Hey guys I thought this was the fitting subforums to post in, hope I'm not wrong! When watching one of Scott's early videos, in which he demonstrated the alternating bicep curl, he mentioned keeping the elbows in front of your body at all times. I then watched other videos on the same exercise, most prominently one by bodybuilding.com. In their video, they didn't mention the elbows, and the guy demonstrating didn't seem to have them in front of his body at any point (video was shot from the front, so I'm not 100% shure). In other videos from (I know, I know) essentially unreliable demonstrators, I saw elbows changing position during the curl. Now, I'm wondering if a) Scott's way is best, or b) If Scott's way isn't better than the others, what differences might I expect from performing alternating curls with my elbows in the different positions respectively?

 

Love the community btw!

 

Jo. Grimm

Hey guys I thought this was the fitting subforums to post in, hope I'm not wrong! When watching one of Scott's early videos, in which he demonstrated the alternating bicep curl, he mentioned keeping the elbows in front of your body at all times. I then watched other videos on the same exercise, most prominently one by bodybuilding.com. In their video, they didn't mention the elbows, and the guy demonstrating didn't seem to have them in front of his body at any point (video was shot from the front, so I'm not 100% shure). In other videos from (I know, I know) essentially unreliable demonstrators, I saw elbows changing position during the curl. Now, I'm wondering if a) Scott's way is best, or b) If Scott's way isn't better than the others, what differences might I expect from performing alternating curls with my elbows in the different positions respectively?

 

Love the community btw!

 

Jo. Grimm

Moving the elbows slightly forward changes the strength curve of the bicep. What I mean by this is that the bicep is stressed more at different points when doing a curl. The problem with the elbow in line with the hip is that you can lose tension when in full elbow extension (arms straight by your sides). If you put the slbow slightly infront of the hip you can maintain tension during full elbow extension but you begin to lose tension as you reach an elbow flexed position. Also with the elbow slightly infornt of the hip you are creating shoulder flexion which is another function of the long head of biceps.

I actually prefer to keep the elbow slightly infront of the hip as you are fully shortening the biceps this way which is more beneficial for growth.