How To Do Barbell Curls Correctly

The barbell curl is the continuation of the dumbbell curl with bigger weights. Here is how to avoid the pitfalls when putting the exercise into your home workout plan.

The Barbell Curl

Biceps curls, no matter if done with dumbbells or a barbell, are one of those exercises that look deceptively simple. And then get done wrong.

It’s especially true for barbell curls, where the weight limit is much higher. Too many guys think, “gosh, that weight looks tiny on there, that can’t be how much I should be using!”

So let’s have a little call for realism. Because doing barbell curls right is easy, if you avoid  leaning or bouncing:

More Biceps Focus?

When I first did barbell curls, I had the assumption that I just have to plug the same weight on the barbell as I used on my set of dumbbells. Wrong. With that much, it was impossible to do six reps in good form.

I’m not sure why that happened. Perhaps because I cheated on dumbbell curls by swinging the weights and never noticed. Or, I think that more likely, the barbell curl puts more focus on the biceps than the dumbbell curl.

Either way, go for the weight you can do at least six good reps per set with, never minding how much you used with your dumbbells.