This originates from a method that Pierre Roy (former coach of the Canadian National Weightlifting team) used with his female lifters. In Olympic lifting, women lift using a bar smaller in diameter than men's: 25 versus 28mm. While it may not look like a big difference, it's night and day when it comes to the feeling in your hands.
Pierre had female lifters warm up, and even do their lighter work sets, with the thicker men's bar before they switched to the women's bar for the heavier sets. There are two benefits to this:
When switching to the thinner bar, their hands could wrap around it more easily, it felt lighter, and it increased their confidence which lead to an improvement in performance.
The homunculus is the visual representation of the importance of each body part in your nervous system. The homunculus has huge hands because your hands have the largest representation in your nervous system – the hands send and receive more info than any other body part. The harder your hands work, the more it activates the nervous system. A more activated nervous system can recruit more muscle fibers and produce more force.
It's this second benefit that'll be the most important to you. What you'll do is alternate between sets of curls using a thick bar and sets using a standard bar.
This will require a fat bar (two inches thick) or Fat Gripz which can be added to a regular barbell to make it thicker.
You'll start with a set of curls using the thicker grip, rest for two to two-and-a-half minutes, then do a set with a regular grip using the same weight. After your set with a regular grip, you'll rest for four minutes and go through the process two more times (for a total of 6 sets).
This method will maximize muscle fiber recruitment and stimulation, allowing you to trigger more biceps growth and strength gains. Try this once or twice per week for four weeks.
T Nation earns from qualifying purchases as an Amazon Associate. Read more about our policy.
Ask Me Anything I receive great questions in my T Nation Community Coaching Lab. If…
Ask Me Anything I get a lot of great questions in my T Nation Community…
An Exaggerated Warm-Up Isn't Helpful I don't know when the lengthy warm-up became a thing,…
Training and Your Metabolic State When I think "workout," I think of speeds. Your metabolic…