BICEPS: The KEY To Real World Strength
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- Опубліковано 26 лип 2024
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0:00 Part One: Back, Legs, Arms
3:25 Part Two: Sandbags
6:10 Part Three: Mid-Range
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Disclaimer: The Stone Circle is not a doctor or a medical professional. Always consult a physician before starting any exercise program. Use of this information is strictly at your own risk. The Stone Circle will not assume any liability for direct or indirect losses or damages that may result from the use of information contained in this video including but limited to economic loss, injury, illness or death.
Im a texas farmer.
every month i have to unload a 2 ton (4,000lb) shipments of 50lb sacks of feed into my storage barn.
By picking 1 sack at a time of a truck and carry it up steps to the area i then stack it, 1 by 1. The weakest muscle is the biceps as i can always shift muscles around to rest others a bit but the biceps dont rest and every month i notice thats the muscle that gets tired the most.
The other task is shovel work, as a shovel is daily work with something needing shoveling, again biceps are the first muscle to scream in fatigue.
Farmer's strength is unmatched. My bloodline is generations of farmers. Hardworking man strength is battle ready
Now that's some real world insight right there thank you!!
@@torringtonstonekeeper just watch out for the draft, uncle Sam 👀 likes farmers.
You farm Texas's?
@@Nickraculoushow do you think it got so big? We've been slowly growing its size for generations it's projected to bigger than Alaska by 2035
That's a good observation. People who talk about "functional" lifting never mention the biceps. But whenever I am moving some awkward objects like furniture around, the biceps are always doing a lot of work. Definetly the most underrated muscle for strength.
I've noticed that too, digging with a shovel, your biceps and lower back scream. Those muscles being your limiting factors
Word they are functional tbh
Most trainers who talk about "functional" fitness, have never picked up a sandbag or done anything that is actually functional. The term has been so diluted by dipshits like Naudi Aguilar and his ilk, it has practically lost all meaning.
@Voidrunner01 I've never heard of that person but I know the type haha. I almost hesitate to use the word functional just because it's become such a marketing thing, but there's really no other word for it. Strong biceps make you function better!
@MarianoGrande1 For sure! You spend all this time learning perfect straight arm lifting technique in the gym, only to go lift a couch and realize theres no possible way to lift like that haha
I learned this from a Navy SEAL when I was in the military. He used to program biceps specifically and I asked him why when most people see it as a mirror muscle and he said they found it hard to climb up ships without direct bicep training. He said it was the missing link.
Now that's some real world experience!!
I started doing’s direct bicep work when I became a wildland firefighter 4 years ago. Running a chainsaw all day, falling trees, bucking them up and carrying the rounds up a cut bank made me realize how “functional” curls are
Dang putting in the work!! Thanks for your real world experience!
Exactly what I was thinking, carrying a 65 pound MK3 III with broken or missing backpack straps isn’t fun even with developed biceps lol
Every muscle has a purpose.
No muscle is really "cosmetic" like the "optimal" experts claim
For sure!
Seriously true. I've de-emphasized my chest training because I figured shoulders were a more important upper body muscle. Then I find that I have to drag a big ass log somewhere and, low and behold, to keep it from slipping out of my hands I need to basically squeeze it and the first thing to go out was not my back but my chest. There are no "show muscles"
Mother nature knows best
Strong men often say you're only as strong as your hands and arms, since they're the primary interface.
Nah legs for sure.
@appa609 either sarcasm, or you missed the point of the video, it's everything, but a lot of people neglect the already predictably weaker muscles. What happens when you can't even grip or lift something onto your back to then move it efficiently as opposed to a conveniently placed barbell...
@@appa609all the people on these comments are 100% delusional
@@cam-inf-4w5lower back is the key to everything. Bad lower back and you can’t pick up, bend down, can’t do anything, even sleep properly.
@@Ironborne the downfall of many many many strong(est) people. Especially during a deadlift to permanent injury.
My lower back was messed up for about a year from extreme one sided lifting at my work and i just now got the knot out but it flares up still. It kept me from working out. Now im doing high rep rdls at lower weight and stretches and hanging holds with pullups and it hasnt came back since.
Youre 100% correct i couldnt even sleep without it being there or waking up with it and nothing i could do would jerk it into place or stretch it. I had to take a scary amount of time off and do "lame" exercises wondering if i was already becoming a decrepit old man like all the other broke down workers on construction sites.
