Way back when I was in high school, one of my peers in the
campus weight room had a peculiar reply to a claim from a
buddy of mine. My friend was saying that a person could
derive benefit from splitting rep motions in half on
barbell curls. This essentially entails making sets out of
moving the barbell from the hips to the halfway point –
then doing a block of sets from the midway point to the
fully curled position. The guy's reply: "I've heard you
shouldn't perform split reps like that because it can make
you too bulky." My friend and I looked at each other and
agreed that we were both hoping to have such a burdensome
"problem".
I've often wondered why this technique isn't practiced and
talked about more often. Performing sets in this manner
makes sense from a kinesiology standpoint. When we perform
a barbell curl, for example, the tension on the biceps hits
its peak when the forearms are horizontal as the curl
reaches its midpoint. If we split the barbell curl into two
half rep exercises (top and bottom half respectively), we
double up on the time the biceps spend under this peak
stress condition. Moreover, we bring the bar 'up toward'
the peak stress position using the lower half curls and we
bring the bar 'down to' the stress position with the upper
half curls. This gives us the power a contraction from a
positive repetition on the first exercise, followed with a
dose of contractions from a predominantly negative movement
on the latter one.
Actually, when curling the weight from the top of the
exercise where the bar is at the shoulders – down to the
mid-position where the forearms are parallel – we get a
nice contraction of the biceps with a negative/isometric as
we have to put on the breaks and briefly stop the weight
before moving it up again. This is where the biceps really
endure the extra intensity that can give them the size that
full reps just don't provide.
If you also practice splitting your reps with some triceps
exercises, the results on arm development can be
impressive. I personally do this on one of those Cybex
triceps extension machines. With my upper arms resting on
the padded platform, I do sets from the starting position
to the mid-point of a full extension. After that, my
triceps get really worked and feel like they're breaking
the seams of my shirt as I perform sets from the mid-point
to the fully extended position.
Here's a suggestion that can really get your biceps growing
by adding just two specific exercises to your routine. Lie
down on a pulley-rowing machine while holding a straight
bar of shoulder width with both hands. Move your body far
enough down the rowing platform that you can curl the
weight to your waist level without having the weight stack
hit the top of the machine. You can usually secure your
lower legs under the platform or bar that's normally used
for a person's feet when doing rowing exercises. While
lying horizontally, perform sets of biceps curls like this,
curling the bar from your thighs up to the level of your
waist. The pulley, with its weight fighting gravity through
the entire motion, will give your biceps a nice contraction
through the whole motion.
After five or six sets of that, find a bench and set it
under a triceps press-down pulley. You won't use it for
triceps in this case, but rather to put maximum contraction
on the second half of your biceps curls. Lie on this bench
with a straight bar in your hands and the weight stack a
few inches behind your head. This time, you'll curl the
weight from the point of your forearms being parallel to
the floor to having the bar right on your chin. You can
even touch the bar to your neck for really peak contraction.
Five or six sets of this peaking movement after burning up
your biceps with the previous exercise will have them
appearing like they're bulging even when someone's handing
you a piece of paper.
If you've had problems with arm growth, I highly recommend
you start splitting some of your exercises into two
movements of half-range motion. It can really help you get
a respectable set of "guns".
----------------------------------------------------
Scott Abbett is the author of HardBody Success: 28
Principles to Create Your Ultimate Body and Shape Your Mind
for Incredible Success. He is a certified fitness trainer
and a Master Practitioner and Trainer of NLP. To see his
personal transformation, visit http://
http://www.hardbodysuccess.com
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