How to Use a Curl Bar

Video Transcript

"Hi I am Stephen Smith a personal trainer located in Atlanta, Georgia. My business is Viva Fitness specializing in personal training, and exercise, and nutrition. I have been training for over twenty years with a degree in physical education, and health, and a master's in exercise physiology. I train at Urban Body Fitness, which is also located in Atlanta, Georgia. Now I am going to show you how to use a curl bar. A curl bar comes in all shapes, and all sizes. I have two particular styles right here. This is a standard straight bar curl. You have very limited range of motion with your wrists, but the principal for using this bar, and the easy curl are all the same. So grabbing the bar I am right at shoulder with it in length. You want to roll the fingers towards the wrists, you want to keep the elbows along the side of the body, not dug into the side. You want to pull up with through the heel of the hands, and extend all the way down. Flexing the biceps here, extend down here keeping a constant resistant on the biceps as you use them. Now a bicep curl is not the only exercise that you can use. I am going to demonstrate what is called a skull crusher with the easy curl. Now the easy curl as you see this bar is a little bit more bent so you can change your wrists grip. You can get a medium grip, which is here. You can come in close for a grip, and you can also go wide. Again the easy curl bar, and the straight curl bar can be used for a variety of exercises. With the easy curl I am going to grab here, down, and up. You can do a back exercise by going back, pulling the elbows in, which is called a low row. Pick the chest up, hold them in and out. Keep and maintaining a neutral spine. So the easy curl bar, the straight curl bar two of the different types of bars that you can use for a variety of exercises while working out in the gym."