Need Help with Concentration Curls on Stability Ball

[faiza]

Hi All!

Can anyone give me some form pointers for doing bicep concentration curls on the stability ball? In one of the Timesaver workouts, Cathe places her elbow on the stability ball and does a curl. I could not feel any tension from doing this move. I know that the ball is supposed to create an unstable environment so you feel the burn, but my arm felt supported once I placed it on the ball. Should I be pushing my elbow into the ball? Can someone point out what I might be doing wrong?

Thanks much
Faiza

 

[CurlyQ]

With concentration curls you should be able to up your weight since you don't need to support your arm because the ball is doing it for you. The idea for using the ball isn't to make your arm unstable, it's to make your overall balance unstable so you use core muscles to keep yourself upright (not very challenging in this exercise).

Good luck, if all else fails just do a concentration curl sitting on the step (elbow supported by your inner thigh).

 

[clareMc]

Interesting.

I had always understood that the point of concentration curls/preacher curls is to isolate the biceps muscle, keep the arm rock still, and make sure that what's lifting that weight is pure muscle with no momentum coming in to assist and no other movements or postures of the body coming in to assist either, which can happen with regular standing bicep curls. In which case, initially, you may find you have to lower your weight, because there's no momentum heping you to lift.

I think Cathe uses the ball here because she understands that we will not have access to the necessary benches that you can use at the gym for preacher curls.

Clare

 

[CurlyQ]

I've always found that I can lift more weight with my arm supported because I'm not focusing on keeping my arm still and my core rigid. Also, your arm is at an incline so you don't have a full range of motion and the gravitational pull is at the higher end of the move/muscle(45 degrees rather than 90)which is easier for the biceps.

concentration curls can also be done sitting on a bench or step with one elbow supported on the inner thigh (in this case the force is at 90 degrees so they are a bit harder than doing them on the ball.)

 

[faiza]

RE: Need Help with Concentration Curls on Stability Bal...

Hi CurlyQ!

So, should I just pretend that I am using the stability ball in place of my inner thigh for the curl? I've never done concentration curls on a bench at the gym so I don't know how that movement will be executed. But when working with the ball, should I think of it as a bench that my arms are resting on while I do the curl? Also, does it matter how inflated your ball is? I think that it would offer more support if it had more air, hence, cause less instability. And I thought that the reason the ball was used is because it creates an unstable environment.

Sorry to be such a pest; I really wanna feel this exercise

Many thanks to you and Clare for your responses

Faiza