When I was a young student in Pocatello, Idaho, I’d hit the street running as soon that last school bell rang and wouldn’t slow down until I got all the way across town to get my newspapers. I always wanted to be the first to deliver to the bars and beat the rest of my competitors. After my deliveries and before I caught the bus to go home, I’d stop in at Fred’s sporting goods. I needed one more look at the big guys arm using the chest expander box. I never could get that image out of my mind. It haunted me! You almost couldn’t tell that he had his arm sticking straight out because his bicep had such fullness down around the elbow. It almost took my breath away.
Years later when I discovered the Scott Preacher bench and learned how it could pack meat on the bicep, I resolved to get myself an arm just like that guy on the box!
In my quest to build the perfect bicep, I learned all kinds of tricks to make the exercises even better. I redesigned the bench to squeak out every last ounce of growth on the lower bicep. It’s funny how you’ll never seem to stop learning if you just keep asking.
One of the secrets I learned along the way! The position of the palm is the key to determining how much growth you can get on the lower bicep. Before the advent of the EZ curl bar I had to use the straight bar. When the EZ curl bar hit the scene, everyone switched because it was easier on the wrists and we could use more weight. I thought to myself … If I use more weight could I build even bigger biceps? Unfortunately, It didn’t happened that way. My size actually shrank. I had forgotten the importance of the positioning of the palm on the bar.
You see, the first function of the lower bicep is to turn the palm of your hand in towards the body. When you use an EZ curl bar the palm is already turned in at 45 degrees before you even begin to work. We had all missed it. I could use more weight with the EZ curl but our lower bicep development began to suffer. It troubled me, so I went back to the straight bar and sure enough the lower bicep started to grow again. It was actually an injury that helped me really understand it. I had overdone my forearm workout and the brachioradialis was really hurting. As I patiently waited for it to heal, I hungered for some serious Preacher bench pain. I had to find away to disconnect the brachioradialis and make the bicep do all the work.
I looked at the curves on the EZ curl bar and suddenly it dawned on me. When I normally use the EZ curl bar I grab the bar with the thumbs higher than the little finger which uses both biceps and brachioradialis to do the work. But, if we grab the bar with the little finger higher than the thumb, it takes the brachioradialis completely out of the picture and requires the lower bicep to do all the work. This was a break through of wonderful proportions! I could do the exercise without pain and work the lower bicep even better than when using the straight bar.
You’ve got to try this! It’s really fun and it builds wonderful lower biceps. Remember, the lower biceps are the ones that are hard to build. Yeah, we can get big arms, but how about beautiful? Develop the lower biceps and it knock your eyes out!
Grab the EZ curl bar on the curves which force the little finger higher than the thumbs. It feels strange because it forces the elbows to come in together, but WOW what a monster for building the low bicep.
Larry showed me this in Salt Lake City, in 1993.
It was a very strange feeling, (and still is).
He instructed us first to reverse-curl the weight “any way you can, not strictly”, on his new Scott bench.
Which I did, with Weider #33s, x 6. I was 29 yrs old, and weighed 168 lbs, at 6′ 1″.
The great man said I had “tremendous strength in” my “bracchior-radialis” muscles.
I couldn’t believe it. I had been complimented by the first Mr. Olympia!