Whats a bicep?
[quote]GhostNtheSystem wrote:
Is there any benefit from curls that one does not gain from pull ups/chin ups?[/quote]
it’s called extra volume for the biceps without the added fatiguing of other muscles associated with compound pulls. you also get a fuller range of motion. that’ll translate to extra growth <obviously to a point, i’m not talking about going to the point of dimishing returns>.
compound pulls only go far for biceps development. it’s not like compound pulls develop all of the muscles involved in those lifts equally. it’s not like the strength and size increases in all the muscles will be perfectly balanced between each other.
pretty soon , you will need to add direct biceps work to really get your biceps to grow their best.
it’s like, everyone always talks about how direct work for the triceps is great for increasing benching power. the same is true for direct biceps work for pulling power. give some extra work to the biceps, which gets them some extra growth, and pull some extra weight, for some extra lat size and power.
it’s like the circle of life.
hope that makes sense. keep doing various curls.
good luck.
[quote]GhostNtheSystem wrote:
Is there any benefit from curls that one does not gain from pull ups/chin ups?[/quote]
Sweet mother of pearl… I found this pic a few months ago and was waiting for the right moment to unleash it.
Ta-daaa!!
[quote]Professor X wrote:
What the hell is happening within bodybuilding?[/quote]
You have a bunch of lazy jackasses who can’t gain any size or strength, so they have chosen to take the term “bodybuilding” and immediately relate it to homo-erotic oiled up men.
You’re obviously only manly if you lift weights to gain size and strength but call it a different name, duh.
Or, you can completely ignore hard true-life evidence of what has worked for the past 30 years or so, and try to do something else that’s completely illogical that will produce no results, and then come to an internet forum and complain about said lack of results.
Either way, at least you’re not acting like a “bodybuilder”…
all i do is curls and bench. why would you work out something you cant see in the mirror?
This is stupid. I’m a competitive strongman and really wouldn’t consider myself much of a bodybuilder. I do, however, like the size I have gained over the years and like being relatively big for my height.
Anyway, I got caught up in the “no-need-to-curl” hype and hardly did any curls for 3 years. I’m regretting it big time now. For one my elbows constantly hurt. I’ve built up such an imbalance with my triceps that I always have pain in my elbows. Every heavy pressing movement sets my elbows on fire, especially the negative. It sucks.
Secondly, I like being big and I have very little bicep development. I’m not a bodybuilder, but I want size everywhere, including biceps.
Lastly, I’m such a weak curler now that it’s almost embarrassing. I hate struggling with sets of the 50’s. Someone that’s been lifting as long as me should be stronger than that.
Learn from my mistakes; don’t stop curling.
[quote]GhostNtheSystem wrote:
I want to quit curls. I’d like some suggested replacement exercises for the biceps.[/quote]
Inst
instead of the usually “I wanna get in a pissing match” answer, I am going to give you an option. The blowhards want to rally people to their line of thinking instead of offering answers.
If your goal is biceps development, eventually you are going to have to get back into curling. If you want to get away from curling for a while to try something else, because you’ve hit a plateau, you can do any other exercise that causes you to lift a resistance against elbow flexion. Various grip chins, hand position, bar thickness, load, rep range, rep tempo. Is there a reason why you want to get away from curls altogether?
What’s wrong with chin-ups for biceps? Unless you’ve got pretty big arms, you don’t necessarily need curls. When I started chinning I would focus on the elbow flexion without realizing it. My arms were completely out of proportion to the rest of my body, so my biceps took on a lot work.
The nature of chin-ups and push-ups as closed chain exercises is that you can theoretically focus entirely on elbow flexion/extension (from a purely mechanical standpoint).
By all means, do close-grip chin-ups and really focus on using your arms.
[quote]jp_dubya wrote:
GhostNtheSystem wrote:
I want to quit curls. I’d like some suggested replacement exercises for the biceps.
Inst
instead of the usually “I wanna get in a pissing match” answer, I am going to give you an option. The blowhards want to rally people to their line of thinking instead of offering answers.
[/quote]
Because no one gave him any answers in this thread?
You have been doing this a lot lately.
[quote]wfifer wrote:
What’s wrong with chin-ups for biceps? [/quote]
Chin ups are a back exercise. Sure, your biceps do some work but primarily they are for back development.
I’ve never really understood the whole concept that if you do chins then you don’t need to curl.
The stimulus is completely different and won’t necessarily transfer over into building large, strong biceps. To maximise growth in a muscle you need direct focus on that muscle.
Curling as a means of biceps development is highly overrated.
[quote]etaco wrote:
Curling as a means of biceps development is highly overrated. [/quote]
Winner!
You, sir, just made me giggle.
I have the same problem but its not with biceps, its with chest. I want to get a bigger chest, but I dont want to press anything. Is there an alternative way?
[quote]GhostNtheSystem wrote:
I want to quit curls. I’d like some suggested replacement exercises for the biceps.[/quote]
Squats and Milk!!!
if your goal is to gain size then you want big arms? what could curling hurt?
Sometimes one hits a plateau and would like alternative exercises. Luckily even if there is a shortage of alternative exercises, the cup overfloweth with smart-ass commentary.
[quote]onewall wrote:
Whats a bicep?[/quote]
It’s part of the Total Body, and should be trained with a total body exercise, like the squat.
Or perhaps on the Total Gym!
[quote]Gregatron wrote:
wfifer wrote:
What’s wrong with chin-ups for biceps?
Chin ups are a back exercise. Sure, your biceps do some work but primarily they are for back development.
I’ve never really understood the whole concept that if you do chins then you don’t need to curl.
The stimulus is completely different and won’t necessarily transfer over into building large, strong biceps. To maximise growth in a muscle you need direct focus on that muscle.
[/quote]
You just made Chad Waterbury cry.
Any pulling movement will obviously work the biceps BUT I see a problem down the road when using the chins/pull-ups to build the biceps.
When doing so, you will obviously focus more on your arms than on your back. And most peoples have a hard time peroperly contracting their back during a lifting exercise (I see a lot of “arm pullers” than hardly contract the back at all). So by reinforcing a faulty movement pattern for the sake of building arms, over time it will become harder and harder for your nervous system to properly active the back muscles.
If anything during “back exercises” I do try to minimize the involvment of the arm flexors. If all you care about is using big weights, then by all means use any lifting form you want. But if you want a complete physique you should make sure that the targeted muscle in a lift will be maximally worked.
Technically you could train using only:
- a squat movement
- a deadlift
- a bench pressing movement
- a pulling movement
And have good results as long as you train hard and focus on progress. However your development will not be balanced becaue during a compound lift the dominating muscle group will take over the bulk of the work, and the assisting muscles will receive less stress. As a result the overpowering muscles will be stimulated more and grow faster. This amplifies the imbalance problem because your strengths will increase faster than your weaknesses.
For example, I have overpowering delts. If all I did for chest were pressing movements, I would get no chest development at all because my shoulders get the bulk of the work. In fact, the time where my bench press was at its highest, was the time where I have basically no chest (I only did basic lifts).
I’m not saying that you need to perform tons of direct volume for your biceps. But if you are after a balanced level of development you should include some curling in your program (even if its only one exercise) and focus on your back when doing pulling movements.
[quote]GhostNtheSystem wrote:
I want to quit curls. I’d like some suggested replacement exercises for the biceps.[/quote]
Don’t do that; if everybody did it, all the “curl racks” would become useless and a waste of space 
This is my yearly joke, enjoy it.