Nilsson Curls - The Best Bicep Exercise EVER...

If you want to TRULY maximize your bicep mass, you're going to LOVE this exercise. It's one of my very favorite for building biceps.

The reason I named it after myself is that it basically summarizes what I'm all about - doing everything completely "backwards" and getting MUCH better results!

The Nilsson Curl looks almost exactly like a chin-up. In fact, another name I've called this exercise is the "Forearm-Braced Chin-Up". Because what you'll be doing IS a chin-up...but you'll be doing that chin-up with your forearms braced against another bar so that the VAST majority of the tension goes to your biceps instead of your back.

You'll need to be able to do probably 5 or 6 or so regular chins before you can really use this exercise, just fyi.

Think about it - imagine the kind of growth response you'll get from an exercise that puts the tension of almost your entire bodyweight directly onto your biceps...

That's the beauty of the exercise - it's a bodyweight exercise, which means increased muscle fiber activation AND you use your entire bodyweight to do it.

To do this exercise, you'll need a rack or a chin-up bar that allows you to set another close underneath it. Alternatively, you can also use the metal ladder of playground apparatus (that works quite well, too).

If you have a power rack that has pins you can slide in and out of the frame (I don't - mine are intergrated right into the rack) you can also more easily get this set up by setting one safety rail in the top set of holes then the other safety rail in a set of holes below (making your own ladder, essentially). That's the easiest way to set this up and how I used to do it when I had access to a rack that I could do it with.

Now get in the rack and take a close, underhand grip on the top bar. Your forearms should be braced up against the bottom bar, just above your elbows. Your arms should be straight at the bottom.

Now start doing a chin-up. As you pull yourself up, your forearms are pressed against the bottom bar, changing it to a biceps-oriented movement.

Pull yourself all the way then lower slowly.

As you get stronger with it, you can also add weight by holding a dumbell between your feet or wearing a dip belt. But that's VERY advanced. This exercise is just BRUTAL even with just your bodyweight.

Take this exercise for a spin on your next bicep workout. Do it FIRST in your bicep routine (trust me). You won't need to do pretty much anything else for bi's when you do 3 or 4 sets of this one...

 

Standing Nilsson Curls

This version is useful for when you'r either not strong enough to do the feet-up version where you're using your entire bodyweight for resistance or you're just too tired to do enough reps to really get much out of it.

It's basically the exact same exercise as above only instead of setting the bars up high, you set them a bit lower so you can keep your feet on the ground and spot yourself by standing up when you need help!

The Nilsson Curl is basically a chin-up with your forearms braced up against another bar. When you have your forearms braced, it throws the majority of the tension of the chin-up directly onto the biceps - much more so even than chins done with your body vertical.

Stopping the forearms from moving forward is what does it - the difference between this and a regular chin-up is just AMAZING. You'll feel ALL the tension go right into the biceps.

So here's what the standing version looks like. You can do this in rack, using the set up I have here or you can use the safety rails in the rack - just set the two rails into one side so they look like ladder rungs - it'll give you the same effect.

With this version, I have a bar setting in the racking pins and a bar sitting on top of the rails. I have the weight on the top bar to help keep it from moving. You want about a foot spacing in between the two bars.

You'll be gripping the top bar and bracing your forearms on the bottom bar.

So stand in front of the bar and get a grip - a little inside shoulder width - underhand grip.

Set your feet a little forward then squat down.

Now pull yourself up, as though you were doing a chin-up. Use your feet only as much as you need to for help. The majority should be bicep pull.

Pull all the way to the top and squeeze your biceps HARD.

Lower and repeat. Use help from your legs only as much as you need to. You can also use this setup to do negative reps, standing up on the positive and taking your feet off the ground to use your full bodyweight on the negative.

Your biceps will be on fire after a few sets of this one - a bodyweight bicep exercise!