This content is imported from youtube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may find more information on their website.
Strength coach and founder of Athlean-X Jeff Cavaliere CSCS shares training tips each week on YouTube, breaking down the muscle building benefits of specific exercises and demonstrating the safest and most effective way. If you’ve been following his content for a while, then you know he’s a big proponent of one dumbbell curl variation in particular when it comes to working the biceps: the waiter curl—and in a new video, he breaks down some of the misconceptions surrounding this movement.
An occasional complaint made against the waiter’s curl is that it doesn’t involve supination, which is technically incorrect. As Cavaliere points out, there they can be supination depending on how and where you grip the dumbbell.
“You want to make sure your hands are under the flat end of the dumbbell, rather than gripping the sides,” he says. “If you do it correctly, your forearms will be supinated, but you also have the opportunity to dynamically supinate as you raise the dumbbell.” This can be done, she continues, focusing the lift on the inside of the palms facing up.
He goes on to explain that the narrow grip of the waiter’s curl helps you better target the long head of the biceps. Also, using less weight on this exercise compared to other lifts where there are more opportunities to load the movement can be a good thing.
“When you’re trying to create muscle growth, the weight on the bar is only one factor in creating overload,” he says. “Tension is the language your muscles speak, and becoming fluent in your ability to increase the ways you can introduce tension will be the greatest thing you can do for yourself. Your muscles don’t to know what the number is on the side of the dumbbell or bar, they just know what it feels like when you pick it up.”
“The long head of the biceps is notoriously weaker anyway,” he adds. “About 15 to 20 percent compared to short head. So it’s probably an indicator that you want to work on it more anyway.”
Cavaliere reminds viewers that for any biceps exercise to be effective, you need to target the three main functions of the biceps, which are: elbow flexion, supination, and a little shoulder flexion at the top end of the movement.
Philip Ellis is a UK freelance writer and journalist who covers pop culture, relationships and LGBTQ+. His work has appeared in GQ, Teen Vogue, Man Repeller, and MTV.
