Mens Health wants to school you on the proper way to do a biceps curl. Problem is, Mens Health doesn’t know how to properly do a biceps curl.
Things go all right in this video until this happens:
See how at the bottom of the movement this poor guy has completely straightened out his arm and thus completely disengaged his biceps from the movement? All wrong.
His biceps should remain flexed at every angle within the arc of the movement. At the “bottom” he should not be hyperextending as seen here, as it kills the movement dead in the water by disengaging the biceps. Re-engaging for the next rep could well lead to a tear or injury, especially to the elbow. He needs to keep a bend in the elbow at the bottom of the movement in order to maintain the stress, tension and flex to the biceps.
There is no rest within a set. A set of 10 reps (or however many you choose) is really just one long uninterrupted movement with no rest. His arm hanging like as seen here is a rest. No one tears down muscle fibers while resting. Worse, having a weight in his hand in this position adds to the possibility of injury once he reengages to perform the next rep.
The target muscle for this exercise is the biceps. Whatever the exercise, keep the target muscle engaged for the entire length of the set with no rest or disengagement so as to not only build optimum muscle, but avoid injury as well.
