How to Do the Cable Biceps Curl With Perfect Form | Men’s Health Muscle - video Dailymotion

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Proper Cable Biceps Curl Form | Men’s Health Muscle

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00:00 There is a problem with your standard biceps curl workout.

00:02 Sure, you think you're covering all your bases

00:04 when you're doing your dumbbell curls,

00:06 your hammer curls, your spider curls,

00:08 but none of those moves is really challenging your biceps

00:11 over a full, complete range of motion.

00:13 Because of that, that means you're leaving

00:15 some biceps growth and gains on the table,

00:18 but that's where we add an exercise to our arsenal.

00:21 We're gonna introduce something

00:22 called the cable biceps curl.

00:23 With the cable biceps curl, we get to finally challenge

00:26 the lengthened position of our biceps range of motion.

00:29 It is a great way to finish out any biceps workout,

00:33 and it's gonna ensure that you have hit

00:34 and fatigued your biceps completely.

00:36 That is the ticket to arm gains.

00:38 Let's get into it.

00:40 So what is the actual benefit of the cable biceps curl?

00:43 Well, it is filling in a critical blank

00:45 that is missing from all the other curls you're doing.

00:47 When we're doing our standard dumbbell curls,

00:49 easy bar curls, barbell curls, no matter what you're doing,

00:52 when your arms are straight at the very bottom of the curl,

00:55 there is zero tension on your biceps.

00:58 We can try different things to try to place tension

01:01 on our biceps in that position,

01:02 but it really just doesn't work effectively,

01:04 and that means we're never truly challenging

01:06 the lengthened position of our biceps range of motion.

01:10 Challenging that lengthened position

01:12 in a lot of our strength exercises

01:13 is gonna be a real key mechanic for growth.

01:16 So with the cable biceps curl,

01:18 all we're gonna do with that cable

01:19 is we're going to place our body in a position,

01:22 and we're gonna use the angle of tension

01:23 that the cable creates to place our biceps under tension

01:27 from the very start of the move.

01:29 The truth is, because we're doing that,

01:31 the very end of the move, we may not face as much tension,

01:34 but by combining the cable biceps curl with other moves

01:37 and learning the version of the cable biceps curl

01:39 that we're gonna teach you today,

01:41 you finally can really challenge your biceps

01:43 over its full range of motion

01:45 and really challenge that stretch position,

01:47 and working in that stretch position

01:49 is really gonna help your arms blow up.

01:51 So we've got Brett here in the cable rack,

01:53 and understand one thing about this cable biceps curl.

01:56 This is the better version

01:57 of what you're gonna see a lot of people do.

01:59 In general, they're gonna walk up,

02:00 they're just gonna grab a handle,

02:01 and they're gonna do a standard curl.

02:03 We're not getting anything out of the move there.

02:05 We wanna take advantage of the cable curl when we go to it.

02:08 So what Brett is going to do,

02:10 and you can do this two hands

02:12 if you have a slightly tighter cable machine.

02:14 With the cable machine like this,

02:15 we're gonna work off a single cable.

02:17 What Brett is going to do, and his whole goal here,

02:20 is to set up with the cable creating tension from the start.

02:24 So he's gonna grab the handle.

02:26 What he's gonna do,

02:27 he's gonna take a step and a half forward.

02:29 Essentially, he's gonna tighten up his abs and glutes

02:32 because we are doing a single arm version of this move.

02:34 And then what we wanna do,

02:36 and what we're looking for at the start of this curl,

02:38 we wanna use the cable resistance

02:41 to instantly create tension.

02:43 So Brett wants a little bit of an angle.

02:44 He doesn't necessarily want his arms completely straight.

02:48 That way the cable can pull back on him.

02:50 I don't really necessarily care about your torso lean

02:53 relative to the ground.

02:55 I just want you to be in a comfortable position,

02:57 and what you wanna watch for is for this upper arm angle

03:00 to have a little bit of angle with the cable.

