Curls

“Well, I’m a Lady, you see, and I like doing Lady Things.”

70’s Big co-captain Doug Young was a behemoth, a mastodon if you will. Some of you veterans will remember one of the first videos we posted about him a while back. Doug was an excellent powerlifter, yet this particular video ironically showcases his bodybuilding “routine”. Kinda flies in the face of our emphasis on doing the barbell lifts in order to get strong and big, huh?

Well, obviously Doug didn’t use alternating dumbbell curls and dumbbell flies to bench 612 in a t-shirt, to routinely total 2,000 lbs, or to win multiple world and national championships. He wanted to look strong while actually being strong. And that is the point.

Once you get your squat above, say, 500 pounds, then you can worry about doing curls.

It is a waste of time to worry yourself with aesthetics if you are 150 pounds — training “arms” won’t make a damn difference. Your arms will grow with overall increases in mass. Not to mention aesthetic based training isn’t going to help you become more useful anyway.

And please, cut the bullshit about doing certain things “for the girls”. Trying to claim that you know what a girl wants is amusing and not all girls are alike anyways. Realistically the only reason you should be pressured into doing curls is if Welbourn and Max tell you that you need some hypertrophy training…

———-

Brent was a little bothered by how none of you commented on his toilet scene in the Tour of WFAC. So, the unassuming Asian felt he had to step it up a notch.

Aside from having big traps and an extreme interest in interpretive dance, Brent is an Olympic weightlifter who is still growing into the 85 kilo weight class. He loves asking questions, eating good food, and typing nonsensical drivel to me in the wee hours of the night.

51 thoughts on “Curls

  1. My girlfriend LOVES the 20+ pounds I”ve put on. Clearly all she wanted for Valentines Day was a real man.

    Besides, if you can”t pick a drunk girl off the floor and put her on a bed, you are basically a useless human being.

  2. I”ve never seen a high total powerlifter who was strong but didn”t look strong, so I think Doug”s curls might have been superfluous, but would I have told him that? Hell no.

  3. A couple of years ago I was on the dating scene and not a single woman seemed to mind that I didn”t have huge biceps or ripped abs. In fact many of them seem to think that it”s the mark of a self absorbed wanker.

    All of them seemed to appreciate my big legs though!

    Personally I think that the best way to impress is to clean and press a girl…

  4. I carried more than a few drunk people this weekend, they all seemed mighty appreciative.

    Brent, your hair is out of fucking control, keep up the good work.

  5. A dancing weightlifter… Nice :) Can he get a girl overhead?

    @Don – I don”t know if cleaning and pressing a chick is the best way to impress her but it sure as hell doesn”t hurt. I giggle just thinking about it.

  6. don stevenson…. funny you mention that man. I was at the last University home basketball game and during halftime the cheerleaders did their pep routine and I shit you not if you watch what the guys do with the girls it is a Clean and Jerk. You take this tiny little girl who is on the ground, get behind her and grab her from the waist. The first move is a hip-pop to throw her up and catch (rack) her at a point just above chest height. after that position is balanced, a short dip and they jerk her over the head.

    Now imagine Rezazadeh in tight clothes, taped wrists and throwing little college girls around :D

  7. WHAT!?! I totally commented on Brent”s toilet scene…but I”m glad his frustration led him to this excellent interpretive dance.

    Well done Brent, and Nice Hair!

  8. Did someone say Little Britain?Computer says no….

    Nice moves Brent. I loved your toilet scene as well, I just feel bad it took me this long to tell you.

  9. Cambo

    I suggest you dispose of them sooner rather than later. My roommates became quickly upset at what I called my “Milk Fort.” When I finally did decide to clean up all the milk jugs by crushing them and throwing them away, the smell was pretty bad. I think I got about 45 of them before I threw them away…

  10. Little Britain was/is pretty big in Australia, I only ever watched the first season though.

    The best is the bloke who fakes being disabled.
    “I want that one!”