I completely agree, but bicep strength without forearm strength is like an F1 car without tyres. I think forearms are actually more important overall as they make you able to actually hold objects or to grab them.
Completely agree my forearms have finally caught up to my biceps and it feels great
Very true!
Forearm strength is trash unless your finger have ape-like grip strength
@@skarhead7597Isn't finger/grip strength mainly provided by the forearms(antebrachium?)
@@skarhead7597 The largest of the finger flexors are located in the forearm (in fact, they usually make up at least a third of the muscle mass in the forearm) and can be trained pretty easily- most people just don't bother. The ones in the palm are smaller and more related to coordination and ligament protection, but again, they have some hypertrophy potential.
In bjj I've found biceps, back, and forearms to be the most important. The ability to hold and pull things close to your body is pivotal
The lower back also makes a lot of difference in the process of awkwardly lifting heavy objects.
Ive been saying this a long time!
Everyone talks about the back and legs being most functional and act like bicep curls are useless. But i say when am i ever picking up something with COMPLETELY straight arms? Almost never. Biceps matter A LOT
Exactly!!
this is a such a fresh thought. I`ve lifted for years and do decent weights in the gym, but my biceps is lacking. Where i live, natural stones are easy to get right outside my house door. Im going to give it a goo... it make sense.
Hey heck yeah!! Good luck with the natural stones, careful you might get hooked haha, (I know I did!)
This is why I enjoy oddlifts. It’s kind of a hybrid approach between “farmer strength” and conventional training. Usage of standardized equipment in very non-standard ways.
For example, I imagine the zercher deadlift is far more “functional” than a conventional deadlift, and has significantly greater transfer to other things like atlas stones or sandbags (or natural weights).
For sure! If you have the option to do zerchers off pins or blocks at or just below parallel, it mimics lifting an odd object off the lap really well and has great carryover!
If nothing else, Zercher deadlifts force you to squat deep and start from the bottom, which just hits different. It's like a squat and a deadlift in one and kind of mimics picking up heavy crap at work, like when you're walking with something and hugging it towards your belly as you go.
Zercher DLs are goated. Im not against curls but I find them boring to do, so I do pullups and zercher deads and squats, and I think my biceps grow fine from that.
Fun fact: Since I've started awkward object lifting last year by building my first light sandbag, my arms have regrown at least two centimeters, presumabley most of it being in my biceps since the triceps doesn't get that much work from it. They had been even bigger in my thirties, but then I deliberately neglected them for about two decades for symmetry reasons and also because the compliments I got for them were often tainted by enhancement accusations.
My biceps tend to respond really well to any kind of training. But, alas, that doesn't mean they are strong. I often wished they were stronger when I was working with Bruiser, my huge suitcase. So I will hug a lot of bears in the near future to get my biceps to the necessary level for even heavier objects.
Biceps were too big! It's cool to hear you've had a similar experience, being someone with monstrous biceps like you have! Brusier is so wide, that had to be a bicep workout and a half every time you lifted it
Biceps are useful in grappling too, which is very much a “real world” application
Heck yeah! Again with the bent arm thing, that flexed position is so important!
Arguably one of the oldest applications too. It's up there with running, throwing and carrying when it comes to primordial human movement in my opinion.
Grappling only occurs in the absence of all other skills or options...
@@whisper8742 this is so ridiculously incorrect I don’t even know where to begin. Troll?
No it isn’t lmao
Biceps are so important. Most of what i do requires healthy, strong biceps. Nutrition is important too. No weak links, youre correct. Thats why bags, stones are superior to almost everything in the matter of strength.
Im so pumped people are talking about this dude. Makes me happy, gives me hope for the strength community.
Thanks man! I'm surprised at the reception, it's always hard to tell if the videos are good or not while I'm making them haha, just do the best I can 🙂 I think you of all people would know too! Actually lifting stones as a job, loading them onto a wall all day!
@@thestonecircle that's a good point! I started a new one this week too!
@@unknownstrongman a new wall nice!!
@@thestonecircle by teaching others, it get to test your theories.
