Bodybuilding Forums

I've been thinking about alternatives for cable preacher curls since I don't believe my gym has that setup.
Are weighted close-grip chinups a worthy choice for biceps?

What about standing cable curls?
Can you tell me what the second best or equivalent to cable preacher curls is?

Hey topONBass

chin-ups are a great excercise but primarily work the back then the biceps secondary,if im training back and bi's i would finish with chins to warm the bis up, db isolation curls would be the closest to the preacher curl, just set your tricep against the inside of your leg while seated and curl the db, or do it with the cable, or you could pull an incline bench over to the cable machine and do single arm preachers using the top of the bench.

True but close-grip chin ups which i've been doing for a long time hit the biceps harder than the back. Try it.
The way I have my workout setup now i do pull ups to end back and then close-grip chinups to begin bicep.
That really blasts the back and is a great start to the bicep workout.

It "feels" like its doing a lot but should I skip the chinups in favor of isolation exercises? Or do both?

Right now this is the bicep portion of my back/bicep day:
2 sets of close grip chin-ups
3 sets of preacher curl machine (should I swap this? no cables next to preacher)
3 sets of alternate incline DB hammer curls (great range of motion and finishes off the biceps nicely)

What adjustments should I make?

LALA wrote:Hey topONBass

chin-ups are a great excercise but primarily work the back then the biceps secondary,if im training back and bi's i would finish with chins to warm the bis up, db isolation curls would be the closest to the preacher curl, just set your tricep against the inside of your leg while seated and curl the db, or do it with the cable, or you could pull an incline bench over to the cable machine and do single arm preachers using the top of the bench.

By DB isolation curls i think you mean concentration curls. I will probably switch those out with the incline db curls in the future, but not now.
That last idea sounds good, but I still don't see what the recent obsession with cables is on this website. Does it really recruit more muscle fibers? Where is the science to back this up?

Close grip pull-ups/chins are great for biceps so long as you do them correctly, which I think you are, if the're really working your biceps.

When doing bicep pull-ups your hands should be close enough to be touching, with underhand grip. When pulling up, go as high as you can, chest to bar but when you lower back down this is where they are most affective because you lower yourself very slowly and controlled. I find these work the biceps harder than close grip BB curls as you can't swing your back and you can lower yourself very slow.

CABLES; the reason why cables are so good is because there is a continuous and even loading on your muscles, so long as you have the pulley set right for your particular exercise. When using a bar or DB, the closer you get to vertical the less the weight is on you muscles, for example on skull crushers (for triceps) as the bar gets close to vertical the load comes off the tricep, where as a pulley set low and a D handle or straight bar attached would keep a more even load on the tricep all the way to vertical. It's a little difficult to explain easily and quickly but it is all about torque curves and angles rather than gravity taking over and taking the load off your muscles.
Cheers.