This
is a GREAT exercise for working the brachialis muscles that
is limited only by the height of your ceiling! If your gym
has high ceilings, you should be all set! If it's got drop
ceilings, be careful - you may end up with ceiling tiles
on your head...
First,
you'll nee one Olympic barbell (start with just the bar
the first time you do these - you can add weight later).
Pick
up the bar and stand it up on end. In the pics, I'm using
a bar loaded with 25's on both ends (make sure your collars
are solid when you start adding weight on).
Grip
the barbell with both hands, just like you were gripping
a baseball bat (one right above the other). You should grip
at a point on the bar where your elbows are almost fully
extended. The bar will be only a few inches in front of
you.
Now,
using arm power, try to push the barbell end up into the
ceiling. If you don't have low ceilings, your range of motion
will be greater that what I'm able to manage in my gym.
When I do this exercise, I hit the ceiling before I get
full flexion of the elbows. But it's still a GREAT exercise
for the arms, believe me!
Hold
at the top for a second then lower the bar and rest it on
the ground again. I found I got best results by momentarily
releasing tension in the arms before the next rep, so setting
the bar end on the ground worked perfectly.
Repeat
this upward push/curl for as many reps as you can!
When
you start getting fatigued, you can easily adjust your range
of motion. Just grip higher up on the bar to start the exercise!
At the beginning of this rep, my elbows are bent 90 degrees
(with the bar resting on the floor).
So as
I push/curl the bar up, I hit that top range of motion I
was missing with the low ceiling before. But it makes a
great continuation of the set after full-range reps, too.
When
you've maxed out with that, we can even go one step further.
Squat down a bit then grip on the bar with your elbows at
90 degrees:
Now
stand up, using leg power to help get the movement started.
This hurts like a bugger at this point and you can really
toast your brachilias with this. Using your legs to spot
an arm exercise and make it MUCH tougher is a really powerful
way to train.
Give
this a try on your next workout and if anybody comes up
and tells you you're doing curls wrong, make them do 10
reps of it.
