STOP, You're Training Your Biceps Wrong!
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Published 2023-08-20
It starts with a declaration by Mentzer where he says that the best biceps exercise for growth is hands down the close grip underhand pulldown. Now, keep in mind, this is not the same as the underhand pulldown done for the back and lats. If you focus the intention of the pull on the elbow and stop when the elbow joint is at about 90 degrees of flexion, you will keep the tension high on the biceps rather than the lats.
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That said, is he right?
Well, I want to take you back to a time early last year that I tore by distal biceps tendon. I was trying to prevent my son from falling on the ice after he slipped, and the sudden grab to catch him resulted in a 99 percent tear of the distal biceps tendon off the bone. Up to that point, I had done a lot of heavy barbell curls, chinups, waiter’s curls and drag curls to build the biceps that I have today.
What I liked best about the chinup was that it mimicked the same benefits that Mike spoke of when he talked about the underhand pulldown. It shortened the biceps by putting it in a flexed shoulder position along with a flexed elbow. It was actually a very safe biceps exercise for a torn tendon since there was no great eccentric lengthening that took place here. As the elbow was extended the shoulder was flexed more - taking away some of the overstretch that could compromise the biceps muscle.
The only issue was, with the biceps being weakened by the tear I was finding that my medial elbow pain was increasing from trying to manage my bodyweight up on the bar.
This is when I remembered the lecture from Mike Mentzer discussing his favorite biceps exercise. I tried it and it was a game changer. I started using this exercise for biceps training a great deal. Not only was it something I could scale better than a full body chinup but I was also starting to feel the mind muscle connection with the biceps that had gone missing since the time of the tear.
That said, I didn’t stop at just one biceps exercise. I come from a long history and background of doing more than just the one set or exercise that Mike recommends in his Heavy Duty training. So I curled too. That said, I used a method that would dramatically cut down ont he volume of biceps curls I was doing. I used the run the rack technique shown in the video.
After a brief warmup, I started at the heaviest weight I could handle for EZ Bar Curls for about 6-7 reps. As soon as I reached failure, I dropped the weight and grabbed the next lightest bar in the rack. I continued to rep out to failure once again. This kept going until I reached failure with 3 more successively lighter weights for a total of 5 rounds without rest in between.
This torched my biceps and was all I needed, in combination with the underhand pulldowns discussed before. On the pulldowns, I was able to implement some forced reps and negative only reps by either using my bodyweight to pull the bar down into position or having a spot from Jesse to help me.
Finally, I had to consider the final premise of Mentzer training that was largely responsible for the gains that could come from using it - rest and recovery. Given that I couldn’t handle the increased workload at this point anyway, I figured now was the time to attempt ot cut back the frequency of my bicep workouts and see if I lost any gains because of it. Shockingly, I did not. In fact, I gained much more size back on my biceps as a result.
What was once a scenario where I trained my biceps 2x per week I was now doing them about once every 10 days and capitalizing on the indirect work they would get in my back and pull workouts.
I highly encourage you to give these lessons learned a try in your own biceps training and exercises. You may be shocked by the results - injured or not.
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For a complete workout for biceps and every other muscle for that matter, be sure to head to athleanx.com and use the program selector quiz to find the best workout program for you.
Jeff Cavaliere MSPT, CSCS served as both the head physical therapist and assistant strength coach for the New York Mets. Jeff earned his Masters of Physical Therapy and Bachelor’s of Physioneurobiology from the College of Health Sciences University of Connecticut Storrs. He is a certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist by the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA).
All Comments (21)
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VIEWER GIVEAWAY - I’m giving away my brand new complete 90 Day Beaxst PPL program to 40 lucky clickers within the first hour this video is published! Remember, this is NOT THE FIRST 40, but those randomly selected within the first hour the video is published. Click the link to see if you’ve won. No strings attached! Clicking twice does nothing. Only one entry per video. Remember to watch to the end for more workouts. giveaway.athleanx.com/ytg/heavy-duty-biceps If you don’t win, no worries, you’re not going away empty handed. Just be sure you have your notifications turned on so you can get to my next video quickly and try again. Good luck and thanks for being a loyal subscriber…
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Listening to Mike has changed my life, I work out once every other year, I've never seen so many gains.
