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15.04.2023

Curl with supinated grip most suitable for training biceps brachii

The variant of the curl that is most suitable for training your biceps is the one with an underhand supinated grip. This is evident from an EMG study published in Sports.

Study
Giuseppe Coratella, an exercise scientist from the Universita Degli Studi di Milano, had 10 competitive bodybuilders train their biceps on different occasions. On each occasion, Coratella varied the way the bodybuilders held their weights.

On one occasion the subjects curled with an underhand or supinated grip, another time with an overhand or pronated grip, and yet another time with a neutral grip.

Coretella had placed electrodes on the athletes' arms and delts so that he could see the extent to which the muscles below were being stimulated.

Results
For the biceps brachii, the underhand supinated grip proved to be most effective. During the ascending and concentric part of the movement, that variation stimulated the biceps 12-19 percent more than the other variations.

The brachioradialis was also best trained with the underhand supinated grip. At least, that's what the researchers write.

We ourselves, the unintelligent compilers of this free web magazine, do not understand exactly how that is possible. We always felt that bodybuilders with a normal skeletal structure best develop the brachioradialis through curls with an overhand grip. But who are we to have a different opinion than people at a university?

After all, the underhand supinated grip was best suited for disabling the shoulder muscles.

Source:
Sports (Basel). 2023 Mar 9;11(3):64.

More:
Multi-angular strength training gives biceps a more intensive growth stimulus 05.11.2019
Good and not so good exercises for your biceps 14.02.2015

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