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Body Drag Curls

This was written in response to a female question regarding the body drag curl:

Stand with the feet shoulder width apart or slightly narrower. You should maintain a slight bend at the knees, this is to prevent you from cheating with your body and momentum. Take an underhand (supinated) grip on the bar, with the thumbs on the same side of the bar as the fingers. (This is to lessen the contribution of the forearm flexors.)

You should adopt a comfortable width grip and keep your upper arms and elbows in snug contact with your torso. Lean forward just a few degrees. Tighten your grip slightly and begin lifting the bar, while maintaining the upper arm/torso contact and also lightly touching the body with the bar. In order to achieve the proper finishing position, you will have to allow the elbows to move slightly to the rear...this will increase the higher you go. Since you're female (and we are grateful) you will have to rotate the shoulders and upper arms slightly forward while "dragging" the bar up your torso. This will allow you to maintain contact with your torso and to clear the more alluring parts of your upper anatomy. This is why it is called a "body drag" curl, the two points of contact cause "drag" in the movement, rather than it being a free moving arc.

Notice that this is not the "typical" arc or semi-circular movement of a barbell curl...it is more of a lift or elevation.

At some point (usually just before lower pectoral or collarbone height,) your upper arm anatomy will prevent you from moving any further without rotating the elbows forward quite a bit. You have two options at this point...either stop the movement right there SQUEEZING the biceps and the grip hard to foster a maximum contaction

OR

you can rotate the elbows slightly forward to allow the bar to get nearer the throat and squeeze as mentioned previously. By rotating the elbows forward, you are involving the front delts a bit (which defeats the purpose) but for some people, it allows a stronger contraction of the biceps.

Once you've reached the top position and squeezed...lower the bar slowly while maintaining the upper arm/torso contact and touching the body with the bar during the return trip. Relax your grip at the bottom, take a couple of deep breaths and repeat.

You won't be able to use a lot of weight with this one...form and the nuances of body contact and grip will achieve everything you're looking for with minimal weight involved. Many people cannot finish 10 reps their first time out...because their biceps "cramp."