Stop Doing This Biceps Curl (I’M BEGGING YOU!)
Of all the biceps curl variations out there, there is one in particular that has seemed to have drawn the ire of some without actually knowing why they feel the way they do. In this video, I’m going to break down the Waiter’s Curl. We’ll take a look at the exercise in regards to its effectiveness as
Jesse. (BRO. Not going to make it in today ) What? Dude we re supposed to shoot a video this weekend. (Also I told my cousin Jebby he could train in your gym today.
) He s got a cousin, J (Yes, Jebby ) Okay. (BTW. Don t mention waiters curls) What s wrong with Waiter s Curls? (He s a TOTAL f*cking idiot. Believes EVERYTHING he sees on TikTok) Oh, that explains it.
What s his probably with Waiter Curls? Everyone knows, bro. There’s no supination on that exercise. Well, actually, there is supination on the exercise, and it starts with how you grab the dumbbell. You want to make sure that you’re getting your hands underneath the flat end of the dumbbell rather than grabbing it from the side like Jeb and those that don’t know how to do the exercise do.
If you do it properly, your forearms will be supinated, but you actually have the opportunity to turn it into dynamic supination as well as you lift the dumbbell up. You can see that if I focus the upward lift of the dumbbell during the curl right here in this portion of my hand, I can continue to turn the form into more active supination. And remember, guys, for any bicep exercise to be effective, you have to check three different boxes. One is the flexion of the elbow, two is that supination, and three, a little bit of flexion of the shoulder at the very end of the exercise, this exercise hits all three checkboxes. So, Jeb kind of off to a bad start.
Come on, bro. If there was ever weird range of motion on a biceps exercise, it’s from the Waiter Curl. Well, actually, it’s not that unnatural at all. As a matter of fact, the elbow joint is one that naturally restricts unnatural motion. It’s an anatomical hinge joint that opens and closes predominantly just flexing and extending the elbow.
If you compare it to something like a simple rope curl, you’ll see that it’s actually by mechanically very similar. Now I get it, maybe you’re worried about the wrist, but don’t worry about that. I’ve got you covered there, too. So, for now, Jeb, I’m just not buying it. Come on, bro.
The waiter curl grip is way too narrow. Respectfully, I think we might be 0 for 3 now, Jeb, because not only is the Waiter Curl grip not all that narrow, but the narrower grip is one that’s going to benefit you. And what I’m talking about is, if you take the dumbbell, you look at the surface area there, you match it up with a typical easy curl bar. You’ll see that that grip isn’t all that narrow or different from what you might already be doing. But as I said, you get an advantage from this.
The advantage is better, long head activation. I’ll go into more details in a minute, but the fact is the narrower grip is something that’s going to work to your benefit, not to your detriment. So, no. Come on bro. There’s no full range of motion on the Waiter Curl, so it sucks.
We’ll see. Now, there you go, Jeb. Now, that’s good thinking, although maybe just not thinking all the way through. Because one of the biggest mistakes you can make when trying to judge the effectiveness of the range of motion of an exercise is to confuse it with the range of motion possible at that moving joint. So, when we look at the elbow, if you thought that you need to take the elbow all the way through its full range of motion to have an effective bicep exercise, you’d be wrong.
And very much the same way that you think that maybe a side lateral raise done like this is incorrect because it’s not taking the shoulder through its full range of motion, you know, all the way across the body and all the way up over your head. Now, when it comes to the Waiter Curl, yes, you are cutting off a little bit of that range of motion at the bottom. But actually, it might be in this case, to your benefit. Because we know that those bottom 20 degrees or so are not really helping you to build bigger biceps. The external load placed on the biceps is minimal in that range of motion.
It’s the same reason why you may have seen people perform a Seated Barbell Curl. They’re intentionally taking away those bottom 20 degrees because they know that the biceps aren t necessarily the most active there, but two other muscles, the brachialis and brachioradialis are. So, if you could limit the range of motion to the more effective range of motion for the biceps, well, you could do more growing from it. So once again, not really a bad thing, but something that’s actually working in your favor. Good luck balancing that dumbbell bro.
Guy doesn’t even understand any kind of stability. Actually, Jeb, I do understand stability. I very much value it in the exercises that we perform and the Waiter Curl s no different. Because if you grip the dumbbell, like I said in the first place, properly, then you’re going to have a lot of surface area for both hands to be placed on the flat under the dumbbell and securely lift it up as you perform the exercise. You might be thinking, I got you because you use those round dumbbells.
What about somebody that uses a hex dumbbell? That doesn’t change anything, as a matter of fact, it gives you another way to create stability because maybe you don’t have as much surface area for your palms, but you do have the opportunity to grip with your back pinky’s here to still allow you to perform the exercise safely and securely. And again, remember, regardless of what dumbbell variation you pick, with your elbows held tight to your body like you will with any bicep exercise creating additional stability, this is a very stable exercise with not a lot of balance requirements. Everyone knows that the Waiter Curl has a suboptimal line of pull for the biceps. Don’t know what suboptimal means?
Pfff, look it up. No, see, I actually don’t have to because I know what’s suboptimal is, and in this case, this is not. Because the Waiter Curl is actually optimal for targeting more effectively the long head of the biceps, you know, the one responsible more for that bicep peak. And the reason for this is based on anatomical reasons. And the people that make this claim oftentimes just don’t have a deep enough understanding of the anatomy to get it right.
When we take a more narrow grip during a curl, we’re internally rotating the shoulder. Along with that, you’re putting the long head tendon in a better align of pull, actually a more favorable direct line of pull to effectively increase its activation in the exercise. Now listen, our biceps will contract all or none, but we also know that changes in joint alignment can shift the focus from one head to the other. You can see on Raymond here that there’s actually two separate attachments to the biceps. Of course, there’s the one that’s more medial connected to the coracoid process, which is the short head and the one that sits a little bit more laterally attached to the top of the glenoid and that is the long head tendon.
So, we internally rotate that shoulder. Like I said, you’re putting that long head into a better line of pull. Now the easier way to think about this if you’re not so anatomically inclined, is to just think about what you see is what you’re training. If we look in the mirror and you’re seeing more of the outside portion of your bicep when you’re curling, you’re likely working more of that outside long head. If you see more of the inside portion of your bicep when you’re curling, you’re working more of the short head.
It’s actually kind of a bicep cheat code that’s helpful for those that really don’t care all that much about anatomy, like Jeb. Bro Wait a minute, hold on. The Waiter Curl creates negativ