The Barbell Curl in Strength Training

by Mark Rippetoe | March 13, 2024

The classic Barbell Curl is most closely associated with bodybuilding, since the first thing everybody thinks about the exercise affecting is the biceps, The Most Important Human Muscle. We don't use the barbell curl in the standard program because there are better uses for gym time for the typical novice, intermediate, or advanced trainee. But for a specific demographic they are very useful: older trainees with a stability deficit can benefit from barbell curls, since even light weights can challenge their ability to stabilize a dynamic movement with isometric muscle action. And this carries over to the other exercises, and to daily tasks.

We use them in a very specific way – they are taken out of the rack at the shoulder, like a press, and replaced in the rack like a press. Take a supine grip at approximately the same width as a press grip, walk back two steps, lower the bar to fully extended elbows (if possible, sometimes this mobility is limited) without a pause, and then curl it back up. Obviously the equipment must match the trainee's capacity, so light bars should be available. Then the bar is walked back into the rack.

This is not intended to be a strict curl. Not at all. As the bar is lowered, the bodyweight of the lifter leaning back slightly counterbalances the forward travel of the bar as it's lowered, just as it is when it is curled back to the start position. Movement around the hips with tight knees can be coached and improved upon, allowing for the use of heavier weights. This forces the trainee to involve essentially all the muscle mass to isometrically stabilize the spine, hips, knees, and ankles, as well as the active movement of the load through the bar path. For a 500-squatter this is not as important as it can be for a 75-year-old retired guy.

Balance is improved with any barbell exercise performed while standing on the floor with the barbell in the hands or on the back. If the movement pattern requires stability, and if you do not fall down during the set, your balance has been challenged and therefore improved. This can be an important addition to an older person's life.

And granted the fact that this will not ever involve spectacularly heavy weights for the people we use it for, it doesn't have to challenge the limit of your strength – like a deadlift – to produce the benefits of a full-body barbell exercise.

The barbell curl can thus be a replacement for the clean or the press in a program for a frail older trainee that has trouble with these exercises. It is a dynamic movement, but it is not ballistic. It must be coordinated and focused since all the joints are involved at some level. It uses the whole kinetic chain from floor to hands, like a proper barbell exercise should do, but it is accessible to most everybody with even marginally-healthy shoulders and elbows. Use a belt for better stability when the weight gets heavy. For older trainees, it provides a sense of accomplishment that mastering a whole-body movement provides, while producing carryover to many daily tasks.

The barbell curl used this way moves this perfectly decent exercise from the realm of vanity arm training to useful basic strength training, and allows the coach to add another movement to the tool kit for an older training population.