Standing Barbell Curl

The standing barbell curl is one of the classic bicep blasting exercise that dominated the gyms in the early days of weight training.  While there's definitely nothing fancy about the barbell curl, it remains one of the most effective exercises for increasing both the size and strength of your biceps. Not only will a properly performed set of standing barbell curls (also known as straight bar curls), hit the muscles of your biceps, but you can actually vary what part of your biceps is getting worked by changing up your grip on the bar.

I personally love to incorporate this powerful arm building exercise into most of my arm workouts and I can't think of another biceps exercise that is as effective at building big biceps as the standing barbell curl.  I absolutely love the fact that you can really load the bar up with a lot of weight and blast your biceps in a really controlled and isolated manner.

Check out this standing barbell curl video and learn how to perform this powerful biceps exercise with the proper muscle building form and technique...

Ideal Barbell Curl Form

Muscles Used During The Standing Barbell Curl Target Body Part: Arms Primary Muscles: Biceps Secondary Muscles: Trapezius, Rhomboids, Erector Spinae, Rotator Cuff, Anterior and Medial Deltoids, Serratus Anterior, Rectus Abdominus, Transverse Abdominus, Obliques

Starting Position: Stand with your back straight and your feet spaced shoulder width apart. Grab the barbell with an underhand grip that’s slightly wider than shoulder width apart.

Upward Phase: Exhale and slowly raise the bar by bending at your elbows. Make sure to stabilize you’re your torso and spine by contracting your gluteal muscles (butt), abs and spinal muscles.

Downward Phase: Slowly lower the bar back to the starting position.

Special Instructions: You can make this exercise more difficult by performing the movement with your back against a wall, preventing your shoulder blades from moving.

	By raising both elbows up after they are flexed, you will increase the contraction of the biceps brachii and also contract the anterior deltoid.
	If you grab the bar with your hands further apart, you will isolate the short head of the biceps brachii.
	If you place your hands close together, you will isolate the long head of the biceps brachii.

If you like the step by step standing barbell curl technique and instruction on this page, you'd love my muscle building program The Muscle Mass Advantage! Jam packed with 36 weeks of gut busting workouts, bodybuilding nutrition advice and weight lifting tips and techniques the Muscle Mass Advantage will take you by the hand and teach you exactly how to build massive amounts of muscle mass fast!