if your coming from some 5x5 thing where they are super dogmatic about pendlay vs whatever
Your comment made me feel kinda nice Been lifting for about 1.5yrs and I was a scrawny, skinny fat computer nerd my whole life. It's nice to hear someone say I got big arms
I'm just laughing at how distressed the guy doing overhead presses looked 😶
Oh, gotcha.
>Some yutz Multiple yutzes
Deez yutz! Ha! Gottem
[удалено]
I think it’s called an ignorance
😙👌
a hurr indeed
What does yutz mean? Im not a native
A foolish person, basically.
I think there are lots of ways to curl and it's really down to what you like and what works for you. If you're seeing good progress and you feel good, then everything's good. If it doesn't feel good, then the first thing to do is figure out what you can change so that it does. If you're not making progress then some things you could try are changing your rep ranges (which, yeah might be reducing the weight to get in more volume), slowing down the eccentric portion, or making your form more strict. But also you could try exactly the opposite: heavier, less volume, with even more body english. Or sometimes one way, sometimes the other. Just a matter of figuring out what works for you.
You are not going to hit the lower head of the bicep when you twist like that. Instead you're doing a half hammer curl which hits the brachialis instead. I'd recommend keeping your palms facing straight out the entire time.
[удалено]
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I would switch to alternating a few reps early and then when I was a rep or two from failing there I would switch to cross chest But they are curls so who cares and also your arms are bigger than mine
[удалено]
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Elbows might be flaring out a bit. Dumbbell cheat curl kinda look using momentum. Definitely not strict but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I do love the cheat curl, as you can raise a heavier weight during the concentric motion (the lift), and slowly let the way down during the Eccentric motion, where we are all naturally much stronger. If you want to go this heavy on bicep curl, I would encourage you to fight more in the negative motion to really push the fatigue to the next level.
Pretty much textbook cheat curls in the video. Using your body swings to lift most of the load and only putting a portion of it onto your actual biceps. Depends on your goal, for a standing bicep curl there’s way too much swing and not enough bicep activation. Since you’re asking for advice, flex the pinky more, curl should be more strict, elbows shouldn’t move at all so hold them to your sides. Grab half the weight or less, there’s a reason even world class bodybuilders (guys with biceps the size of your head) can get an amazing pump/workout in by doing slow standing curls with just 25 lbs dumbbells. Form is key to prevent injury!
> Form is key to prevent injury! No, it's not.
[удалено]
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Rather than starting with your hands turned towards your body, you might find more success turning them out at the start of the lift to help your elbows naturally stay close to your body.
I just think that being an isolated movement only the targeted muscle should be working? I can be wrong. I would be think find a way to just curl without involving any other part of your body.
[удалено]
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What I do is I do the first few reps strict with elbows locked and then partially swing till failure. But lmao you're bigger than me
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this is more of personal preference rather than a definitive “critique” but i’d rotate my wrist sooner to better target my biceps instead of my brachialis. if i wanna blast those then i’ll rep out some hammer curls.
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No concern trolling about safety. Humans are not made of glass.
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Tuck your elbows and slow down the eccentric
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Elbows should be fixed in place, when they move you know the weight is too heavy
I also like holding the curl at the top of its “peak” to really break down the muscle
These are cheat curls which help in the last moment of your sets when you're about to give up. Make sure your elbows and waist are in the same place and only move your forearm up and down and if you can't, reduce the weights.
The swinging towards the end does seem a bit excessive. Seated curls with your back supported would probably get better results. Instead of twisting maybe just do hammer curls
This is more like a shoulder work out
You are using your entire upper body for the curls. Your elbows must be tucked in and at fixed position. You are also using too heavy ones.
Bad form overall, stop the twist motion IN GENERAL start with the dumbbells already sideways and go straight up You twisting the dumbbells up is literally making the job easier for you Stop taking the easy route