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I am 75 years old. I am trying my best for the last 30 years to workout. Last year my young neighbor asked me watch Jeff Cavalier on You Tube. I am so grateful to you by watching your videos now I know what to do. One day my dream is to meet you before I die. You share your knowledge sincerely. I watch at least 4 hours your videos.❤❤❤❤
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I took your advice and switched to cable pulldowns for biceps--and must tell you that I'm getting results on the whole inner upper arm, not just the front of the biceps as happens with curls. If it works for me, a 77 year-old guy, it'll work for your younger guys too.
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I’ve been weight training for 35 years. I had shoulder surgery a dozen years ago - result of damaging shoulder doing heavy behind the neck military press (first time I tried behind the neck) then I felt something wrong a week later slowly lowering the curl bar back on the seated preacher bench rack. No bueno. That changed my approach to weight training drastically. Love this video and will implement it this week brother. Thank you - love your videos. I no longer go to failure on any exercise. I follow Pavel Tsatsouline’s approach with long rest between sets and not going to failure. I just slowly increase weight over time and it works for me. My goal at this stage (in my 50’s) is to stay healthy and strong - no damage.
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Mike Mentzer has been blowing up in my recommendations the last couple months. Has that happened to anyone else?
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This is PRICELESS information and has inspired this 57 year old, who used to be super fit but fell off the wagon after a few minor shoulder injuries. Now I'm ready to hit it hard again in the gym with Jeff's advice. I TOTALLY agree, the pull-downs always seemed to be so friendly to my injured shoulders......now I know why. Time to rebuild this body!!
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Bicep tear gang here.. genuinely appreciate the little lesson and sharing your story. Noone talks about the self doubt post injury, but knowing more about how to keep it strong means everything. These vids help! Thanks!
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I just started the Mike Mentzer program. At age 59 I was tired of pain during recovery. I didn't realize I was over training. After a month on his program, I'm definitely stronger. I've added minimal cardio, 2 to 3 days a week to keep the weight and fat under control. I'm still getting use to the three to four day recovery. But I love not being in pain and coming back stronger. At this point in my life, an injury from over training could be a major set back. I wish I'd known about his system in my 30's, but now is all that matters.... This was a great review and comparison on how you integrated Mike's system with yours. Your knowledge is well appreciated 👍
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Honestly I incorporated bicep bar pull downs and over 3 weeks I can flex my bicep so much harder than before. The bicep contracts more uniformly from the shoulder to elbow is so true. My left bicep was the weakest one and it’s caught up to the strength of my right shoulder
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This is the Best video that I’ve ever seen you do! Mentzer was a Genius in my book. He explained every concept that he touted. Great video. Thanks.
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Its great Jeff to see you give exposure to some of Mike's ideas. As a sixty something I have lately been bingeing on Mike videos and have incorporated his ideas on intensity, frequency and recovery into my training with great success. Your knack of uploading topics that are at the front of my mind is uncanny, spooky even.
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Watched this video and immediately went to the gym for my session. Added the pull down workout to my routine and I could tell a HUGE DIFFERENCE in how my arms felt in comparison to a normal curl. I’ll definitely be keeping these in my workouts! For some reason I just never thought about doing them. Doing curls has been burned in my brain for decades haha
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Love your stuff. I been following and subscribe to your program for two years. Your knowledge and the way you convey the details is the best on the internet. Keep doing what you're doing.
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This is golden. Literally the best video I've ever watched about fitness and lifting
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Thank you so much for this video. I had a brain injury 3 years ago, and this is the exact thing I’ve been looking for, for the brain body connection with the biceps. 🤘🏻🖤🤛🏻
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Mike was very knowledgeable and I have implanted his way of training for a number of years . His non frequent training or overtraining is spot on.
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Thanks for these videos, I picked up a bicep injury during a martial arts sparing session, took a kick just below the bicep and have struggled lifting on the right ever since.. am going to give this a try.
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Thank you, I am starting over and after 5 year of being out of the gym for the exact same injury not knowing where to start in get back in the gym. I couldn't help to notice in watching again how your bicept are bigger. Now knowing this I have hope.
