In many types of workouts and in all gyms it happens to meet weight equipment, loyal friends of athletes who aim to increase their muscle mass.
Specifically, it will be normal to find them in all types of workouts that use weight lifting to increase muscle work; then special equipment such as barbells or dumbbells. Dumbbell curls, an exercise for the development of biceps brachii, fall into this category.
Curl, essential exercise for the biceps
By curl we mean the exercise that involves flexion as the focal point of biceps training. In fact, the biceps curl, or biceps flexion, is a very common workout that aims to increase the muscle mass of the athlete’s forearm.
It is a workout that is carried out with the help of weights: the exercise consists of flexing the biceps in order to lift a barbell. There are different types, all with small variations that focus the effort on specific parts of the muscle or on certain muscle groups rather than others.
As we said above, weights are definitely a constant presence inside gyms.
The dumbbell curl is, undeniably, one of the most performed exercises within physical training spaces. It is in fact a very popular exercise among the most varied users of gyms: it is of interest to bodybuilders as well as to more amateur athletes, who simply aim at fitness.
There are three main variations of this specific exercise, the dumbbell curl, which are used to stimulate the biceps in a different way or even to stimulate it from different angles.
Classic dumbbell curl: basic exercise for the biceps
Let’s start with the classic dumbbell curl; the starting position sees the shoulder in a neutral position, which allows the arms to be extended along the torso. At this point you grab the handlebars, with a firm grip, and palms facing the trunk. The position of the rest of the body is also important: in fact, it will be necessary to keep the chest high and the shoulder blades slightly adducted.
At this point, elbow flexion of about 90° will be sought, with a consequent supination of the forearm. It is important to avoid leaps and compensations with the back and legs, which will come naturally to lighten the work but will simply shift the effort to other muscles, decreasing the tension on the biceps. It is important, therefore, at this stage that the elbows always remain in front of the trunk line.
The last phase of the movement is the one that sees the dumbbells returned to the initial position: the process must be controlled, extending the elbow so as to contract the triceps to allow maximum bicep stretching.
Within this classic training we therefore have three phases: the concentric one, or the initial one, which requires the athlete to lift the dumbbell; the eccentric one, in which the handlebar is returned to the starting position; and an intermediate phase between the two, lasting a couple of seconds, in which the arm stops in an isometric contraction in order to better perceive the affected muscle that is under tension.
Two variations for performing the curl: on the bench at 45° and 30°
The main difference between the dumbbell curl exercise and the 45° incline bench is that it has a different starting position. In fact, you will have a pre-stretch of the biceps. According to a scientific point of view, this variant is the best for stimulating the biceps brachii muscle in the most appropriate way.
This exercise takes place, in fact, sitting on a bench at 45° keeping the back resting and the arms perpendicular to the ground so as to have the shoulder extended. This position will create a stretching situation for the biceps. Dumbbells, on the other hand, are always in a neutral position, initially.
From this stretching starting position, thanks to the tension-length diagram, the biceps will not be able to use all the force, therefore, it will load less in favor of a more controlled movement, which will allow you to better perceive the muscle and perform more intense work.
In the variant of the dumbbell curl on a 30° bench press, we are in a prone position on the apparatus. This exercise, unlike the previous two, starts with the shoulder already flexed at 90°, so as to have the biceps in a pre-shortening position.
Initially, the athlete stands in a prone position on the bench, with the head protruding from the support. His arms are perpendicular to the ground and his elbows, in the contraction phase, must remain stable, in line with the shoulder without backing up.
From a scientific point of view, this is the variant that stimulates the biceps muscle the least, especially because, with right-angled flexion of the elbow, which involves maximum shortening, there will also be a drop in strength and the contraction will mainly benefit the brachial muscle.
How do biceps work with scott bench press curl ?
With the same concept as the previous exercise, on the bench press at 30°, we have the scott bench curl with dumbbells. However, it is a more stressful type of training for the elbow joint, precisely because of the characteristic of this variant and the movement required.
In fact, the Scott bench is a piece of equipment used in these push-up exercises and consists of an inclined plane on which only the arms rest and which must be held in front of the torso. This peculiarity makes it possible to isolate the trained part, i.e. the arms, from the rest of the body, not allowing leaps and compensatory movements.
In this case, it will be necessary to be careful not to excessively stress the elbow joint, which comes spontaneously as they are not free but, in fact, constrained by the cushion of the bench.
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