As the Mr. Olympia 2024 draws near, each athlete is doing their best to train in ways that ensure they stand out from others. The competition this year might get difficult in the Classic Physique division with the victory of Wesley Vissers at the Arnold Classic. Another new face that will make the battle fierce is Dominican Classic Physique athlete, Fabiony Sylvain, who also qualified for the Olympia. 

Despite the contenders in the division, five-time Mr. Olympia, Chris Bumstead, is aiming to have a sixth Mr. Olympia title under his name. Recently, in an arms training vlog uploaded to his YouTube channel, he shared that he was training his forearms like the seven-time Mr. Olympia Phil Heath. Let’s find out what CBum was doing differently to achieve his goal.

CBum does preacher curls for massive forearms

The five-time Mr. Olympia began his forearm workout with a triple superset of the preacher curls, but with a twist, doing them with a reverse grip. He highlighted that many gym freaks don’t know about this exercise. Bumstead further explained, “I’m trying to do a four-second negative pull it back up, and I’ve never felt an exercise more on my brachialis trying to get that Phil Heath forearm.”

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Then he moved on to a new exercise, a variation of incline concentration curls. The five-time Mr. Olympia shared the right way to perform the exercise: “You’re lying down holding the dumbbell pinky closest to the edge of the dumbbell, trying to rotate pinkies up as much as you can really wide and getting a deep thresh at the bottom.”

Bumstead ended his workout with the Lego preacher curls. He highlighted that this provides a “full range of motion.” Doing preacher curls has its benefits; it helps you make your biceps and forearms stronger at the same time and creates a more natural angle, providing more eccentricity in comparison with regular bicep curls. 

As the modern era takes over the gym, there are new exercises discovered every day. There’s a new debatable topic in the fitness community: are bicep curls as good as preacher curls for optimal growth? Let’s delve deeper into the topic.

Bicep curls vs. preacher curls

Preacher curls are a variation of your regular bicep curls and can be performed with dumbbells or an EZ curl bar with common weights. They go through a complete range of motion in comparison with bicep curls. Preacher curls allow the bicep to focus on both long and short muscle heads simultaneously. 

They target different body parts depending on your grip. Preacher curls leave no room for the use of momentum, which you could use while doing standing bicep curls. The use of momentum compromises the proper form and technique, decreasing the bicep isolation. Preacher curls are a good choice for the aesthetic growth of your biceps, whereas bicep curls provide more practical strength. It’s up to you what you’re comfortable with; you can go for either of the curls according to your requirements.

After learning the benefits of preacher curls and regular bicep curls, which one of them will you add to your arms day? Let us know in the comments.