The Curl and Press

An introduction to best biceps exercise of the 21st century. This complex movement will work your arms, shoulders, and core, all at the same time.

If you just look at the title you’re probably saying to yourself, “this dude has lost his mind. That isn’t a hard exercise.” As always, you’re right, but I’m going to tinker with it a bit, throw in a little spice and bring to you, what might be one of the craziest core/upper body exercises you ever do to build muscle and gain strength. A lot of people think that you need to add a stability ball or a med ball or some goofy toy to make an exercise a “core” exercise. That’s not the case.

I’m going to ask you to do something a little different. If you do this sitting or standing, that’s fine, but now I want you to try doing this in two new positions. These two positions, which were thought up by a physical therapist, increase the involvement of your core muscles and are used in many corrective exercises to help people fix faulty movement patterns. These positions are called tall kneeling and half kneeling.

Tall kneeling means you are kneeling on both knees while half kneeling means you are on 1 knee (a lunge position). For tall kneeling I’m going to ask you to get, well, tall. To do this, you need to get “tight and tall” by pushing your head to the ceiling and squeezing your abs, like we’ve done before, but I want you to also push your hips up as high as possible. You’re going to need to squeeze your butt as hard as you can.

Once you’re set there you’ll take 2 dumbbells and put them on your shoulder as if you just cleaned them. Without losing the position you just got set in, lower one and press the other. So, you’re right arm will do the lowering portion of a curl while your left arm does the press. Once both are at full extension you will simultaneously bring them back to the starting position. You will curl your right arm and lower your left so they get to your shoulders simultaneously. Once there, go in the opposite direction. You’re going to have to really concentrate to hold this position, so stop staring around at the co-eds in the mirror and get to work if you actually want to get bigger.

Half kneeling is a similar set up, but now you’re in a lunge. Now, what makes this different is how your pelvis is set. You can only flex one butt cheek. So when you get tight, tall, and push your hips up, you’re really only extending one hip, making it slightly more challenging. The exercise is done identically as it is in tall kneeling. Start at the shoulders and keep your set up perfect throughout the movement. Raise one while you lower the other and keep them in synchronization.

Here are a couple of things to look out for when you do this movement that occurs when you perform it with either stance. First, don’t let your shoulders rotate or lean to either direction. We want to use this exercise to train the core for stability. If your shoulders rotate, guess what happened? You twisted your back. If your shoulders tip to the side, guess what happened? You flexed your spine. Both of which are the opposite of what we’re shooting for, so focus on staying square in all directions.

The other is what I like to call, “leaving your butt behind you.” What this means is you drop your hips back to accommodate for the weight being moved. Don’t let this happen. Your pelvis is basically an extension of your spine, if you stay upright and just drop your hips back your lumbar spine (low back) is in extension. That’s not a good thing, especially under load. So be smart and focus on pushing your hips up hard, keep your butt and abs tight, and stay tight and tall for the whole set.

We do use a pad when we do this, but that’s just for comfort. It’s really not needed. If you want to kneel on the floor of your gym, that’s fine. Our athlete’s use an Airex pad so I don’t have to hear them whine about their knee’s hurting from the ground. The rest is up to you. I’d probably recommend using a pad for comfort, but if you want to be a tough guy, well more power to ya’.

This exercise, much like the renegade row, is paired with another exercise to cut down on workout time so I can use the limited time I have efficiently. Typically we will pair this with a single leg exercise (i.e. Lunge, RFESS, DB SL RDL etc.). We’ll hit the lower body exercise 1st, and then hit the curl and press from whatever stance we are performing it from at that time, finish all of it off with a stretch. Another thing we do when we program this exercise is we try to keep the reps down to 5 or 6 per side at most. This way you can use some heavier weights (relatively speaking for this exercise) without performing to high of a volume of overhead pressing which can aggravate some people’s shoulders. The volume of reps should be low, but the intensity high. Move the weight while keeping your focus on the technique prescribed and you’ll curl and press your way to stronger arms, shoulders, and core.

To maximize your muscle and strength gains when using this exercise 1R would recommend the following supplements:

1. Optimum Nutrition 2:1:1 Recovery - The carbs and protein will help you recover and build lean muscle faster after tough workouts
2. Cytosport Creatine - By increasing your body's ATP production creatine will help you become more explosive, more powerful, and more athletic when taken before or after lifts
3. Optimum Nutrition Fish Oil – These tasteless fish oil pills will help you burn fat, improve joint health, and reduce inflammation associated with hard training