The latter might look like a cable crossover, but a dual cable station is actually narrower than a cable crossover apparatus. High cable curls are to be done at a cable crossover station, but there’s a difference between a true cable crossover machine and what we call a dual cable station. One thing that needs to be discussed with this exercise is equipment.
CABLE CURL HOW TO
High Cable Curl Step-by-Step Overviewīefore I get into all the nitty-gritty specifics of the exercise, here’s a brief description of how to do the standard two-arm high cable curl: The short head is just as important for overall development and aesthetics. So don't always focus on just the long head to build the peak. That’s coming mainly from the short head.
When you look at your arms in that front-double-biceps position, you can really see how wide and thick your biceps are (or aren’t!). Hitting the short head is important because that's what gives width and thickness to your biceps. And since that’s the opposite of internal rotation, which focuses on the long head, what is external rotation going to hit? The short head!Īlso, in this high cable curl position, I don't have any stretch on the long head, so that’s another clue that the exercise hits more of the short head. What am I doing here, with my arm up? Well, first of all, I don't have internal rotation if anything, I have external rotation of the arm. Now, look at the high cable curl (photo below). Also, bringing the arms behind the body to stretch the long head during the curl will emphasize it. To target the long head to maximize the biceps peak, you want to internally rotate the arms (turn the arms inward) that’s why the hammer curl is a good exercise for the peak, because the neutral grip (palms facing in) internally rotates the arms. However, just because you're flexing the arm with the high cable curl in the same position as the front-double-biceps pose doesn't mean that the exercise is going to maximize your peak. When you do the front-double-biceps pose and you make that peak, it’s mainly the long head providing that. The two heads work together, but you can place more focus on one head or the other by changing your arm position. The biceps brachii muscle is comprised of two heads: the long (outer) head and the short (inner) head. In fact, the high cable curl directly mimics the famous front-double-biceps pose in bodybuilding, so that may have something to do with why people tend to like this exercise so much. Bodybuilders, physique athletes, and serious gym rats have been using this move for many years to build bigger, more muscular arms. The high cable curl is a somewhat novel biceps exercise, but it’s not a new one. The key techniques involved with the exercise are creating a horizontal line of pull keeping the upper arm stationary throughout the movement achieving a peak contraction at the top of each rep.Both variations are effective, but the one-arm version allows you to use more relative weight for potentially greater gains in biceps size and strength. There are two main versions of the high cable curl: one-arm and two-arm.The High Cable Curl is a great exercise for hitting the short (inner) head of the biceps, which builds width and thickness in the muscle (as opposed to the long/outer head, which is responsible for the biceps “peak”).Note: The above video was recorded as a Facebook Live tutorial in conjunction with the Train With Jim Full-Body Shortcut to Size program.