03:03 That way the cable is starting to pull you backwards.

03:06 Once we're in this position,

03:07 Brett needs to do one more thing.

03:09 He needs to try to get his hips and shoulders square.

03:12 I don't want him twisting either way.

03:16 I want his abs nice and tight.

03:17 He's gonna tighten up his glutes,

03:19 and now he's in his starting position.

03:21 From here, the move becomes very simple,

03:24 moving only at the elbow,

03:25 and it's critical to move only at the elbow

03:27 when you're doing this cable biceps curl.

03:29 He's going to curl the way up,

03:31 try to get a good squeeze on his biceps.

03:34 What you'll notice instantly,

03:36 at the very bottom, he's got a lot of challenge

03:39 for his biceps.

03:39 He's facing resistance.

03:42 Once he gets to the top of the curl,

03:43 don't feel like you have to really go through

03:46 a complete range of motion,

03:47 because at the end of the curl,

03:48 let's get to the top of the curl, Brett.

03:50 At the end of the curl,

03:51 the orientation of the cable resistance and his forearm

03:55 is not gonna create a whole ton of challenge,

03:57 so he can hold this all day.

03:59 We won't make him do that,

04:01 but there's not a lot of challenge for his biceps.

04:03 So don't feel like you need to linger

04:05 in that good squeeze position.

04:07 The thing we're attacking here with this cable curl

04:10 is this bottom position is that first 25 to 30%

04:14 of the motion.

04:15 That's where we're getting a lot of extra benefit.

04:17 The other thing Brett doesn't wanna do

04:19 on this cable curl is he doesn't want to over-exaggerate

04:23 the stretch on his shoulder.

04:25 So don't feel this need to get your upper arm

04:28 way behind your torso as you're doing this.

04:31 All that's doing is placing your shoulder

04:33 in a compromised position.

04:35 So you just need a little bit of tension.

04:37 Think about trying to keep your upper arm

04:40 essentially in line with your torso,

04:42 ever so slightly behind it,

04:43 and then get a little bit of squeeze

04:45 on your shoulder blade.

04:46 That way you've got some stability there.

04:48 That way we can go through the curl.

04:50 Let's give them a couple of reps here.

04:52 And what Brett is feeling there at the bottom of the motion

04:58 is that tension.

04:59 You will never feel that in any of the other curls

05:02 you're doing.

05:03 So now you have a curl that's gonna finally help you

05:05 create tension in that stretch position,

05:07 but that doesn't mean we're gonna get rid

05:10 of our other biceps training weapons.

05:11 You're still gonna wanna do your standard dumbbell curls,

05:14 your hammer curls, your preacher curls, your spider curls.

05:16 Get all of those in,

05:18 but you wanna finish off your workouts

05:20 with a move like this cable biceps curl.

05:23 We're gonna essentially attack load

05:25 with our first couple moves in any biceps workout,

05:27 and then we can finish off

05:28 by really attacking that lengthened position

05:31 so that we've really challenged our biceps

05:32 over the full range of motion.

05:34 This is not a move that you need to do for low reps.

05:37 Like any cable move,

05:38 we wanna keep it a little bit higher.

05:40 So think about doing three to four sets of 12 to 15 reps,

05:43 or if you wanna get a little bit more bold

05:45 and challenge your biceps a little bit more,

05:47 one way I like to use this is I'll do, say,

05:49 a set of dumbbell curls at 10 to 12 reps,

05:52 going a little bit heavier,

05:53 and then I'll finish off by challenging

05:55 that lengthened position

05:56 with some of these lighter weight cable curls.

05:59 That super set will really fatigue your biceps.

06:01 Either way, this is another move

06:03 and a great move to have in your biceps arsenal.

06:05 You're finally gonna train your biceps

06:07 over a complete range of motion.

06:09 You will thank us when you see the gains on your arms.

06:11 (upbeat music)

06:14 (upbeat music)

How to Do the Cable Biceps Curl With Perfect Form | Men’s Health Muscle

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