If your bicep training has become a little lacklustre, a simple adjustment to your usual dumbbell curls could be just what you need to get things moving again. Research has increasingly highlighted the potential benefits of training muscles at longer lengths for building muscle, and one way to achieve this is by placing greater emphasis on the stretched portion of an exercise, or at least performing reps through a full range of motion.
Strength coach Nick Nilsson, who has more than 36 years of training experience, has shared a variation that does exactly that, using a kneeling position and a slight lean to increase the stretch on the biceps at the bottom of each rep.
‘This one is actually one that I’m surprised I didn’t think of like 30 years ago,’ says Nilsson.
You also don’t need to go particularly heavy to give it a try.
Nilsson calls the exercise the ‘kneeling leaning dumbbell curl’. It combines elements of an incline dumbbell curl with a conventional curl, allowing you to emphasise the stretched position before bringing the weight towards your shoulder.
‘This really puts a fantastic stretch in the biceps. Very similar to what you get from an incline dumbbell curl,’ he explains.
The exercise relies on a slight change in body position. By leaning backwards and away from the working arm, you can increase the stretch on the biceps at the bottom of each rep. This can, in turn, potentially aid muscle growth.
‘This allows you to go from basically an incline dumbbell curl type of stretch straight into a normal dumbbell curl,’ says Nilsson, adding that you get ‘great tension all the way up to the top of the exercise’.
Nilsson demonstrates the exercise with a 25lb weight (approximately 11kg). He recommends, ‘Don’t go heavy with this one to start with. The biceps love focused tension on isolation exercises like this.’
How to Do the Kneeling Leaning Dumbbell CurlBegin in a half-kneeling position, with one knee on the floor and the opposite foot planted in front of you.Hold a dumbbell in the hand on the same side as your forward knee, allowing your arm to extend towards the floor.At the bottom of the rep, lean your upper body slightly backwards and away from the working arm, allowing your shoulder to move behind your torso to create a stretch through the biceps.Keeping your palm facing forwards throughout, curl the dumbbell towards your shoulder in a controlled movement.Lower the weight slowly, returning to the stretched position before beginning your next rep.Complete your reps before switching sides, or take a short rest between arms.
Nilsson explains, ‘Really not a tremendous amount of lean, but just enough to really get that stretch in through the biceps.’
He also emphasises the importance of maintaining a consistent grip throughout the movement.
‘You want to maintain a palms forward grip on the dumbbell the whole time,’ he says. ‘This is going to keep the tension on the bicep better.’
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