Curl Bars

To train your biceps, you must bend your arm at a 90-degree angle. However, what you bend it with can make or break your development.

I've always had problems performing bicep curls with a straight barbell. Now, to me it feels as if the straight bar sends shooting pains up my forearms during the curl. I think this is because my wrists are forced to remain stiff. As a result this fatigues my forearms before my biceps have had enough.

I feel by using the straight barbell, I'm preventing myself from exhausting my biceps and giving them an adequate workout. I found after substituting a curl bar (or an easy curl bar, as they're also called) into my bicep exercises this forearm weakness didn't occur and I was able to work my biceps to their max.

During my research for this site (and because I spend a lot of time talking about working out with other gym rats I don't blame you for laughing) I found that many prefer a curl bar to a straight bar for the same reasons. However, adamant supporters of the straight barbell remain.

So should you do bicep curls with a straight or curl bar? Well as far as I'm concerned try the straight bar first and if you find it uncomfortable switch to the curl bar. Either way, you're getting the same bicep workout. I found an 11-pound standard easy curl bar online for $35 and a 25-pound Olympic curl bar for $75. Both were 47-inches in length. Just remember that if you buy an Olympic bar it will only fit Olympic plates and vise-versa with the standard bar.

Figure 01 Figure 02

When performing bicep curls with my easy curl bar I: Stand erect with my feet spaced shoulder-width apart and my knees lose. Grasp my curl bar in front with my arms straight, hands at my sides and palms facing forward (Figure 01). With elbows held stiffly at either side of my ribcage, I slowly curl the bar up toward my shoulders, concentrating on my biceps (Figure 02). Without moving those elbows, I flex my biceps at the top of the curl and lower the bar back to the starting position (Figure 01). As I mentioned, in order to isolate your biceps it's very important to keep your elbows fixed at your side throughout the exercise.

If your elbows flare out or if you have to move your body forward or backward to get the bar up, change to a lower weight. As with any weight lifting exercise, it's important to use proper form to isolate the proper muscle in this case the biceps. Since the biceps are a smaller muscle, you should start off light and increase the weight after you've nailed your form down.