This New Lifting Rule Will Help to Add Inches to Your Biceps

No, we dont mean that you have to pray for them (as if you hadnt already tried that); rather, doing your curls from a kneeling position forces you to perform them with better, stricter form. Using precise form and creating a better mental connection to the muscles youre working is the surest way to build them up fastits better than lifting heavy.

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Try the tall-kneeling curl with a halfway pause, courtesy of Mens Health fitness editor Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S., creator of the New Rules of Muscle program (available on DVD and the new streaming All Out platform ).

New Rule: Do Curls On Your Knees

Step 1. Grasp a moderate-weight dumbbell in each hand and kneel on the floor with arms at your sides. Tuck your pelvis under slightly so its parallel to the floor and brace your core and glutes. Draw your shoulder blades back and downward (think: proud chest).
Step 2. Keeping your upper arms at your sides, begin curling the dumbbells up (dont let your elbows drift forward). As you raise the weights, twist your wrists outward so that your palms face the ceiling at the halfway point. Pause there for a second, when your forearms are parallel to the floor, and flex your biceps.
Step 3. Continue the curl, coming up all the way, and flex again at the top.
Step 4. Lower the weights to your sides to finish the rep. Perform 4 sets of 10 to 12 reps.

Most people dont make a strong mind-muscle connection when they train, says Samuel. They arent able to concentrate on the muscles theyre working, and that limits the amount of muscle they can activate. By curling from the knees and pausing, you reduce the tendency to sway your back and swing the weights up, as you might do when standing, and you perform a stricter set that really makes you focus on the biceps.

Why not just sit on a bench and a curl? That works too , but Samuel says most of us do enough sitting as it is; the kneeling position makes you practice good posture, and requires more effort from your core. Everything we do in the New Rules workouts starts at the core to offset the weakness that sitting at desks has caused, says Samuel.

You wont be able to go as heavy doing kneeling curls as you would pumping out reps standing (where we all tend to use a little body English), but that doesnt matter, as your muscles will be working harderlifting the weight with their own might, not the assistance of momentum. My goal is for people who try this to think the curl more, says Samuel. To really own the movement at every point in the range of motion.

You dont have to do all your curls on your knees from now on, but doing them down there for a while with pauses will lead to better form on standing curls in the future. Samuel says: How many people do you see who shift their elbows forward when they curlthereby shifting some of the stress to the front delts? Theyll do this in the first half of the movement. So by pausing at parallel, you identify that flaw and correct it.

For more tips and tricks to explode your muscle gains, pick up the New Rules of Muscle on DVD or on the All Out streaming service .