Bicep Curling... With Huge Bars!

[Primal]

Hey everyone, it's been a while! At my gym, I think I mentioned before but they have bars and handles (like the v- bar handle) that are doubled in size! I've been using the extra big v-bar one for pulldowns (v-bar hits my lats much better than a traditional pulldown bar does) and that has been working out really well. I can still do relatively the same weight as with a regular bar except maybe 2-3 less reps depending on the day, but I think it's fine considering I'm basically hitting 2 birds with one stone (I posted a while ago about forearms on here because I used to have a separate day for them). I've noticed my grip strength and forearm size grow which is awesome!

The question I have is about these huge bars that can be used for bicep curling. I think the strongmen use it, but I haven't seen them in action yet! Anyways some people told me to try them out and today I did. Wow, what a difference! First off, I can't even hold the bar like you would traditionally (4 fingers under and the thumb over top), the bar is so big that I have to put my thumb under the bar with the rest of my fingers! I'm unsure how much it weighs but it feels like a good 20 lbs on top of a regular straight bar. I hit back today and usually I don't throw in biceps at all with it but today I just wanted to give it a shot. I noticed that with this bar my sets and reps were dramatically different that that with a regular straight bar and for the first time in my life I actually felt my forearms give out before my biceps did! I tried doing 2 sets of 8 with 15 lbs on either side and only made it to 6 reps on the first set and a struggling 5 on the second set. I hit back before this with bigger v-bar as I stated above but to be honest, I think that if I did this on my regular arm day I'd end up with the same results, less reps and less sets.

I feel it in my biceps just a little bit less than that of a regular sized bar so I was wondering what your guys opinion was on this? A few of the guys at my gym told me not to worry, my grip strength and forearm size will continue to grow and eventually it won't be as hard on them. I totally agree with this but I do find at the moment that these curls are quite taxing and take away from my other bicep exercises after (I'm still following your arm program Hosehead). What are your guys thoughts? Should I stick with it, or maybe do some extra forearm work to strengthen them and then try it again? Or should I just drop it? the v-bar has worked well so far so I thought I'd give it a shot with these curls!

Thanks!

-Primal

[steve_d]

If it's fun, why not? I do way more exercises for biceps than I can fit into 1 workout. (no two workouts would be exactly the same). Just another tool in the arsenal. I wouldn't rely on it totally for your entire bicep workout though.

[Primal]

Oh so your saying I should just incorporate it sometimes into my routines for fun and not every time? Ok I guess so, I'd have thought to switch over to it completely though but if that's what you recommend.

-Primal

[steve_d]

Exactly - you should have more tools in your arsenal. No one just does squats for legs, or deadlifts for back or bench for chest. So why restrict your bicep workout to a specific bar for a specific set of curls. The fact that you feel something different when using it means its doing something slightly different. Just the same as one might do low squats and high squats, or narrow stance vs. wide stance, or close grip vs wide grip bench. This is just another example.

[Primal]

Great! I'll make sure to add it in every now and then to switch up the feel! Thanks Steve!

-Primal