Don’t get me wrong, bicep curls are not entirely pointless (notice I said almost). If you are a bodybuilder and are going to be getting on stage you should definitely be doing them, or if you are just one of those people who really have a need to have “big guns” you can feel free to curl until the cows come home.
But if you are just looking to have an athletic, strong body then bicep curls are way down near the bottom of the list of exercises you should be doing. I could easily name ten exercises you should be doing long before bothering with bicep curls. In fact, here they are:
Best Muscle Building Exercises
Deadlift
Squat
Bench Press
Pull-ups/chin-ups
Rows
Cleans
Snatches
Kettlebell Swings
Farmers walk
Lunges
Dips
Looks like I went with 11 exercises instead. If you are doing all 11 of those you will be well on your way to having a great body. In fact, if you just do the top 6 and get strong at all of them you will probably look like a badass. Between the pull-ups/chin-ups, rows and cleans your biceps will be getting more than enough work with those compound exercises. If you are strong in those exercises your arms will look good.
Good Examples
To the right, you see a picture of CrossFit Athlete Jason Khalipa. As you probably know crossfitters don’t do bicep curls, but they do pull-ups, rope climbs, muscle-ups, Olympic lifts, etc and his arms look pretty badass from that. I would say he also has some good genes but you still get the picture. Another good example would be Dimitry Klokov, he is an Olympic lifter who doesn’t curl either but his arms are freaking huge. Strong and muscular arms can certainly be made without curls.
Best Compound Exercises That Build Big Arms
Here are some of the top compound exercises for building bigger arms:
1. Pull-Ups and Chin-Ups: These exercises are classic arm builders, hitting the biceps and the back muscles. With pull-ups, you’re gripping the bar overhand, and with chin-ups, it’s underhand. Both movements require pulling your body weight upwards, which demands a lot from your biceps.
2. Bent-over Rows: This is another effective move for the biceps as well as the back. The trick is to keep your back straight while pulling a barbell or dumbbells towards your lower rib cage. The resistance encountered during this pulling motion engages your biceps heavily.
3. Push-Ups: While often overlooked, push-ups target your triceps and your chest muscles. The beauty of push-ups is the variety they offer; adjusting your hand position can shift the focus more onto your triceps.
4. Bench Press: This is mainly a chest and shoulder workout, but your triceps act as secondary muscles and get a solid workout too. You can perform this with a barbell or dumbbells, and each will have a slightly different impact on your triceps.
5. Overhead Press: Also known as military press, this compound exercise mainly targets the shoulders but also puts the triceps to work. Raising a barbell or dumbbells from shoulder height to above your head engages those triceps efficiently.
6. Dips: Dips are excellent for hitting the triceps, shoulders, and even the chest. The triceps have to work hard to push your body weight back up, which can result in significant muscle growth over time.
7. Close-Grip Bench Press: It’s similar to the regular bench press but uses a narrower grip that shifts more of the workload to your triceps.
8. Deadlifts: Though primarily a back and leg exercise, the grip strength required in deadlifts also engages your forearms and biceps, making it a good all-around exercise for arm development.
Remember, heavy weights and lower reps are generally better for building mass. Just make sure you’re also taking the time to recover, as that’s when your muscles repair and grow.
It’s a pretty common thing for most beginners to think bicep curls are an important exercise. Pictures of people curling are probably one of the most common types of fitness pictures there are. Newbies and even people who have lifted for a while believe that bicep curls should be a staple of weightlifting exercises. I can’t blame them really, I used to be the exact same way. I curled my ass off for years and years, but most people learn and change their methods as the years go by and I am no different. For me, I decided I wanted to cut back on the time I spent in the gym and get more bang for my buck with the exercises I was doing when I was there.
Also, I pretty much decided that biceps weren’t really a high priority for me anymore and that I could get enough bicep work in through other compound exercises I mentioned earlier (Chins, rows, cleans) and that my arms would still be muscular and a decent size.
Not bad for not curling
I haven’t done any curls of any kind for about a year now and I have no regrets. I probably should have stopped doing them sooner. The nice part is my arms still look the same to me as they did before. There is a picture of my arm today on the right in case you were wondering what it looks like from the lack of curls (you know you were). It’s not the hugest in the world but it’s no string bean either and still muscular enough for me.
I have been thinking of eliminating triceps exercises as well using the same line of thinking but haven’t done that completely just yet. I have however cut my triceps exercises back to just 3-4 sets twice a week.
Conclusion
If you are someone who is after big arms then feel free to curl your brains out, there is nothing wrong with them at all and if your goal is to have big biceps then curls are the way to go. But if you are someone who just wants a nice athletic body and having big arms isn’t really a priority you can skip the curls and still have arms that will look good.
My advice: If you need to skip a day, skip bicep day instead of leg day.
