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Fire up your biceps and forearms with the Zottman Curl, a one-of-a-kind exercise.
In case you desire an incredible stunning pair of pipes, focus only on building well-developed biceps and triceps is not enough. You need to pay attention to your forearms, as well. They are regarded as a vital muscle group for a whole physique and functional grip strength.
Unfortunately, most all people tend to train their forearms half-heartedly in an arm workout. Worse, they may completely ignore them. The reason may be that gym-goers don't want to work on a relatively small body part in their performance.
In my opinion, having a time allotment to take an isolated forearm exercise is necessary. However, if it is not your priority option, you can try the Zottman Curl - the one that effectively hits both your biceps and forearms.
Wonder what the Zottman Curl is? It's the combination of supinated dumbbell curl and pronated curl. The supinated curl is a common exercise to aim at your biceps, while the controlled negative in the pronated position targets your forearms for ultimate growth.
Hence, don’t forget to make this move while training your biceps. It's a must if you're planning an excellent biceps/forearms program.
The Zottman Curl, like the Arnold Press and Scott Curl, is a particular version of a classic exercise named after a physique legend. George Zottman was a well-known Philadelphia strongman athlete in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Even though he died in 1942, his exercise bears his name nearly 80 years later.
It's difficult to determine why he conceived the exercise based on scant historical sources. But, it's easy to see why it's named after him. He had 19-inch (upper) arms and 15-inch forearms, weighing in at a solid 5’11’’ and 218 pounds. Most 5’11’’ men don't have 15-inch upper bodies, much fewer forearms! In the 1800s, before exercise science was even a thing, his measurements were even more remarkable. He was also given the name “Hercules.”
The Zottman Curl targets three main muscles: the biceps brachii, brachialis, and brachioradialis.
The biceps brachii is the primary muscle involved on each rep’s positive portion (supinated forearms). The brachialis and brachioradialis take the brunt of the load on the negative (pronated forearms).
Zottman Curls, as previously said, are excellent for improving both the biceps and forearms. The movement works your biceps in a similar manner to a typical dumbbell twist, with the forearms in a supinated posture (palms forward/up) the whole time.
The Zottman Curl is best known for its negative portion, which focuses on the forearms. But it’s not only your forearms that are targeted. They’re also overloaded to a greater degree than in standard reverse curls, where the forearms are still pronated.
The explanation for this is simple: curling with your forearms supinated is a more biomechanically advantageous posture. As a result, you will still use more weight on regular curls than reverse curls. Supinated curls on the way up lets you use more weight than you will for reverse curls, leading to a stronger negative rep and more significant forearm overload for the Zottman Curl.
The Zottman Curl is more of a forearm-focused exercise. On the good portion of the rep, you still get the same biceps overload on a regular dumbbell curl.
Such an unprecedented move. It's all about the biceps on the way up. On the way down, you will strongly hit your forearms. Of course, the forearms and biceps are involved on the positive, but to a lesser extent.
On Zottman Curls, don't presume that the biceps have more work than the forearms simply because they get the positive portion of each rep. The negative portion of the rep delivers a great shock to your muscles that is incredibly beneficial for becoming more prominent and robust as the weight is lowered under complete pressure.
Most people ignore the rep’s eccentric (negative) part, assuming that the muscle only works when the weight is lifted, not when it is lowered. This is not true. The ability to resist the weight on the downside is a crucial feature of strength, and it's the part of the exercise that's most closely linked to muscle soreness in the days after a workout. If the muscles get a complete recovery by diet and rest, the soreness will gradually turn to increased size and strength.
Don’t overdo the Zottman Curls. Dumbbells that make for 10-15 reps of regular curls are ideal.
It would be difficult to manage the weight on the negative in the reverse grip (pronated) position if you go too hard. On the way back, you don't want the weight to drop too quickly. That would negate the exercise’s objective. The negative should be pleasant and regulated, which necessitates a lighter load.
Finishing the Zottman Curls with regular curls is a perfect way to maximize volume on a given range. What is the reason for this? As previously said, the negative portion of a Zottman Curl rep is thicker than your forearms are used to on reverse curls. As a consequence, your muscles can get fatigued and subsequently give out.
If this occurs, don't stop the set. Instead, finish it with traditional dumbbell curls without pronating the forearms or wrists at the end of the rep. You will get a few more reps by doing the negatives in the supinated position. When you do this, you're actually working to exhaustion, increasing speed and resulting in more muscle and momentum.
For example, if you can't lower the negative under control after ten reps of Zottman Curls, turn to standard curls in the middle of the set and do 2-3 more reps.
I usually recommend doing Zottman Curls with both arms at the same time, but you can do them one arm at a time and work on each component separately. Alternate arms every other rep if you go this way, much as you can for alternating dumbbell curls.
Curl the right arm up with the forearm supinated (palm facing forward), pronate the forearm at the tip, lower the negative under control, and repeat with the left arm. That counts as one rep.
You can add Zottman Curls to your arm workout in two ways: after your biceps workout or as a transition exercise from biceps to forearms.
A classic “transition” exercise is the Zottman Curl. It's a biceps and forearm move at the same time. If you're just working your biceps and not your forearms, finish with Zottman Curls to get a little forearm stimulus while still pounding your biceps hard. Do Zottman Curls after your last actual biceps movement and before the first isolated forearm motion if you're doing both biceps and forearms (one after the other).
A biceps/forearms routine using the Zottman Curl as a "bridge" exercise is seen below:
Exercise |
Sets |
Reps |
Barbell Curl |
3 |
8-10 |
Incline Dumbbell Curl |
3 |
6-8* |
EZ-Bar Preacher Curl |
3 |
10-12** |
Zottman Curl |
3 |
8-10*** |
Reverse Curl |
2 |
10-12 |
Seated Dumbbell Wrist Curl |
2 |
15** |
* *On the last set, take 1-2 rest-pauses.
**On the last set, do 1-2 drop sets.
***After hitting failure on the last set, switch to regular supinated curls before you hit failure again.
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A complex branched-chain amino acid in the 3: 1: 2 BCAA MusclePharm not only delivers the BCAA amount but also gives you exactly what your body needs. With the ideal combination of l-leucine (3 grams per serving), l-valine (2 grams), and l-isoleucine (1 gram), you will receive all the benefits of BCAAs before and after training. It is the perfect combination of BCAAs to reduce muscle loss, promote muscle growth, increase thin people’s weight, and even assist with fat loss.
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(1) Selsby et al., J. Strength and Cond. Res. 18(2):311-315, 2004.
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