Bigger Biceps Anyone?
When it comes to the guns most men and some women feel as though they need a bigger set. Just flip through any fitness magazine in America today and you would be hard pressed not to find something about building biceps. When I first started weight training that was my primary aim, well that and abs. Actually even with abs people can only see those when your shirt is off. So I can safely say that arms were my number one priority.
How did they test for bicep growth?
Led by John Porcari, PhD of University of Wisconsin.
A study was done doing the most common biceps exercises. They are the barbell curl, cable curl, EZ curl, incline curl, and the preacher curl.
A total of 16 male and female volunteers aged 18-24 were used for the study.
To get a baseline they all did a 1 rep max (the maximum force in one contraction of the arm) for each movement.
They then placed electrodes on the biceps brachii, anterior deltoid and brachioradialis to measure total muscle activity.
After that the subjects then did a maximum contraction using the one arm cable curl and 4 randomly assigned biceps exercises.
The lifts that didn't require body weight, the subjects used 70% of their 1 rep max of resistance.
The day after they repeated the exercises and completed each of the four remaining biceps exercises.
The Winner
According to the research the exercise with the most bang for the buck was the concentration curl. It had significantly higher muscle activation of the biceps.
Professor Porcari said "you're are really isolating the biceps muscle more than any of the other exercises"
Just to conclude this doesn't mean you go crazy and just do concentration curls until your arms fall off. However, if you are not doing them it might be a good idea to add them or if you are doing concentration curls to maybe focus on it more.
Bicep Muscle Activation Percentages
Concentration curl 90% +
Cable Curl 80%
Chin up < 80%
Barbell Curl < 80%
EZ Curl (wide grip < 80%
EZ Curl (Narrow grip) 70 %
Incline Curl 70 %
Preacher Curl < 70%