Steve had an idea, a theory, a way of looking at biceps exercise that he called positions of flexion.
Those of you of heard of this will most likely remember it as just one of 1 million other theories back in the good old Wieder days. But for those of us who read Ironman religiously, it was more than a theory. We actually made some decent progress with it.
The theory went like this: What you needed to do was work the muscle from each of its angles or positions of flexion. First you would work the muscle through what Steve called the midrange. This would be a movement that allowed the muscle to work throughout the range of the rep from beginning to end without an extreme contraction or stretch. An example for biceps would be a standing barbell curl. You would also want to work the muscle in the stretch position. For biceps, this would be at the bottom of a set of incline curls where you would be leaning back on a 45° incline bench with your arms hanging down towards the floor. The contracted position would be the last position you would work and this would be a position where the muscle would be completely contracted and bunched up. Think the top of the fly or the top of the standing barbell curl.
If you wanted to use this technique to work your biceps you would do it thusly:
First the stretch position. Grab a pair of dumbbells that you can easily get eight reps with and lay back on a 45° angle incline bench. Lower them to your sides and let your arms hang straight down to the floor. You don’t want to use too much weight with this, or you will be putting on more stress on your shoulders then you like. Curl the dumbbells up supinating your wrists as you go. You would not do a hard crunch at the top, as this will be taken care of in the contracted position exercise to come.
To hit the midrange of your biceps, a good choice would be standing barbell curls. Keep the crook in your elbow at the bottom of the movement so as not to strain the ligaments on the inside of your arms, and curl up, but not all the way. Stop with the bar about 8 inches out from your chest. Lower to just above the bottom of the rep range, and repeat.
The contracted position would be taking care of with concentration curls. I like to do these one arm at a time and seated. Pick up a dumbbell with your left hand, and place your left elbow on the inside of your left thigh. Lean forward, and curl the dumbbell up to the top of the movement. If you’re positioned correctly your bicep muscle should be bunched up and fully contracted at the top of the movement.
Positions of flexion has long since fallen out of favor with the bodybuilding masses, but when I do decide to revisit it, I feel like I’m seeing an old flame for the first time in years. It always gives me a great workout and I’m reminded of why it created such a stir when it was new. You may want ot consider making it part of your regular bicep exercise routine.