The good old Bicep curl hey, nothing like working those guns!! So many images of a muscled bicep being curled in any mainstream fitness magazine surely means that a bicep curl is a quintessential movement in anyone’s workout right? Well no..I as a personal trainer wouldn’t tend to prescribe them…
The reason being that I generally work on emphasising functional movements. Bicep curls are not “functional”. What I mean by functional is, if it is natural, essential, and safe. But more than that, a functional movement moves large loads long distances in a short amount of time. Is the bicep curl natural? Sure it is. I bicep curl food to my mouth all the time.
Is it essential? Well duh… see above, hello Avocado!
Is it safe? Sure, why not.
Does it move large loads long distances in a short amount of time? Ehhh… there are more efficient ways to do that.
The bicep curl is a GREAT exercise. I will not dispute that. Especially if you are a body builder and your paycheck depends on your biceps being as enormous and defined as possible. But for the average human being, I can’t imagine you needing to lift anything larger than 2kgs to your mouth to feed yourself. The only other reason I could see you needing to strengthen your biceps would be to hold a baby. But for parents, the nice thing is that the weight starts off nice and light and grows at a steady progression. No accessory work required.
Most of my clients come to see me for weight loss, The bicep curl done correctly is an isolation exercise. Generally for weight loss we favour movements that recruit entire systems of muscles vs isolating one area, these are called compound exercises which means working lots of muscles together at once, think of it as getting maximum bang for your buck, one exercise using many muscles…. economical win I say!
I could go on and on, but I bet you still want to know how to build your guns right? Well there are lots of ways which include a whole host of pulling exercises including pull ups, chin ups, muscle ups. If you ever did want to do bicep curls, I imagine you could do a decent amount of weight, but there’s a whole lot more value in working your muscles in groups than in a single muscle solitary. I’m fairly confident that your goal isn’t to have the biggest biceps around, but to be fit, in general.
If you want to chat about how Char or I could help you with your guns, get in touch!
