There's no doubt the most famous muscle group of them all are the biceps.
Most people when they first walk into the gym seem to gravitate to dumbell bicep curls like a seagull on a chip.
When you ask someone to flex, chances are, it'll be the biceps they strike first.
So it begs the question - what is the best bicep exercise?
Everyone wants to know the best way to get big biceps and amazingly, there's been no real word....until now.
Just recently, the American Council on Exercise (The USA'S Workout Watchdog) commissioned exercise scientists at the University of Wisconsin to get to the bottom of it.
THE RESEARCH
The researchers first determined some popular bicep exercises to test, including the cable curl, the barbell curl, the concentration curl, chin up, EZ curl (wide and narrow grip), incline curl and the preacher curl.
Those taking part in the study were 16 volunteers (8 men and 8 women) between the ages of 18-24.
They were all given experience first to give the study credibility.
Once they had their experience and had determined their 1 REP MAX (1RM) - the games were ready to begin!
WHAT THEY DID
The first day of testing involved placing electrodes on the biceps brachii, anterior deltoids, and the brachioradialis to test muscle activity courtesy of a wireless electromyography (EMG) machine.
Here are these muscle below:
As I explained in a recent edition of the awesome FIT'N'FLEXED newsletter - which you can sign up to on the top right of this page - electromyography is commonly used in exercise science to measure the intensity of muscle contraction.
It's performed using an instrument called an electromyograph, to produce a record called an electromyogram - which detects the electrical potential generated by muscle cells.
When the cells are electrically or neurologically activated - a reading is given!
The researchers were obviously trying to find the best bicep exercises using this technique.
Subjects completed a maximum voluntary contraction for the biceps, performing an isometric one-arm cable curl.
They then assigned four of the biceps exercises above for the volunteers to do.
For the exercises that didn't involve body weight, the voluenteers performed their reps at 70 percent of their 1RM.
They rested for 2 minutes between exercises.
On day 2 the same thing was done - only this time they performed the other 4 exercises they didn't do the previous day.
AND THE BEST EXERCISE WAS FOUND TO BE......
The concentration curl!
This exercise was found to produce significantly higher muscle activation of the biceps in comparison to all the others, as seen in the graph below.
* Significantly different than concentration curl
As we've long accepted, the anterior deltiods and the brachioradialis can become recruited in bicep lifts too.
The researchers noted this in their study, revealing that the incline curl, concentration curl and chin up, all used significantly less of the anterior deltoids then the barbell curl.
The concentration curl in particular was found to activate the anterior deltiods significantly less than any of the other exercises.
Meanwhile, the incline curl and preacher curl resulted in a significantly lower muscle activation of the brachioradialis in comparison to the EZ curl (narrow grip).
It's obvious that when one performs a concentration curl, the biceps are isolated and the arm doesn't sway.
The quote John Porcari, one of the researchers:
“When you look at it, the concentration curl was significantly better than anything else. And I think the reason is that you’re really isolating the biceps muscle more so than in any of the other exercises...some of the other exercises called into play the anterior deltoid or the front of your shoulder more, and for a lot of those, it’s almost natural to just swing your whole arm or shoulder forward to stabilize before you lift.”
Another researcher, Scott Young, adds this:
“Motivation-wise, it always helps when you can see results...so when you look down and can see the muscle working it helps with your focus. Whether it’s subconscious encouragement or whatever, I think that helps.”
CONCLUSION
Scott Young sums it up pefectly:
“Definitely don’t skip the concentration curl if you want to get stronger biceps...but variety is the spice of life...you should mix it up..."
However, one thing is for sure, when it comes to training your biceps, make sure you throw come concentration curls in there!
"Stay Fit, Stay Flexed!"
REFERENCES
(1) Young S, Porcari JP, Camic C, Kovacs A, Foster C et al. ACE Study Reveals Best Biceps Exercises. Acefitness.org. July 2014.
Author
Dayne Hudson