Nothing will replace the straight bar for me when doing curls.

Ez bar does have it advantages over the straight like skull crunchers / and back arms other then that straight bar is king.

The straight barbell, on the other hand, is difficult to use with heavy weights because it stresses your wrists/hands (and not in a good way).

So the bottom line is, it doesn’t really work different muscles, but it allows you to work your biceps through their full range of motion without the limitations caused by the un-ergonomic straight barbell. Therefore, you will be able to use more weight while maintaining strict form.

For most folks, it doesn’t matter that much. But if you really want to “blast” your biceps, the ez curl bar makes your wrists feel much better.

Thank You

Olympic barbells weigh 45 lbs.

The most important aspect and overlooked is whether you muscle is fast twitch or slow twitch, and train accordingly. The easiest way is to go back to your athletic history in junior high were you more capable as a distance runner or sprinter. Then adjust your reps and sets for your muscle type. Are you an Arnold or Zane. Otherwise get an MRI.

Everyone has both, but a distance runner will not be a sprinter. So by gradually increase the reps by not changing the weight over a 4 week cycle you will go through the rep range hit both fast and slow. 5 to 6 reps at the start to 12 to 15 reps at the end of the cycle.

One error I would like to point out: preacher curls do not target the bicep while fully stretched. The bicep actually never stretches as much in a preacher as you will in a standing curl. This is because when you raise the elbows in front of you and put them on the pad, the shoulder flexion shortens the bicep across the shoulder joint.

What would be more correct to say is that the preacher emphasizes tension in the stretched position. As in, with a regular curl, even though the bicep is stretched further out, the amount of work you need to do when it is at that position is not very large. You could hold the bottom as long as possible and not exhaust the biceps because they’re in line with gravity.

In contrast to this, preacher loads more when the elbow is straighter.

Another key aspect of it is that it eliminates movement of the shoulder joint. In standing curl, the elbows can drift backward at the start to make the job easier. This is prevented since the pad stops it in preacher movement.

Another key thing is how tension can be lost at te top of the movement if the elbows are raised and the hands get closer to the shoulder (in horizantal distance) than the elbow, because then the triceps will work to prevent flexion.