Tuesday, April 21, 2009

  • The Reverse Curl


    • "One of the greatest tests of forearm strength is to curl a thick bar with the over-grip. Once I bought a round steel bar, about 3 feet long and 2 inches thick, which weighed 65 lbs. To do a two-arm curl with this steel bar was a cinch if you used the under-grip; but when you tried to curl it with the over-grip, the bar would slip out of your hands when the arms were bent half way.

    Lots of lifters who could do a back-hand curl easily with a thin-handled 100-lb. bar-bell, utterly failed to do the same thing with the thick 65-lb. bar. Anton Matysek could do it easily; Juvenal, the oarsman, could do it with even greater ease; and Zottman simply played with it.

    In order to curl the bar successfully, it was necessary to have tremendous gripping power in the hands and great strength in the muscles on the outside of the forearm; but the gripping power was more important.

    This stunt interested me so much that I had a special bar made, which consisted of a 2 inch pipe, and from each end of that pipe projected a 1-inch iron rod. We could load up the handle by slipping plates over the 1-inch rods. At one of our exhibitions Matysek demonstrated the exercise while I explained the principles involved.

    Joe Nordquest, who was present, demanded that he be allowed to try his strength, and soon there was a competition in progress. According to our rules, the lifter had to stand bolt upright and keep his elbows at his sides, in order to prevent him from getting any advantage from a swing of the body or a movement of the upper arms.

    One of the two claimed that the other one was not playing fair; so before each attempt we bound a belt around their upper arms, as in shown above. Matysek finally won with 88 lbs., which was harder than curling a thin-handled 125-l.b bar-bell. Tests like that interest me far more than lifts in which a man's ability is dependent on skill as well as strength."

    ~ Alan Calvert
    Super Strength, Chapter 17

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    Posted by John Wood @ Tuesday, April 21, 2009

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