by Larry Scott,
When I was a young lad in Pocatello , Idaho when the last school bell rang, I hit the street running and didn’t stop until I got all the way across town and got my newspapers. I wanted to be in all the bars before the rest of my competitors. Before I caught the bus home I would stop in at Fred’s Sporting Goods to get one more look at the guys arm on the chest expander box. . I couldn’t get that image out of my mind. It haunted me. He had it sticking straight out but the bicep had that breath taking fullness down by the elbow.
Years later when I discovered the Scott Preacher bench and how it could pack meat on the bicep, I resolved to get myself an arm “like the guy on the box.”
In my quest to build the perfect bicep, I learned all kinds of tricks to make the exercise even better. I redesigned the bench to eke out every last ounce of growth on the lower bicep.
Funny, how you never seem to stop learning when you keep asking. One of the secrets I learned along the way was: the position of the palm is the key to determining how much growth you get on the lower bicep.
Before the advent of the EZ curl bar we always used the straight bar. But when the EZ curl bar hit the scene, everyone switched because it was easier on the wrists and you could use more weight. We reasoned, with more weight we could build even bigger biceps but it didn’t happened that way. Our size actually shrank. We forgot about the importance of the position of the palm.
You see, the first function of the lower bicep is to turn the palm in towards to the body. When you use an EZ curl bar the palm is already turned in 45 degrees before you even begin to work. We all missed it. We could use more weight but our lower bicep development began to suffer.
It troubled me, so I went back to the straight bar and sure enough the lower bicep started to grow again.
Actually it was an injury that helped me see it. I had overdone my forearm workout and brachioradialis was hurting. I couldn’t get it to heal and I was hungering for some serious Preacher pain. I had to find a way to disconnect the brachioradialis and make the bicep do all the work.
I looked at the curves on the EZ curl bar and suddenly it dawned on me. “When we normally use the EZ curl bar we grab the bar with the thumbs higher than the little finger which uses both biceps and brachioradialis to do the work. But if we grab the bar with the little finger higher than the thumb, it takes the brachioradialis completely out of the picture and requires the lower bicep to do all the work. This was a break through of wonderful proportions. Not only could I do the exercise with no pain, but I could work the lower bicep even better than when using the straight bar.
You’ve got to try this. It’s really fun and it builds wonderful lower biceps. Remember, the lower biceps are the ones that are hard to build. Yeah we can get big arms but beautiful?. It takes the lower biceps to knock your eyes out.
Grab the EZ curl bar on the curves that force the little finger higher than the thumbs. It feels strange and it forces the elbows in together in a strange sort of way, but wow what a monster for building the low bicep!
This training tip excerpt is from one of Larry Scott’s newsletter. You can read the rest of his informative newsletter “Sharing the Secrets“ by going here. Larry Scott always has great tips and advice. An icon forever!
A Thought Worth Pondering: “The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise person.” Euripides (484 BC – 406 BC)
