Incline dumbell curl pdf

The incline dumbbell curl is one of the most effective exercises for developing the long head of the bicep muscle. This is because by curling with your arms behind your body, you're biomechanically shifting the emphasis onto the outer muscle fibers of the biceps brachii—the long head—which is the only region of the biceps that crosses the shoulder joint.

This tutorial shows you how to do a bicep curl on an incline bench and then discusses the benefits of the movement as well as the alternatives and variations that are possible. Finally, we'll finish with an incline DB curl FAQ so that you can make the most of this intense bicep workout drill. Related : Biceps and back workout. The dumbbell incline curl has some distinct benefits that conventional bicep exercises simply don't provide. So here's what you can look forward to when you perform seated incline curls on a consistent basis.

Unlike the short inner head of the biceps, the long outer head crosses the shoulder joint and becomes more active when you curl with your arms behind your torso. This is significant because many lifters have comparatively worse long head development compared to that of their short head. Similarly, the long head is the part of the biceps that's responsible for creating the elusive bicep peak.

Therefore, by making the DB incline curl—the best exercise for bicep peak development—one of your primary movements, you'll also develop biceps that look fuller from every angle, especially when viewed in a flexed position from behind. You can also check out our incline curls vs preacher curls comparison if you want to learn how the incline curl stacks up to another popular arm exercise. Unlike other bicep dumbbell exercises , the seated incline dumbbell curl provides consistent muscle tension throughout the entire lifting motion that becomes progressively more challenging the higher you curl the weight.

This means that your biceps have to produce more force and thus work harder to lift the weights. In turn, this extra effort results in higher levels of mechanical tension, which is the primary driver of muscle hypertrophy. So the end result for you is better bicep development if you perform the incline bench curl on a regular basis alongside a healthy, high protein diet and a good recovery regime.

Many lifters have a tendency to swing the weights up during even the most basic bicep exercises in an attempt to lift larger dumbbells. Not only does this practice increase your injury risk, but it also doesn't result in any extra bicep stimulation.

After all, the extra resistance that you're able to lift by using the improper form is mainly getting distributed to the other muscles—back, legs, hips, shoulders, etc. But with incline curls, using the correct technique is much simpler.

Keeping your head and shoulders down really helps you isolate your biceps so you make faster progress. Finally you want to make sure you are training through a full range of motion. You want to straighten your arms out in the bottom position and curl as high as you can in the top position.

Using a full range of motion on incline curls is a great way to recruit more muscle fibers in the biceps. Charles Poliquin has a cool trick to make sure his athletes use a full range of motion: he tells them to contract their triceps in the bottom position as if they were doing a triceps pushdown!

Here is Charles teaching one of his athletes on how to do this:. By now you should be an expert on how to perform incline curls with perfect technique. Trust me, there are a lot! Note: if you have any trouble reading the routines presented here then check out this article on how to read a training program. Incline curls are one of the most versatile biceps exercises.

There are a huge number of incline curl variations that you can use to overload your biceps. In fact there are at least 24 different variations of incline curls that you can use in your own training programs. There are three main ways to mix things up on incline curls:. The easiest way to mix things up on incline curls is to change the angle of the incline bench. This is as easy as increasing or decreasing the angle of the bench just like you would for an incline dumbbell press.

Each of these different angles has their own advantages and disadvantages. As you already know incline curls are great for training the long head of the biceps. The long head is hit even harder as the angle of the bench decreases.

For example the 30 degree incline dumbbell curl tends to work the long head of the biceps harder than the 75 degree incline dumbbell curl.

This is just a fancy way of saying that each of these variations target a slightly different part of the biceps muscle. If you are new to incline curls then you may want to start off with 75 or 60 degree version of this exercise. These ones place less of a stretch on your shoulders and biceps. This can be a good thing if you are not very flexible!

After weeks on these easier incline curl variations you can progress to the more challenging 30 or 45 degree versions. However, you can also vary your grip for even more variety! There are four main grips that you should know about: the supinated grip, the supinating grip, the hammer grip and the offset grip. Supinated grip curls are really simple: you just curl the weight with an underhand or palms-facing-up grip. The supinated grip hits the biceps really hard and is a favourite of most bodybuilders.

Supinating grip curls are a little more complicated. You start the movement with a neutral or hammer grip and end the movement with a supinated or underhand grip. The supinating grip is also great for training the biceps. The biceps are the muscle that supinates your forearm or rotates it outwards. When you use a supinating grip your biceps have to work extra hard! The hammer grip is also pretty simple: you just grip the dumbbell as if it were a hammer.

The hammer grip works some of the other arm muscles really hard including the brachioradialis and the brachialis. It is also a decent choice for training the biceps. Finally there is the offset grip. This one is a little more complicated. You are going to use a supinated or underhand grip and press your little finger up against the inside of the dumbbell. The offset grip makes your biceps work harder than normal because they have to prevent the dumbbell from rotating too much in your hand.

You should use all 4 of these grips in your training because they overload your biceps in slightly different ways. Rotating through different grips also helps to prevent you from getting bored with your training! So far we have covered 4 different angles and 4 different grips for incline curls. I also want to teach you some great incline curl variations that you can perform without traditional dumbbells.

Dumbbells are great for building bigger, stronger biceps. Of course there are some other tools that you use on incline curls to overload your bicep. Here are 2 tools you should know about:. If you have never tried incline cable curls then you are missing out! You are still going to lay down on an adjustable incline bench. The big difference is you will be curling 2 handles attached to cables rather than dumbbells. For example:. This exercise feels completely different than incline dumbbell curls.

This is probably because incline cable curls overload a completely different part of the strength curve than incline dumbbell curls. However, you do get a huge biceps contraction at the top! As usual you can use a 30, 45, 60 or 75 degree incline bench to perform this exercise. You can always change the angle of the incline to hit different parts of your muscle but here are the instructions on how to do it the conventional way.

Studies have shown that the incline dumbbell curl activates the muscles in your bicep more than any other exercise and this is why.

While performing an incline dumbbell curl, your arms tend to move behind your body, which stretches the long head of the biceps. This muscle runs over the shoulder joint so the stretch goes all the way to your shoulder. When you stretch a muscle before contracting, your muscle is able to contract with more force taking on the majority of the load during an exercise.

Since the long head of the biceps makes up the mass of the biceps peak, the incline curl is an effective exercise for building the biceps peak.

We will compare the incline dumbbell curl with other famous curl exercises and see why an incline dumbbell curl is better than the other curl exercises. This is the most performed exercise for the bicep and rightfully so as it hits every part of the bicep, but there are some things that make the incline dumbbell curl superior to the basic curl.

The main factor is that the bicep curl allows you to torque your body and lets you cheat after a certain number of reps. I've been writing health and fitness blogs since February Happily, my articles have already helped so many people.

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