Not feeling bicep curls with any kind of curl movement. Not understanding why

[Pocro]

I've been working out for around 1 and a half years now properly and I think my biceps have been the hardest to truly activate. I'm going to try my best to explain what I feel and maybe someone can give me some cue that can help me, or maybe give me a new exercise altogether.

Ok so first of all, with any kind of curl, dumbell, barbel, cables. I only feel it biceps just a little bit at the top of the concentric as I squeeze the f out of the biceps. I have tried keeping my elbows close to my body, not bending my back or moving my body at all, supinating my wrist with the cue of trying to drive your ring and pinkey fingers through the bar, but I only feel bicep at the very top, (only if I intentionally squeeze really hard), and as I'm doing the negative. In terms of the negative, I do feel some tension eccentrically, but it feels like it's only tension in the very "end" of my bicep, like right at the crease of the elbow. I only feel it there and nothing at the peak of the bicep.

And another thing, doing the full range of motion on a bicep curl is so fatiguing to me, more fatiguing than any other exercise on pull days. I could go to failure on them, but I don't even feel biceps that much afterward, and it just drains me. This is when I go heavy, but even when I tried dropping weight to focus form, it'd be too light. I'm kind of just stuck at like 40 lbs or so because if I go 50 doing even 8 reps of that feels so damn tiring and no bicep activation but 30 I could do like 25 reps and at that point it's just endurance right?

Should I just only do negatives? That seems ok but am I losing anything from not doing the concentric?

I've tried in many workouts to just only think about form but I can never get a true crazy activation in my bicep peaks no matter what I try, it just feels like something is either blocking me there or some other like tendon/ligament is too weak maybe. I care really deeply about mind muscle connection and I've been able to fix a lot of other weak points for me, but biceps been kinda the biggest roadblock for me.

I know that my biceps could get both stronger and bigger, whenever I do pull ups I feel them working and they I feel them afterward as well, but it's def not enough volume for growth. I want curls to work for me and It must be something I'm doing wrong, I just don't know what.

Hopefully this makes sense and I'll gladly explain more if needed. Looking forward to your help.

[GeneralSerpant]

I've been working out for around 1 and a half years now properly and I think my biceps have been the hardest to truly activate. I'm going to try my best to explain what I feel and maybe someone can give me some cue that can help me, or maybe give me a new exercise altogether.

Ok so first of all, with any kind of curl, dumbell, barbel, cables. I only feel it biceps just a little bit at the top of the concentric as I squeeze the f out of the biceps. I have tried keeping my elbows close to my body, not bending my back or moving my body at all, supinating my wrist with the cue of trying to drive your ring and pinkey fingers through the bar, but I only feel bicep at the very top, (only if I intentionally squeeze really hard), and as I'm doing the negative. In terms of the negative, I do feel some tension eccentrically, but it feels like it's only tension in the very "end" of my bicep, like right at the crease of the elbow. I only feel it there and nothing at the peak of the bicep.

Except for squeezing the muscle, all of that stuff is important for making the exercise more difficult and proper, it's not a matter of feeling it in the muscle more.

And another thing, doing the full range of motion on a bicep curl is so fatiguing to me, more fatiguing than any other exercise on pull days. I could go to failure on them, but I don't even feel biceps that much afterward, and it just drains me. This is when I go heavy, but even when I tried dropping weight to focus form, it'd be too light. I'm kind of just stuck at like 40 lbs or so because if I go 50 doing even 8 reps of that feels so damn tiring and no bicep activation but 30 I could do like 25 reps and at that point it's just endurance right?

Should I just only do negatives? That seems ok but am I losing anything from not doing the concentric?

I've tried in many workouts to just only think about form but I can never get a true crazy activation in my bicep peaks no matter what I try, it just feels like something is either blocking me there or some other like tendon/ligament is too weak maybe. I care really deeply about mind muscle connection and I've been able to fix a lot of other weak points for me, but biceps been kinda the biggest roadblock for me.

I know that my biceps could get both stronger and bigger, whenever I do pull ups I feel them working and they I feel them afterward as well, but it's def not enough volume for growth. I want curls to work for me and It must be something I'm doing wrong, I just don't know what.

Hopefully this makes sense and I'll gladly explain more if needed. Looking forward to your help.

It's not clear if you're talking about dumbbells or barbells when talking about going between weights, but it sounds like you don't have very precise form, which will make doing more difficult and proper variations more unduly taxing either way. Squeezing just to feel your biceps can distract from proper form as well.

[Pocro]

Except for squeezing the muscle, all of that stuff is important for making the exercise more difficult and proper, it's not a matter of feeling it in the muscle more.