    Yeah, I can do his voice pretty well.

    –Justin

  11. Really glad the “arm” situation was addressed on this site. I”m tired of people I program for asking me “why can”t I do curls when I see the likes of Bruch and Young doing curls?” My response is always the same. I tell them to squat 400 first…. but I suppose 500 is an even better number.

    My arms have grown significantly since I stopped body building, and focused on the barbell. If you are looking for ”definition” in your arms I flat out don”t want to train you. If your press isn”t over 200, your bench isn”t over 300, your squat isn”t over 400, and your deadlift over 500…. don”t even say the word ”bicep” around me.

    Sweet ass video… the hair and facial expressions really made it for me.

  12. @caseydonovan:

    You sir are correct. I am a college and competitive cheerleader and the motion for a toss (grabbing hips, throwing into the air) is the exact same as a clean/snatch. the rest of the motions are all variations of a push press, press and jerk. barbell training is one of the best things a cheerleader can do. after having done snatches for a while i can now easily throw a girl as high as my hands are extended above my head.

  13. Awesome stuff brent.

    Justin, have you ever heard of Mitchell and Webb? English comedy similar in style to Little Britain, although in my opinion somewhat better.

    I will have to check it out.

    –Justin

  14. Brent, you”ve been under appreciated lately. I did enjoy your infamous toilet scene, but never commented on it as I as awestruck by the awesomeness of the gym in general.

    You got some serious moves dude.

  15. k9nacl…i have to know, what are the perks of being a male cheerleader? i have my visions, but they may just be wishful thinking… since you are posting anonymously I would appreciate full discretion…

  16. Doug Yongs”” “Pretty Day” in the gym of doing light Flies and Curls probably helped him keep his shoulders and elbows injury free long enough for him to build up a 600+ raw bench.

    Olympic Lifters seem to get by fine without needing to do a whole lot of assistance stuff in order to stay balanced and healthy. The guys at Average Broz Gym in Vegas and the Bulgarians only do like 7 different lifts in their training.

    Then you””ve got pro strongmen, many of whom do very heavy curls.

    So, yeah. Guess I””m trolling pretty hard right now. I agree that tiny novices don””t need to bother with curls as they don””t have enough contractile tissue to even benefit from the exercise, but would everyone really be better off waiting till they can squat 500 before doing curls? I””ve been told that only Siths deal in absolutes.

    Sorry for being such an asshole about this.

    You are suggesting that curls and flies helped doug stay injury free? Please explain this.

    –Justin

  17. Cutting a rug on the gym floor!
    Very nice!

    I have 6 Little Britain talking dolls in my bar. Andy & Lou are the funniest by a long shot.
    Cracks me up.

  18. Jim,

    how”s training? i”m about to drop my membership at Express Fitness but i would like to watch some of your other lifts and follow up with your power clean

    email me, brent.km at gmail.com

  19. i have a question.
    i””d like to add a conditioning workout once a week(later switch to combine drills).
    today the gym was closed to i pushed my dads truck, it was GRUELING. especially because it was on sheer ice and it was 5 degrees outside.
    anyway, i””d like to do that again, think of it instead of prowler pushes.
    anyway, when should I include truck pushes? post workout or on non-working day? which workout of the week(conditioning on friday won””t have the same effect on the rest of the training week as in monday)? how should progress be made? i””ve done 10 trips of 40-50 yards with 50 secs rest. I””m assuming it””ll be harder to do post workout. My sport is football if that matters. I””m assuming progress should consist of reducing rest time to 20-30 seconds, and increasing the number of trips. once these are achieved, load the truck with fat chicks and keep pushin?

    Questions like these are too individualized. There are too many unknown variables that prevent me from answering.

    –Justin

  20. @ Justin

    I am suggesting that flies and curls helped keep Doug Young””s joints healthy in the face of Squats and Heavy Benching.

