Bicep curls: any measurable training effect?

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hi Doc,

Have any studies been done on the training effect of arm isolation work when compared to training programmes which feature only compound movements which require arm involvement?

I have doubts that isolation movements such as bicep curls and the like have any measurable training effect in a programmes that already use those muscles in compounds lifts.

Thanks,
Alex

2

Yep. What have you found when you’ve searched for this?

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I came across these articles after a little searching. The first study was done on untrained young men and the second was done on trained men (2+ years of experience with resistance training). In both studies, there was one group that just did multi-joint exercises only and another that did multi-joint exercises in addition to single-joint exercises. Both studies seem to suggest that there’s no discernible benefit to adding isolation exercises, like biceps curls for example, to a program that already includes compound movements that recruit biceps involvement.

https://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi…6#.XkvyY2hKjIU
https://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi…9#.Xkvyz2hKjIU

I do think there is probably some nuance here. For starters, these studies lasted 10 weeks and 8 weeks respectively, which I would consider to be a relatively short amount of time when you’re talking about muscle growth and strength development (especially 8 weeks for the already trained subjects). I would be interested to see if some benefits for isolation work start to show after more weeks, months, years, etc. I imagine there’s also some recovery/fatigue aspects at play here. If you wanted to focus on growing your triceps, for example, you could add some triceps isolation work to your program, or you could add some more pressing volume. Both would probably help in accomplishing your goal, but I think that additional benching would be more fatiguing and impact on the rest of your training (in terms of fatigue and recovery) more than doing a few sets of LTEs or triceps extensions. Please correct me if my logic if off base here, Jordan.

Also, I think there are more reasons to include some arms isolation work in your training than just muscle strength and hypertrophy. For example, my elbows get pretty beat up with 4x/week benching, and they just feel better if I include a few sets of hammer curls a week. Also, from a vanity standpoint, benching and rowing just don’t seem to give you quite the same arm pump that direct biceps and triceps work does :slight_smile:

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