Merits of cheat curls?

[jerji]

howdy,

I've been thoroughly steeped in the anti-curl philosophy from Rip and this board, to the extent that I grit my teeth when the curl-only dudes walk in the gym, but recently something took me by surprise. I just got finished Dan John's book Never Let Go and he recommended using power curls or cheat curls (pretty sure these are the same thing) in several of his workouts.

Do you guys have any clue why he would recommend them in some workouts? Does the hip thrust from the "cheat" curl actually accomplish something that a power clean would not? Or perhaps, like the chinup, it's just a decent way to get some beach work and develop solid strength at the same time?

[JM3]

pick up two 50lbs bags of dirt from your pick up truck--- did you clean it or curl it? My guess is that they are 'functional' ? just a guess.

[gzt]

Throwers seem to like them, and Dan John's a thrower. My guess is that they use more weight than a curl, so they're more awesome.

[damonwells]

Arm and grip strength. No better than chin-ups, slighty different motor pattern. The "cheat" just allows more weight, not a better range of muscles worked.

[LudwigVan]

I've been thoroughly steeped in the anti-curl philosophy from Rip and this board

I don't think Rip is really anti-curl. In any case, that's foolishness, there's nothing wrong with curls.

[Bazarov]

pick up two 50lbs bags of dirt from your pick up truck--- did you clean it or curl it? My guess is that they are 'functional' ? just a guess.

^^^^^This

I don't know where the notion came from that curls (especially the standing barbell variety, and especially when they are very heavy and cheated) aren't "functional." Anyone who makes that argument clearly doesn't spend much time moving heavy shit around in the real world. It's a complex, full-body lift that builds arm, back, and core strength and it forces you to support the weight forward of your center of gravity -- sounds pretty damn useful to me.

[Bloodninja666]

Curls have long been a staple in throwing programs. Think about the discus movement and it's easy to see why. I remember seeing a youtube video of scandinavian thrower ricky brusch cheat curling a massive amount of weight- may have been 400lbs.

Grapplers love curls as well.

I would probably be doing cheat-curls in my program at this point if I weren't so lazy...

[Carlos Daniel]

Cheat curls and power curls seem to be different exercises.

[jerji]

Curls have long been a staple in throwing programs. Think about the discus movement and it's easy to see why. I remember seeing a youtube video of scandinavian thrower ricky brusch cheat curling a massive amount of weight- may have been 400lbs.

Grapplers love curls as well.

I would probably be doing cheat-curls in my program at this point if I weren't so lazy...

Interesting, I should have guessed that.