Curls Are (Not Only) For the Girls

I’ve made it no secret that I favor large, multi-joint
exercises like pullups, squats and deadlifts. 
In fact, if all you ever did in the gym was deadlift and some Turkish
Get-ups, you’d be eating a whole, balanced diet.

However, blame it on the new year, how much I’ve learned the past few months, or even the size of my own
arms, but there’s one exercise I’ve recently added to my own workouts…

The
much maligned, and “nonfunctional,” bicep curl.

Before
you start telling me that I’m a hypocrite (I wrote in one of my first posts that they’re useless for many people), and that I should set my hair on fire
for even suggesting bicep curls to the general population, I want to say “I
know.”  Ok?  I know I’m a walking contradiction…but when
you think about it, isn’t everyone?

So
why exactly have I changed my mind on this “body builder” exercise?  Well, I hope you have a few minutes, because
I’m about to put on my nerd hat.

First,
biceps curls can play a part in injury reduction.  When people perform heavy deadlifts, think about all the
forces and actions going on to ensure that one’s arms don’t rip clean off of
their body.  While the body does a
tremendous job keeping it safe, one of the potential injuries for serious
deadlifters is a distended elbow (if you’re as squeamish as I, then yeah, it
really is as gross as it sounds).

If
you look at the biceps, one if its main functions is to flex the elbow and
provide stability as it inserts into the radial tuberosity (an important part
of the elbow).  If one were to distend or
sublux their elbow, what’s actually occurring is that the head of the radius is
pulled out from the anular ligament of the radius.  Yup, gross. 

Then,
if we move up from the elbow, we see that the other end of the biceps
runs up the shoulder through the joint capsule, to the superior lip of the
glenoid labrum.  The other shoulder attachment
of the biceps runs all the way up the arm to what’s called the coracoid
process, a fancy way to say that it’s also attached to your shoulder
blade.  Now, if you’re not bored with the
science talk, what we can take away is that the bicep contributes to both elbow
and shoulder stability.  A stronger bicep
would, in theory, help stabilize both the elbow and shoulder, allowing you to
take over the world.

Now,
if you’ll allow me to take off my nerd hat, we can also look at the other
important reason to incorporate some bicep curls – building massive pipes.  I’m a realist, and it’s tough to build some
serious “gym cred” if instead of having a set of pythons, you have a set of
Garter snakes coming out of your sleeves.  

How and when would I place biceps curls in a normal routine?  Contrary to what some bro-scientists would
say, I argue that the time and place for biceps curls is definitely not at the
beginning of the workout.  And unless you
can deadlift 300 pounds and do 3 chin ups with 100 pounds attached to your
body, time spent performing bicep curls would be better spent at getting
proficient at the aforementioned weights (for women, I’d move the markers to
deadlifting your own body weight, and performing 2 solid chin ups).  But, assuming you can perform the numbers I
mentioned above, I’d throw in 2-3 sets of 8-12 reps at the very end of a workout, beginning with a relatively light weight.

As for me?  I’ll be throwing in some bicep curls for the next few months…that is,
until I change my mind again.  Call me a hypocrite.  I don’t care.  

Just realize that the more you learn, the more you
realize you just don’t know.