This Exercise Is Such A Time Waster

I see it all of the time and think “oh, that poor woman has no idea she is wasting her time and will never get the results she really wants.” The never fail exercise, biggest waste of time exercise, I’m talking about is Bicep Curls! She thinks by doing this exercise her arms will get toned (that’s another thing that needs to be clarified in a later post) and she’ll lose fat.

What a time waster! It’s not the worst exercise; it’s just not worth doing if you are a busy mom looking for fat loss. I admit it. I used to do this exercise, too, but that was before I was married, had a baby or even a career. I remember doing bicep curls in a variety of ways, too.  Sitting on the bench with one elbow tucked into the opposite knee like on that “motivational” poster you used to see, standing and using a curl bar and even lying down and doing curls with two dumbbells. You know what? By doing those bicep curls, while I got stronger at doing bicep curls, I never got the results I was ultimately looking for which was weight loss, more accurately fat loss (I didn’t realize that at the time, either!) 

Fast-forward to current day and I never do bicep curls or triceps kickbacks or any other isolating exercise. I don’t have time or even the desire to stand there doing one exercise at a time. Now I only do multi-joint exercises for full body strength gain and fat loss.  It’s worked out much better for me, too! 

By the way, if you are a body builder or have all the time in the world, then go ahead and do some bicep curls. However, if you’re a busy mom who has better things to do than hang out in your basement or in the gym, then it’s time to ditch this old time, body-body builder’s exercise. There are plenty of exercises that are more efficient and just as, or more, effective than this isolated exercise. 

Instead of doing an isolated muscle exercise like bicep curls, try full body exercises that work multiple body parts at one time, get your heart rate up and really boost your metabolism for hours afterwards.

Examples of exercises you can do instead of isolated curls are:

• Inverted Row
• One-Leg Standing Row w/ a Reverse Lunge
• Pull-Ups

All of these exercises work multiple joints and involve pulling. Pulling activities engage the bicep concentrically which means the muscles develop tension with shortening or bending. The bicep muscles are the prime movers of the arm during these exercises so just because you’re not doing a bicep curl, doesn’t mean you are neglecting your arms.

 Make your workouts more effective and time efficient by doing multi-joint exercises that build beautiful, lean, athletic muscles and also help reduce the amount of fat covering those muscles!