# Curls not hitting bicep, chest press not hitting chest



## Sway12 (Oct 29, 2013)

Hi guys. I dont have any vids to post up of my form unfortunately on these two, but needless to say it's irritating me.

On DB chest press I feel like the chest is not being utilized at all. It only feels like the left forearm is being used, on the right it's a bit better but still doesn't feel like I'm utilising the right muscle groups.

On curls. Again it feels like forearm. Could it be the way I'm holding the dumbells?


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## mills91 (Sep 18, 2012)

2 of the most basic and simple lifts in weight lifting.

If you can't work it out yourself I'd just give up mate


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## polishmate (Aug 15, 2013)

lol


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## steven_SRi (Nov 5, 2009)

Next time get some videos of your workout, then we can solve this mystery for you lol otherwise god knows


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## tintop666 (Jul 2, 2013)

Your not turning your wrist straight enough mate for the curls palms of your hand facing you, hammer curls are for the forearm and full length of bicep, try doing consentrated curls instead they really hit the peak look it up on youtube, as for the chest press you probably not lifting heavy enough weight for your chest to benifit.


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## kingdale (Nov 2, 2010)

With biceps try it a bit slower and bring it nice and far up without swinging your body at all. Cheat press bring it down to your chest and push it up further apart than you are currently doing. But without vids it's impossible to say for definite of course


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## badly_dubbed (Nov 21, 2011)

fairly common.

google: Mind muscle connection.


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## Breda (May 2, 2011)

Are your arms stablised or movin from shoulders when curling?

You might be using too much weight when pressin or your form is just all wrong

Either way, without a video its hard to help


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## mattc1991 (Jan 2, 2012)

simple mistakes, many guys in the gym do this, if you notice they have massive front delts, big triceps yet tiny chest.

simply put, your chest press is poor, only advice i can give thats worked for me is move to barbell, try a slight decline bench press, make sure the bar touches 1-2" above your nipples (towards your neck) and keep the motion slow, start at a weight you can get 8-12 reps, and keep hitting them reps, but try increasing the weight, dont just increase the weight cause you think you can do more, thats not the goal. You shouldnt need to do more than 3 working sets, and 2-3 working sets on flys. thats it, twice a week.

as for biceps, i struggled with biceps over the last 5 years of training, however, the last 3 months i have finally been able to make them grow!

what i done was widened my grip and used a straight bar, go wide as you kinda can, within reason.

i then do 30 reps in the style of 21's but 10,10,10 (30's) with maybe 5 aside, then 8,8,9 (25's) with 7.5 a side, the 7,7,7 (21's) with 10 a side.

worked awesome for me, do these after some other bicep exercise like hammer curls or whatever. 6 sets total.

hope this helps


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## Proteen Paul (Apr 6, 2012)

You have weak forearms, and the weight are too heavy.


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## Gym-pig (Jun 25, 2008)

mills91 said:


> 2 of the most basic and simple lifts in weight lifting.
> 
> If you can't work it out yourself I'd just give up mate


You've got it on you today !!! :lol:


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## Queenie (May 30, 2013)

badly_dubbed said:


> fairly common.
> 
> google: Mind muscle connection.


This... exactly what I was going to say.

Visualise the muscle/s being used.


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## Gym-pig (Jun 25, 2008)

Try incline dumbbell curls , preachers and then BB curls . Lying cable curls are also good .

Try a weight lighter than normal and play about until you isolate the biceps .

I have the same issue with chest and find DB under constant tension help for presses .


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## badly_dubbed (Nov 21, 2011)

RXQueenie said:


> This... exactly what I was going to say.
> 
> Visualise the muscle/s being used.


its definitely something i think that's vastly overlooked...if you don't concentrate on the muscle you are working, chances are form suffers and you don't hit what you want to hit effectively.


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## Queenie (May 30, 2013)

badly_dubbed said:


> its definitely something i think that's vastly overlooked...if you don't concentrate on the muscle you are working, chances are form suffers and you don't hit what you want to hit effectively.


Absolutely agree!


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## Gym-pig (Jun 25, 2008)

Google Ben Pakulski arm training on youtube ( sorry cant get the link)


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## Sway12 (Oct 29, 2013)

Thanks guys. Taking off my headphones and actually properly focusing on the lifts helped immensely with everything today. Finally felt as if the muscles I intended to work were actually being utilized properly. However Curls still hurt my forearm. Gonna do seated ones.

Cheers


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## badly_dubbed (Nov 21, 2011)

good stuff mate  i knew that would help


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## Pancake' (Aug 30, 2012)

Maybe you're simply lifting to Heavy? try lifting a tad lighter with more slow and steady control. may place more emphasis on the opposed working muscle groups.


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## aman_21 (Jul 29, 2013)

yea depends, curls only hurt my forearms when im curling in the squat rack with 20kg each side lol.


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## jamiedilk (Jul 6, 2010)

so many people do the whole look how much im lifting at my gym its unreal!! just half reps and crap form "not saying this is u op" but just what a lot of people do. I had a few months off the gym and when I went back I was doing 25kg dumbells for 2 weeks just to make sure I was getting the squeeze and needless to say my chest is absolute ruins hahaha


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## tomo8 (May 29, 2010)

You might be using too much weight on the curls an so bending ur wrist towards your body thus placing more pressure on the forearm.

Try lowering the weight an slightly tilt your wrists away from you as your curling an take it slow.


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## Sway12 (Oct 29, 2013)

tomo8 said:


> You might be using too much weight on the curls an so bending ur wrist towards your body thus placing more pressure on the forearm.
> 
> Try lowering the weight an slightly tilt your wrists away from you as your curling an take it slow.