    It””s no secret that when you””re benching 600 pounds, you must have some serious triceps, and there””s gonna be some serious power running through your elbow. You can””t expect your elbow to be healthy if you don””t have some strong biceps to balance things out. Even in gyms like Westside Barbell and Supertraining in Sacramento you””ll find big benchers doing a set of Hammer Curls to keep their elbows healthy and balanced.

    Big benchers like Doug Youngs and Bill Kaz usually have poor shoulder flexibility, so when they squat they take a wide grip. This can be rough on your elbows. I imagine it would be even worse if you didn””t have strong enough elbows to keep the torque to a minimum.

    Then there””s the deadlift. With a mixed grip there””s gonna be some stress on that biceps tendon. Even elite powerlifters still tear their biceps. Yes, I am saying that doing curls might prevent tearing one””s biceps.

    Finally, Doug””s ultra-light files (the dude””s using like 35s) probably staved off a pec tear or two that might have occurred otherwise. Pec tears are all to common. Josh Bryant, a 600+ raw bencher of this era does a lot of dumbbell flies. Dave Tate returned from injuries by doing 100 rep reverse-band bench presses. One of Loui Simmon””s favorite machines in his gym is an ancient looking plate loaded machine chest press. Ryan Kenelly hops on a Pec-Deck at the end of his Repetition Effort Workouts. No matter what exercise they choose, lots of big benchers are pumping up their pecs with light weights and high reps to improve the integrity of their shoulder.

    These guys aren””t doing light pec-fly exercises to get more pressing power. That””s what the benching, military pressing, and board pressing is for. They””re doing these exercises so their pec and pec tendon will have experienced some direct stress and won””t snap when they””re pushing heavy weight.

    Having said all that, kids benching 205 and squatting 295 aren””t at risk for pec tears and elbow tendonitis the same way a seasoned lifter. At this point power cleans, military pressing, and chin-ups will provide enough balance to their musculature so they can avoid injury. Curls and Flys should be avoided by tiny people as they have no muscle to work with when doing these exercises. But I think these little exercises have more of a place than just making people look strong.

    That’s a lot of fucking assumption (and way too much writing) about a guy who has simply said, “I don’t just want to be strong, I want to look strong.” More importantly, I still do not see a physiological reasoning, just lots of assuming.

    –Justin

  21. It”s been my understanding that training to bench 270 odd kg will produce all the necessary stress to cause the adaptions required to survive benching 270…

    Given that Doug”s arms were capable of benching 270kg, how do 16kg curls even produce a stress capable of generating a response out of his muscles and tendons?

    How does an isolation exercise at such light weight produce a neuroendocrine response in a nervous system that is capable of benching and pressing so much more weight?

    It must be concluded that these exercises are not done to produce a training effect producing greater strength, but are followed to produce a different training effect.

    As an aside I would be interested in others thoughts on the stress induced by dynamic movements such as cleans, jerks, snatches, kipping during pull/chin ups, double unders etc. I.e. could you generate sufficient forces in the muscles/tendons/ligaments/menisci of such a strong man through light weight dynamic movements? Or, is the benefit in these exercises (and other fast dynamic exercises) in the co-ordination, balance etc that are required?

  22. I”m going to disagree on most, but not all, fronts to mr. penn, its really late and I dont want to type a book out here… but curls arent helping your DL, and flys arent helping your bench…

    Ask anyone who comes from a bodybuilding format that tries to transition into barbell training… theres no balance/stability/flexibility or anything that carries over. I can”t see how this would translate once people got bigger. Flys and curls pump the shit out of your muscle, mad inflation, other than that… I don”t see them helping

    I could MAYBE see power curls helping your clean… past that… I dont know…

  23. Little Britain””s second season was better. Bubbles de Vere and the Indian girl scout selling cookies come to mind.

    I am still making my way through series 1. Looking forward to it.

    –Justin

  24. Nothing wrong with curls. I don”t know when everybody got down on training your arms with isolated movements. All big benchers train their tris and bis. And it is fun.

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