Biceps with pull ups chin ups without curls

11 replies

• wildbackdunesman·Aug 25, 12:58 PM

  I'd emphasize narrow grip suppinated and using a thumb around the bar grip. Try to emphasize hinging at the elbows. This should be great for the biceps.

• malk25·Aug 25, 3:01 PM

  Compound movements alone will not build maximal size due to their reduced contribution to the movement. You need some isolation movements to accrue the necessary volume. Chin ups and neutral grip with a relatively close grip will still give decent stimulus though, especially if you really focus on the top portion of the movement where back contributions are reduced.

• mightygullible·Aug 30, 7:06 PM

  If they could why would people ever do accessory work?

• beardoffire·Aug 31, 1:01 PM

  If you have rings you can look up ring bicep curls. I find them a little difficult to be strict on and not cheat the pull with your lats but they do target the biceps really well if you do them right.

• crash_out_janny_2·Sep 3, 2:28 AM

  Chin-ups (done normally) are the best bicep exercise. Biceps are a biarticular muscle meaning it crosses two joints (shoulder and elbow) and both of these are trained with a normal chin-up. In contrast, the "strict" dumbbell curl only trains from the elbow pivot, leading to decreased work done and ironically more activity for the forearms than the bicep. This is why "cheat" curls are well observed to be better for biceps, because they involve shoulder flexion when heaving the weight up. Chin-ups also involve full wrist supination which maximally contracts the bicep which maximizes mechanical tension on the muscle compared to the partial supinations of certain dumbbell grips or ez-bar that are popularly done. Everyone that dismisses chin-ups for biceps tend to have terrible chin-ups. You can observe any athlete that specializes with forms of pull-ups (rings or parallel bar) and they all have great biceps, while *every* noodle arm in the gym is doing curls. The curl isn't some obscure e

• crash_out_janny_3·Sep 3, 2:54 AM

  Appealing to popularity doesn't really work when you can go to any gym in the world and see people with noodle arms grinding out endless sets of curls. It's the first lift people do and yet it doesn't seem to work that well judging by the mass population. Just because you think compounds don't do anything doesn't mean that's the case.

• zuljo·Sep 3, 2:58 AM

  Would this apply for a neutral grip chin as well? I have trouble with supinated grip because of golfer's elbow flare ups.

• late_lunch_1088_2·Sep 3, 3:18 AM

  Dumbbells curls. Pull-ups will not build maximal bicep size. The back can’t be minimized on pull-ups. Or chins ups. Try pronated or supinated curling a db half your bw. It won’t work unless you are ferociously strong. Screwing around with bouncing lookoffs and such is too fatiguing. Just do the curls for your stated purpose. There’s a reason bodybuilders don’t use pull-ups for bicep hypertrophy.

• rare_training_9477·Sep 3, 7:35 PM

  The biceps are a weak shoulder *flexor*, how does that contribute to the shoulder extension seen in a chin-up? As you mentioned cheat curls are effective because they include shoulder flexion, the opposite of shoulder extension. You’re not working the secondary function of the biceps in a chin-up. Also your second point is silly because you can look at the training program of professional natural bodybuilders (I.e people who are pros at maximizing hypertrophy) and all of them do curls. Some do chin-ups, but it’s actually a fairly small amount if you spend some time in a proper bodybuilding gym and observe. Have you built actually big (17”+) biceps with just weighted chin-ups? Most people seem to plateau around 16” without isolation which may be good for the general population, but if you want to maximize size (as OP said), 16” is basically intermediate territory in natural bodybuilding.

• tombola345·Sep 3, 9:40 PM

  this is the answer

• wildbackdunesman_2·Sep 5, 2:00 PM

  Don't forget weighted chin ups - close grip.