Slow Down and Stop Your Spider Curls to Build Up Your Biceps
When your main workout goal is getting a massive biceps pump, ripping through sets of heavy curls is usually at the top of the workout list. But to wrap up your routine, you might find more success taking it slow. This dialed-down finishing move that will help you eliminate form cheating and take your normal biceps burn to another level.
The mixed-cadence spider curl is a small tweak added to a standard spider curl that will help you pack on a larger peak to your bis. By slowing—and even pausing—the reps, we’re now emphasizing even better curl form form while amping up a whole lot more time under tension (TUT), according to Men’s Health fitness director Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S.
Even before the additional TUT, the spider curl has been an über-effective biceps move for its positioning, which gives you the ability to maintain more tension on the muscles than your normal curls. This is accomplished by stabilizing your chest against a bench, which helps to prevent your shoulders from rocking and keeping your curls as strict as possible.
Now, by adding a three-second iso hold during each set, you’ve upped the tension even more.
How to Do the Mixed-Cadence Spider Curl
Here’s how the mixed-cadence spider curl works:
●Get yourself in a spider curl position on a bench—chest pressed against the padding, bracing your core nice and tight and your shoulder blades squeezed.
●From here, curl up until your forearms are parallel with the ground. This is where gravity begins to challenge your curl the most.
●Hold for a three count, making sure that you’re turning your pinkie fingers toward the ceiling. This emphasizes proper supination.
●Following the first iso hold, perform three full spider curl reps, curling all the way up while “carrying everything that you learned from that iso hold,” Samuel says.
Repeat this sequence three to four times for every set you perform. Three to four sets of spider curl iso holds should be enough to finish off your biceps with a nice, muscle-building burn.
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