It's not clear if you're talking about dumbbells or barbells when talking about going between weights, but it sounds like you don't have very precise form, which will make doing more difficult and proper variations more unduly taxing either way. Squeezing just to feel your biceps can distract from proper form as well.

I meant barbell when I said I do 40 lbs. I squeeze at the top as that's what I learnt from a video by Jeff Nippard, but that's kind of like a little extra thing that I should be doing on top of focusing on eccentric and concentric though right? I try to do the eccentric slower then the concentric to feel it, but like I said I only feel it at the end of my bicep? When you do curls, do you feel it in the peak of bicep? Should I feel it there? Or am I supposed to feel it only near the elbow?

[air2fakie]

I meant barbell when I said I do 40 lbs. I squeeze at the top as that's what I learnt from a video by Jeff Nippard, but that's kind of like a little extra thing that I should be doing on top of focusing on eccentric and concentric though right? I try to do the eccentric slower then the concentric to feel it, but like I said I only feel it at the end of my bicep? When you do curls, do you feel it in the peak of bicep? Should I feel it there? Or am I supposed to feel it only near the elbow?

It doesn't matter where tf you feel it. It matters that you bring the weight upwards by bending your arm at the elbow, and that you're lowering it back down.

If you're doing a curl in any form or fashion, then you are working your bicep. If you have tiny arms then you're either skinny and/or focusing too much on endless curls, and not enough on using them merely as finishing isolations after doing heavy compound lifts.

[GeneralSerpant]

When you do curls, do you feel it in the peak of bicep?

Yeah I guess, but it's not like my main focus or anything.

There's lots of general things you can do to impact the target muscle more in order to elicit more growth. Overall though you have to be progressively overloading for those things to keep working.

As was said, you shouldn't really be chasing the feel that much. I mean if you're on a track with an exercise then throw stuff in there to see, but you shouldn't be stressing yourself out to find it. Everybody will agree too that curls can generally be the most stubborn of exercises for this kind of thing and you just have to make it work for you. In that case you could focus on making it easier and getting better in the meantime, and that'll probably get you more proper execution of the movement. That's just one idea.

[Pocro]

It doesn't matter where tf you feel it. It matters that you bring the weight upwards by bending your arm at the elbow, and that you're lowering it back down.

If you're doing a curl in any form or fashion, then you are working your bicep. If you have tiny arms then you're either skinny and/or focusing too much on endless curls, and not enough on using them merely as finishing isolations after doing heavy compound lifts.

I would say that I feel biceps a bit after doing pull ups, what other compound lift is good for arms? Rows? I do pull days so it's like back and biceps worked on same day of course. I just need to figure out right form because I know bicep work is at the end of the workout for finishing isolations, I just don't feel it as much.

Also like are you sure it doesn't matter where you feel it, like in terms of it growing? I just looked at the anatomy again and I guess maybe I'm using my brachialis muscles too much perhaps.

[Pocro]

Yeah I guess, but it's not like my main focus or anything.

There's lots of general things you can do to impact the target muscle more in order to elicit more growth. Overall though you have to be progressively overloading for those things to keep working.

As was said, you shouldn't really be chasing the feel that much. I mean if you're on a track with an exercise then throw stuff in there to see, but you shouldn't be stressing yourself out to find it. Everybody will agree too that curls can generally be the most stubborn of exercises for this kind of thing and you just have to make it work for you. In that case you could focus on making it easier and getting better in the meantime, and that'll probably get you more proper execution of the movement. That's just one idea.

I get that, I know I needed to progressive overload but I didn't put it at the front of my mindset in the workout. Today I'm doing pull but I'm gonna treat it as a bicep focused day just to really get mind muscle connection, and restart the whole progress on it. I'll lyk what happens

[air2fakie]

I would say that I feel biceps a bit after doing pull ups, what other compound lift is good for arms? Rows? I do pull days so it's like back and biceps worked on same day of course. I just need to figure out right form because I know bicep work is at the end of the workout for finishing isolations, I just don't feel it as much.

Also like are you sure it doesn't matter where you feel it, like in terms of it growing? I just looked at the anatomy again and I guess maybe I'm using my brachialis muscles too much perhaps.

If you’re weak in general, you won’t have big arms no matter what you’re feeling.

[GeneralSerpant]

I just looked at the anatomy again and I guess maybe I'm using my brachialis muscles too much perhaps.

You said something earlier about driving your pinkies through the bar. That's sort of what you should be doing. The common tendency is for people to grip the bar allowing for limited supination of the arm, as if to do a hammer or curled bar curl. When you supinate your arms then you can grip the bar more with your pinkies along with all the other fingers. Wherever your arms are in the movement, always be gripping with all your fingers, allowing for full supination.

Keep practicing that cue. Don't look for the feeling, just look at doing that with less stress.