Small question,
from my understanding the incline curl hits the long head of the bicep because your arms are hanging behind your body stretching it out, and I’ve also read that a hammer grip also emphasizes the long head somewhat, so would it be better to use a hammer grip on incline curls?
Obviously I’m going to try it out, but if anyone has used that movement for a while chime in. Also if I have something backwards let me know.
I would say yes and no.
I feel like starting the movement hammer style or neutral and supinating the hand as the dumbell comes up gives the best contraction in the upper arm.
But I also crank out a few extra reps hammer style when my grip is starting to fail. So on my last set, for example, I may do 6 reps regular and 2 reps with a hammer grip.
[quote]BONEZ217 wrote:
I would say yes and no.
I feel like starting the movement hammer style or neutral and supinating the hand as the dumbell comes up gives the best contraction in the upper arm.
But I also crank out a few extra reps hammer style when my grip is starting to fail. So on my last set, for example, I may do 6 reps regular and 2 reps with a hammer grip. [/quote]
That’s probably a good plan, when I start failing on the last set I’ll probably use the hammer grip to pound out a few partials.
I’ll see how everything feels the first time though, I haven’t done this movement in a long time.
Thanks
Anytime you curl with a semi-pronated grip (Hammer Style…cue MC Hammer…) you’re going to be hitting the brachioradialas quite a bit. It is an extremely strong elbow flexor at this point, hence why you should be able to curl up much more weight vs if you were completely supinated.
So, if you strictly want to target the biceps I’d say go with a completely supinated grip then as BONES mentions, once you hit failure change the grip to get more reps. You could also immediately stand up as this change will also allow you to further fatigue the bicep. Combining all 4 would allow for quite the bicep demolition: Incline Supine, Incline Hammer, Standing Supine, Standing Hammer little to no rest.
Alan
If you start in a hammer grip and supinate the wrist as you curl up, then try grabbing the dumbbells so that your thumb touches the innermost plate on it’s side of the bell.
With that off-set grip, you will have some actual resistance when supinating the wrist… And your bis are the supinators, so you train another of their functions.
Gripping the bell in the middle will not provide that kind of resistance, but it makes it easier to progress at first.
Also, on the negative, keep your wrist supinated until you’re close to the bottom position and only reverse it then… Else the brachioradialis does most of the work at the bottom on both the positive and negative… Avoiding that allows some more eccentric loading of the bis.
Thanks Bantam and C_C
I’ve actually read that ‘pinky twist’ tip on another board, seems like a good fit for this lift. (I’m not sure if it was called that or if that was some joke) Hopefully the db’s don’t hit my legs on the way up 
You can keep your elbows in and rotate your arms externally a bit so the bells won’t bump into your legs, or just move your elbows out some. Both can be a little odd on the shoulders though… Don’t overdo it, and keep your shoulders and shoulder blades in a good position (don’t round your shoulders).
[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
You can keep your elbows in and rotate your arms externally a bit so the bells won’t bump into your legs, or just move your elbows out some. Both can be a little odd on the shoulders though… Don’t overdo it, and keep your shoulders and shoulder blades in a good position (don’t round your shoulders).
[/quote]
Yeah that’ll be the plan, though I won’t be using huge db’s since I like to stay around the 12-15 range with curls and fairly slow negs so my shoulders should be okay. I’ll make adjustments as I go though, like I said I haven’t touched this movement in a while so there will be a bit a farting around with setup my first run through it.
Thanks