Is it Wrong When Free Weight Curls...
- Thread starter KangTsai
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paitingman
Brown Belt
Would you consider your biceps to be weak or needing some work?
Are your shoulders notably strong?
Are your shoulders notably strong?
OP
OP
KangTsai
2nd Black Belt
Other way around. My shoulders are the weakest part of my arms.
OP
OP
KangTsai
2nd Black Belt
You curl for bigger/stronger biceps.
Charlemagne
Black Belt
Check your technique. If you are standing, make sure that you are not bringing your arms forward at the shoulder, but rather keeping your upper arms near your sides and only flexing at the elbow. If you are on a preacher curl bench make sure you aren't cheating the lift by leaning back and throwing the weight up. Also, replacing the exercise from time to time can be a good thing as well, as noted above.
Yes.
If you're doing them right, curls should be concentrated on the bicep unless you have a major lack of strength elsewhere. You're elbows should essentially be acting like hinges, the upper arm staying as stationary as possible while you raise and lower the weight. Here's a decent write up and video at BodyBuilding.com.
If you're feeling stress in your shoulders, I'd guess the weight is probably too heavy, and you're compensating by kind of rolling the shoulders or shrugging to initiate the movement. Another common error I see on standing curls is what I sometimes jokingly call "ankle curls" where the lifter initiates with a sway in the ankles or upper body... Some of them are so bad that I think they're doing a hamstring exercise more than one for the arms!
Question though... Why are you doing curls? Do they fit with your goal -- or do you only think they do? Note -- I haven't said they're bad, just that you want to make sure that the exercises you do with weights are consistent with your goals.
If this is your goal then you may be at high risk for some muscle imbalance issues. I say this because most people who only work out one muscle group will forget to work out other important muscle groups related to the muscle group they are making bigger. For example, when you are doing standing curls, it's not just the biceps that you are working out.
"Curls primarily train the small (but mostly useless) biceps muscle, and doing too many too often can lead to bad posture and shoulder or elbow injury. "Curls pull your shoulders forward and bend your elbow out," says celebrity trainer Harley Pasternak, whose clients include Robert Downey Jr. and LL Cool J. "If your biceps are stronger than your triceps – which is the larger, stronger, and more important muscle – it will make your arms look shorter and your pecs droopy, and give you gorilla posture." Source
Making your Biceps bigger is not the same as making them stronger. A lot of time strength has more to do with functional strength vs, just bigger muscles. From the view point of strength you can make you muscles only strong for one type of movement or you can make your muscles functionally strong. These are things you'll need to keep in mind because if you just make your bicep muscle bigger without consideration of how your body functions and how the muscles pull your structure then you'll end up with some muscle imbalances that will affect your martial arts and motion in general.
Shoulders (deltoids) are a secondary muscle group in some bicep curls (there are several exercises/variations we could call "bicep curl"). So, if your shoulders are demonstrably weak compared to your biceps, you may feel it as much or more in that group. That said, it may also be a problem with form. Ask someone with good knowledge (preferably a personal trainer) to look at the form to make sure you're not putting undue stress on the shoulder. If you aren't, then it's just an imbalance, and should correct itself in time.
I have a similar issue with push-ups. My shoulders usually feel it before my chest or triceps. I've had a couple of injuries that kept my shoulders less-active, so I've lost some muscle mass there. Until I rebuild it, I'll continue to feel more in those support muscles than is normal for that exercise.
Flatfish
Black Belt
Everybody trains for different reasons. If you want to do curls to grow your biceps for aesthetic reasons, then maybe try to get someone experienced to show you proper technique. Related to what JowGa was saying above, there are plenty of exercises that will train your biceps and other parts of your body in a way that would increase overall strength in maybe a more meaningful way. Think about pull ups for example. Works your back and arms and even your core. Change up grips every once in a while and you'll work the muscles slightly differently. But I realize it's a personal thing.
wingchun100
Senior Master
I would say do some front/side raises and overhead presses to get your shoulders stronger.
drop bear
Sr. Grandmaster
That would be what, about 24 lbs? That doesn't seem so heavy - I do that much even now, after my injuries. Have I been doing these things wrong all along? (An actual possibility, so I ask.)
drop bear
Sr. Grandmaster
not sure. But we are comparing a grown man who has done akido for most of his life vs a fairly skinny kid.
In theory you should have arms like a brickies labourer.
I wish.
20lbs isn't heavy. But then I read drop bear's post below and was reminded that there's a lot of strength building exercises that are done in kung fu. I'm not sure what we do that works out our biceps muscles unless it's when we practice catching kicks and when we do conditioning for staff training (just using the weight of the staff to build muscles.) or it could be the 1.5 pound iron rings that I use doing forms. I guess that stuff is enough to build significant amount of strength.
One of the things that I often forget that I'm stronger than what I feel that I am in comparison to people who don't do martial arts. I literally have to remind myself to be careful not to hurt people because my forearms are hard, but I rarely think about my strength that way. I probably need to re-evaluate my strength so I can have understanding of where I actually stand in terms of strength.
I'll pass. I like the way neck back and neck function. I'll just have to make more than one trip. lol
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