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Today I want to talk to you about what grip on the HAMMER CURL, is going to give you the most gains as you’re doing your routines.
What Is A Hammer Curl?
For those of you that don’t know, a hammer curl is where your palms are facing in, and then you simply bend at the elbow and curl the weight up, while keeping your hands in a neutral position. You can do hammer curls one arm at a time, alternating, both arms at the same time, and you can even do it seated, there are a lot of different variations.
Why Is Grip Important?
When it comes to maximizing your gains, how you grip the dumbbell is going to play a HUGE roll in not only how much weight you can lift, but how many repetitions you can do as well. The reason is because forearm fatigue kicks in really quickly with this exercise, and if your forearms give out that means your grip gives out, and that means you can’t do any more repetitions.
First and foremost, it’s important to know that the hammer curl IS NOT a BICEPS specific movement, the reason being that there is no supination. Supination is what really engages the biceps, which is why you feel them so much when you do a regular dumbbell curl. However, when you hammer curl, you might notice some bicep engagement, but the majority of that engagement is actually going through the brachioradialis and the brachialis. So why would you want to work those muscles? Well obviously because you want your arms to look HUGE, and to be honest with you, the bigger the brachialis gets, that can actually help you increase the peak of your biceps.
What Different Grips Can You Use?
When it comes to this exercise and you wanting to maximize your gains, you have two options. You can either walk over to the rack and grip a dumbbell with your hand in the middle of the dumbbell, or you can grip it closer to the top, so that some of the weight of the dumbbell actually rests on the top of your hand. This means you don’t have to grip the dumbbell as hard to perform your repetitions. Instinctively, when you go over to the rack and grab your dumbbell, you’ll tend to grip it in the middle.
What happens when you do your repetitions while holding the dumbbell in the middle is you have to squeeze so hard to hold that dumbbell in place, that your grip strength starts to give out relatively quickly. To counter that fatigue, it is OK to slide your hand up to the top of the dumbbell and perform your repetitions that way. You’re still targeting the same muscles, except that now you don’t have to rely so much on your grip strength to do more repetitions.
What’s The Solution?
In my opinion, I would do it both ways. Let’s say, for example, you’re doing 4 sets. On your first 2 sets, I recommend grabbing the dumbbell in the middle to work on your grip strength, because you should always be working on improving your grip strength. Then on the next 2 sets when your grip starts to give out, slide your hand up so you can still complete more reps with more weight, but don’t have to worry about losing your grip on the dumbbell.
Conclusion
That’s just one quick tip to help you maximize this exercise. There’s actually a lot more to this exercise, including different variations that you can do for it, but that will all be covered in another article!
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26 comments
Little things like this make a BIG DIFFERENCE! Smash that like button if you would like to see a DUMBEST MISTAKES video on the hammer curl!
PUSH, PULL, LEGS PROGRAM – BUILD MUSCLE & STRENGTH! – http://muscularstrength.com/Push-Pull-Legs
Hey, Scott. So now I’m confused. I was told by a trainer to grip the DB at the bottom in order to maximize the gains on the forearms while doing the hammer curls. The idea is that you can work your forearms at the same time as the biceps. Supposedly if you grip the DB at the bottom, the DB feels heavier when curling and your forearms will have better gains. Should I switch to the top?? Great video, per usual!!
Hey Scott,
can you make a video about training specific muscle groups for indoor climbing or climbing in gerneral?
Hope you response
Just did my hammer curls before this video Damm
I like Side Hammers (I call em anchors lol)
I used it that grip in super set with preacher curls. Cool thing was 80 pound preachers.
60 years old 80 pounds i ripped a bicep with at 34
I can't watch these vids around my gf. She's always telling me to look like you.
Some dude at the gym told me that Hammer Curls are really bad for your wrists and you should avoid them.
What's your oponion/exerperience about this Scott?
Smashed that like button Haaaaad
Sweet 🙂
Always thought when I moved my hand up when I fatigued that it was cheating.
Almost 4k 😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣
Scott! I'm having issues with dumbbell exercises at my gym, mainly because my gym's dumbbells' grips have absolutely no knurling/texture and are about as thick as a noodle. Not to mention that half of my gym's dumbbells are bent. I find a very hard time griping them and my forearms usually give out before my biceps. Any advice?
Hi scott
Can you help me about my chest?
If l send u some photos please help me
OMG!!! What just happened over there?????????? What did i learn?????!!?! Oh my GOD?!?!/₺/?-&:&: I learned an information that fuvking matters like the universe. Hakan yavaş ciğerimi söktün amk. Ne bilgi verdi be.I reached the nirvana guys. I am definitly done right now. It’s too much information for this universe. I can’t carry this knowledge anymore its too much for me. This video is so important that you dont even hve to work out after this much of knowledge. You can just lay down and you can build your muscles hav your gains from the bed. Actually you dont have to live anymore because you can learn every thing from this video that you cant never learn from your whole life. like the commemt so every one can see and immedieatly start to watch this video.
I see videos like this and start to feel like studying strength training; even though I'm a translator, haha
Nice video scott. I was actually discovering this thing 2 weeks ago at the gym as i was going a bit heavy and was struggling with keeping the weight in place.
Thanks Scotty good info for this old bugger getting back into it again
Good tip mate, Thanks bro 🙂
HAHD
I changed it to the lowest position. Im able to hold dumbbells and squeeze muscles better.
Damn I was holding at the bottom thinking I was targeting bicep more. No wonder my grip been givin out so easily.
U can do wide grip or middle grip too why not do every variation
The way he said, "hard",, he's gotta be from. Boston Massachusetts lol.
https://youtu.be/NxE0dIEm7Vk
Squeeze hodd
Can i use fat grips for this?