If you can place more emphasis on the upper & lower chest, then the same goes for the long & short heads of the biceps! Also, I incorporated 3 variations of this exercise to ensure ANYONE can do it. SMASSSSSSH that like button for extra effort!!
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I’m going to keep this nice and simple. Your biceps have two heads, the long (outer) head and the short (inner) head. Just like when training upper or lower chest, you can also place more emphasis on the long and short heads of the biceps, with specific exercises.
However, there’s one thing I want to debunk really quick. You can’t just train the PEAK of the biceps. It’s not like you’re going to command ONLY this area to grow…no matter how much you yell at it. If you want big biceps, or you want a big biceps peak, you have to build the entire mountain. You can’t JUST build the mountain top.
Biceps Anatomy
The outer head is of course responsible for the biceps peak, and although it’s mainly genetics that dictate it’s size and shape, you can definitely try to target and place MORE EMPHASIS on the long head, with exercises that focus on contracting it as hard as possible. You can do this by first understanding the functions of the short and long heads.
Supination Of The Forearm (short & long heads)
Elbow Flexion (short & long heads)
Shoulder Flexion (short & long heads)
If there’s an exercise that contains all three functions, then you know you’re training your biceps to the max. But if you want to place a bit more emphasis on the long head, you have to take your training one step further and focus on exercises that allow you to keep a CLOSE-GRIP throughout the entire movement, which means elbows inside of wrists. The perfect exercise for this is the close-grip cable spider curl.
Close-Grip Cable Spider Curl
To set up for the close-grip cable spider curl, you want to make sure that the pulley is all the way at the bottom, and you want to make sure that your bench is relatively close to the pulley, so that you can take advantage of full range of motion (ROM). Remember, you need to hit all 3 functions of the biceps (Supination, Elbow Flexion & Shoulder Flexion). If you can do ALL of that while maintaining a close-grip, you’re going to work on that peak.
Grab the bar with your hands close together, but you’re actually going to take this grip position one step further. Even when you’re holding a straight barbell, it’s still possible that as you curl, your grip will kind of give out, and your hands will start to twist so that you’re losing supination. In order to force as much supination as possible when using a close-grip, I want you to take your thumbs, and put them on the OUTSIDE of the bar. By putting your thumbs on the outside, as your wrists start to turn in, your thumb is going to prevent that. It might feel a little tight at first, but you will get used to it, and you will feel a lot more activation in that long head of the biceps as you’re doing your curls.
Once in position, let your arms hang at the bottom of the movement (remember you ALWAYS want to fully extend at the bottom). From here you’re going to curl up to get your elbow flexion, but instead of curling to your chin or just below your chin, you want to make sure you’re getting shoulder flexion as well. So what you’re going to do is curl up, and bring the bar to your forehead, flexing and squeezing your biceps, before returning back to the starting position, and repeating for reps.
Does This Movement Have To Be Done With A Cable Machine?
Some of you are probably wondering if you can do this with dumbbells or just a regular barbell (or E-Z curl bar) without the cable machine. The answer is that you can, BUT chances are that as you start to fatigue, you’re probably not going to be able to get as much elbow flexion at the top with as much weight. The cable system is great, because it kind of forces your hands to be out in front of you, so that you stay in that position the entire time while doing your curls. When you use dumbbells or a barbell, as you get tired, you might drop your hands lower and lower and lower, because your shoulders are getting tired and you’re not able to just hold the weight out in front of you by itself.
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43 comments
If you can place more emphasis on the upper & lower chest, then the same goes for the long & short heads of the biceps! Also, I incorporated 3 variations of this exercise to ensure ANYONE can do it. SMASSSSSSH that like button for extra effort!!
APP, APP, APP, APP! – http://newapp.muscularstrength.com/
i want to get ripped like hrithik roshan can anyone know how to get ripped like him?
you should do the get fat then get back in shape challenge! 😎😎👍🏻👊🏻💪🏻
Thnx for showing these options biceps are fun muscles to build
arms in front of body are more short head, arms behind like incline dumbell curl are more longhead, so this topic is bullshit
Ofcourse ur gonna be the doosh that insults CT.. What's hilarious is that ur biceps suck all kinds of ass..
Your biceps are small and weak
💪
i cant believe you would say something that stupid. dumbbells are superior to this retarded exercise that takes up hella space in an actual gym. With dumbbells, first of all your body has no idea that you're using a different bar, only different angles. you work the biceps unilaterally which will help keep symmetry.
now every kid who follows you will throw away dumbbell exercises because you said spider curls on a cable crossover is better. spider curls are great for variation, but it doesn't mean other exercises are worthless.
please be more careful with stuff like this.
Hey Scott, I need you to explain the truth on whether if I cook food at a high temperature or even a long time actually kills the protein inside? No one has given me a good answer anywhere on YouTube or the actual internet for this.
I love how Scott say, "bar" lol
before we get STAAHHHTED
Is it just me, or is he really letting his accent out now? He used to be self conscious about it and hold it back a little.
8 sets? With 2.5-3min resting between each set? I do my entire upper body on one day and lower body + cardio on the next. I don't have time for 8 sets. What do you recommend, that doesn't involve me changing the way I alternate days?
Can those 3 functions be found on chinups? I can't afford for a gym nor dumbells.
Can you load a video on rest between sets?
I tried the thumb placement, and I feel the burn so much in my forearms!
Waiting for the the iOS still 🙁
Scott Answer ASAP. I Weigh 65 kilos and I started eating curd for breakfest just to gain mass and chicken with vegetables for dinner to gain energy and mass too. But From what it looks like (Before and now) my bodyweight seems unbalanced. Most of my mass goes to legs . My upper body looks weak, so everyone looks up to me as a weakling. Is this happening cause of the fact that legs are 3x stronger than arms? Im a teenager, I grow in height.
can shoulder exercises stunt height?
Hi Scott you are a great teacher your pedagogy is excellent. Can you please make a tutorial and golden rules on how to do hanging leg raises with bent knees and feet going above the head like in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7-3BayhOH4 at 1 minute 27 weighted and at 6 minutes 41 bodyweight. Very few youtubers have made quality videos on this important exercise. Thank you a lot
still i cant download ur App 🙁 please help me to this
everytime i click ur link to app it appears "Coming Soon for Iphone and Andriod"
before we get STADID.
I am 18 years old can you tell me a veg diet for body building
I recently discovered your channel. Have to say you deliver really good content. Subscribed directly. Greetings from Austria 🙂
Need to get a baaaahbell!
Scott or anyone what do you think about 10 second rest between sets for biceps
Stahrteeeed
So I have to pull a bench up to the cable apparatus area…. Right, totally going to be easy to pull off at the gym. Guess preacher curls it is.
Is this a spider curl?
I've smashed that like button
Dumbell + elastic band could Work too 💪
Ps: nice Channel from a Belgian guy
You can’t yell at it commanding it to grow, looking at you CT fletcher
Does this muscle monster just favorite everyone's comment
The bahbells for your ahms. Love it.
Ok but before we get staaahted! 😀
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP0yf8nyog-3rUweKpHRZzw
Thanks for being a real natty
Would love a chiseled chest like yours.
is is possible to hit all 3 with bodyweight? like close grip chin-ups?
He have no knowledge
Before we get stAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHted…