Biceps / Triceps Bar
I honestly never knew what in the heck this bar was called. I got in the habit of referring to it as the W bar because to me it looks like a compressed W, or the biceps/triceps bar. Little did I know it was actually called the EZ-bar or the multi-purpose bar in some weightlifting circles because it can be used to target most of the major muscle groups including your biceps, triceps, lats and delts using the high/low pulley cable.
What I do know is that this bar is great for performing bicep curls and sometimes I use it to do triceps press-downs on a pulley machine. For the sake of confusion, I'll stick to bicep curls in this explanation. That's what makes this particular cable attachment so EZ (sorry couldn't resist) it's able to be grasped from one of two areas when you're performing bicep exercises. You have the choice of grasping it either from the outside of the bar or inside the bar.
Regardless, it doesn't really matter if you grasp the attachment from the inside or outside it's basically a matter of personal comfort. However, there are many theories on whether to use an overhand grip versus and underhand grip when doing bicep curls with this attachment. Personally, I've found that grasping the bar palms-up emphasizes the front of the biceps, while grasping the bar palms-down emphasizes the lower biceps. In addition, grasping the bar neutrally targets the forearms.
So I'll leave it up to you with this description of how to do bicep curls:
- Stand facing the cable stack.
- Attach the bar cable attachment to the low pulley cable hook.
- Standing close to the pulley, grasp the bar with an underhand grip.
- With elbows pressed to your sides, curl the pulley up towards your shoulders.
- Then lower the pulley until your arms are fully extended once again.
- Repeat.