I tried a ton of different weights today man, nothing giving, so I gave up in the end. I hit curls after doing deadlifts, bent over rows, cable chest fly etc so my arms were knackered anyway, but I found that even with a 5kg dumbbell my wrist would be in pain after 5-6 curls. Clearly stood up curling isn't working for me because I am not actually hitting the bicep. Better while seated I guess....

Hammer curls might work though. Are they a good substitute for regular curls?


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## Sway12 (Oct 29, 2013)

jamiedilk said:


> so many people do the whole look how much im lifting at my gym its unreal!! just half reps and crap form "not saying this is u op" but just what a lot of people do. I had a few months off the gym and when I went back I was doing 25kg dumbells for 2 weeks just to make sure I was getting the squeeze and needless to say my chest is absolute ruins hahaha


yeah I know it ****s me off aswell. One guy was doing leg presses next to me and was barely going anywhere, not even getting full range of motion. whats the point??? I was told time under tension is what builds muscle so i take it slow for the most part


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## tomo8 (May 29, 2010)

Hammers are more a brachialis an forearm exercise, they will work the bicep to an extent, try them an see how you get on.

For me the ones i feel the most are seated incline curls, you dont need to go heavy here. An spider curls ( use the vertical side of a preacher bench)


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## jamiedilk (Jul 6, 2010)

I always finish on 21s for biceps if that don't get u pumped nothing will


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## supermancss (Dec 2, 2008)

Sway12 said:


> Hi guys. I dont have any vids to post up of my form unfortunately on these two, but needless to say it's irritating me.
> 
> On DB chest press I feel like the chest is not being utilized at all. It only feels like the left forearm is being used, on the right it's a bit better but still doesn't feel like I'm utilising the right muscle groups.
> 
> On curls. Again it feels like forearm. Could it be the way I'm holding the dumbells?


Use bench press instead full range of movement low as possible and touch chest then do 12reps+

bicep curls stand with your back against a wall, put your elbows on it and keep them there while you do curls


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## Tinytom (Sep 16, 2005)

Sway12 said:


> Hi guys. I dont have any vids to post up of my form unfortunately on these two, but needless to say it's irritating me.
> 
> On DB chest press I feel like the chest is not being utilized at all. It only feels like the left forearm is being used, on the right it's a bit better but still doesn't feel like I'm utilising the right muscle groups.
> 
> On curls. Again it feels like forearm. Could it be the way I'm holding the dumbells?


Look at my YouTube channel.

'Beefcakewarrior' I normally put a description of the correct technique with the video.


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## Tinytom (Sep 16, 2005)

mills91 said:


> 2 of the most basic and simple lifts in weight lifting.
> 
> If you can't work it out yourself I'd just give up mate


So you started out with totally correct form yourself with no guidance?

Some of the best techniques I've now utilised into my own system are variants of what I've seen others do.

But when I started out I did a lot wrong.

Always learning.

Comments like yours are unhelpful. If you want to comment like that then get on one of the USA boards.


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## Tinytom (Sep 16, 2005)

spider bb curls





 seated db curls





 incline press. I don't do bar to chest as that is not necessary for full chest development. Down to 90degrees on arms is fine.


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## Smitch (Dec 29, 2008)

Tinytom said:


> spider bb curls
> 
> 
> 
> ...


What's the benefit of leaning forward with the spider curls Tom?


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## Tinytom (Sep 16, 2005)

Smitch said:


> What's the benefit of leaning forward with the spider curls Tom?


It allows a greater isolation onto the biceps and also if you have a bicep tendon injury it allows you to curl without hurting as the tendon is shortened compared to standing up.

I also do this off a bench with DBs. Excellent isolation can only use 7.5kg DBs for 20.


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## Smitch (Dec 29, 2008)

Tinytom said:


> It allows a greater isolation onto the biceps and also if you have a bicep tendon injury it allows you to curl without hurting as the tendon is shortened compared to standing up.
> 
> I also do this off a bench with DBs. Excellent isolation can only use 7.5kg DBs for 20.


Nice one, I'll give it a whirl.


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## Tinytom (Sep 16, 2005)

Smitch said:


> Nice one, I'll give it a whirl.


Trick is to keep your upper arms 90 degrees to the ground. If they move then the tension goes straight into the shoulders. Try with lighter weights to get full benefit.


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## MRSTRONG (Apr 18, 2009)

Tinytom said:


> spider bb curls
> 
> 
> 
> ...


hope you thanked dutch scott for teaching you all those :whistling:


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## Mingster (Mar 25, 2011)

I like those dumbbell curls. Add a set of these to the end of my Pull day atm to good effect.


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## Tinytom (Sep 16, 2005)

ewen said:


> hope you thanked dutch scott for teaching you all those :whistling:


And for letting me train in my gym. Which he owned


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## MRSTRONG (Apr 18, 2009)

Tinytom said:


> And for letting me train in my gym. Which he owned


your lucky to have good friends around you :laugh:


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## mills91 (Sep 18, 2012)

Tinytom said:


> So you started out with totally correct form yourself with no guidance?
> 
> Some of the best techniques I've now utilised into my own system are variants of what I've seen others do.
> 
> ...


With basic compound lifts yeah. I read about them, tried to copy the techniques described by looking in a mirror and by feel.

If I still didn't seem to have it right I'd look at an online video (of which there's thousands) even if that failed I'd watch someone doing it in front of me and copy their form or ask them to give me a quick pointer. Definitely wouldnt start a thread about it as nobody can give a proper answer as they can't see my form.

Fair enough it wasn't helpful and looking back on it it was a bit harsh and uncalled for but if he can't work out curls and and benchpress...


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