THIS is so true, I really fully learned this when I was given super soldier serum and had to hold a helicopter down to stop a villain from escaping, and I was holding the landing bar with one arm and the helicopter pad with the other and my bicep was on fire! Real stuff brotha
Dang yeah it takes some real bicep strength to do that 😮
As a construction worker 4 years into the job i coupdnt agree more with the points you made in this video, the isolation strength you get from having to hold all these awkward heavy objects against your hips and core is eye opening, as in it opens your eyes to how undertrained the biceps are when most people think about lifting heavy objects off the floor. Maybe lifters obsession with aesthetic biceps is more then simply just aesthetic appeal but is actually an old evolved, natural survival instinct for identifying truly strong, well rounded males who could pick you up and fling you around with ease, or maybe im looking into it too much.
Nope, I think you're looking into it perfectly! I think we're slave to our evolutionary programming more than we know! Yes, our developed brains allow us to make choices, but oftentimes you see in society people rebelling against what we're told we "should" accept when instinctively we know we shouldn't. There's many examples...but I won't go into them all here, you probably already know a few!
But yes, I think you're certainly on the right track with your comment!
@@TheExcelsiorFiles wanna look too deep into my hole 🕳?
Awesome first-hand experience thank you! I bet you're right on with that too. It's funny the first question you often get from someone who doesn't lift is "which dumbbells are you curling these days?" Or something like that. As if somehow they intuitively know the arms are a real sign of strength.
@@thestonecircle where did my 'hole' comment go?🤔🤨🤣
@zweihander7309 hahah on my personal account I see it but on this one it's disappeared, I turn off all censorship so I'm not sure 😄
my uncle in law was a plasterer and although he was a small man he had relatively overdeveloped biceps and shoulders even in his 50s from the constant weight he carried and used in that job
Awesome real world example!! One of my uncles is a residential mover and his arms are the same way
I have recently started noticing the same point.
Weightlifters/powerlifters do emphasis direct triceps work to improve benching and pressing, but biceps aren't given similar attention.
Now I am focusing the underhand chin ups for the same reason to improve my biceps strength.
Anyone who's ever trained grappling of any kind know how much work the biceps gets. There's a reason why folks like Gordon Ryan do lots and lots of curls in between grappling sessions. Very underrated.
That arm strength is critical!!
I needed to pick up a 30 kg box from the post office and carry it home. Added up distance maybe 500-1000 meter. With public transport inbetween. My biceps were fucked I needed to put it down from time to time and shake out my arms. I can deadlift 200 kg which was not really relevant 😅
Haha I know that exact feeling, the burn in the biceps is so unexpected!
Hope you guys like this one. Thanks for watching!
I sooo did like this one! Thanks for making it! 👍
Keep grinding big dawg
@creativetraininghacks glad you liked it!!
@torringtonstonekeeper you know it 🤘🤘
I am experiencing growth of strength everyday just doing bicep curl in barbell and dumbbell .love to see some one have same thoughts😉
Wow man, awesome video, they just keep getting better and I totally agree. Arm strength is basically your link to whatever you’re doing in the real world. Biceps are mega useful, I would extend it out to forearms too… without those you’re just nothing in real life.
Thanks man! This one took a really long time to write for some reason, glad it came out okay. True can't forget forearms and grip, I think you would know better than anyone with the work you do!
Gotta say brother, one of your most impressive muscles is that one between your ears.
Your insight, and the eloquence of your delivery of it, is fabulous.
Your channel is my new favourite!
Best regards,
A Scotsman in London.
Hey thank you I really appreciate that!! Glad to have ya here!
I have developed biceps because I grew up on a farm but I can say that pressing and pulling movements in the gym do work your biceps. The biceps is a stabiliser in the bench and overhead press and it is also engaged in lat pull-downs, pull ups, chin ups, etc.
My first draft of this script had something about the biceps stabilizing the elbow for pressing, but I've been trying to stay on topic as much as I can
Coincidentally, when observing Ancient Greek statues, the muscles that were emphasized and therefore correlated with health and attractiveness were the most functional ones. The strong, shoulders, back, arms, waists and hips…
Funny how standards change over time. Especially the waist, I think that wide waist look on the Hercules statue looks so cool, but most people prefer the v taper now. Also interesting how some things get lost in translation, the biceps are still popular, but for a different reason!
Greek statues had developed muscles everywhere. Everything from head to toe was emphasized. They actually cared about aesthetics just like modern bodybuilders do. They even had their own ideal bodily proportions mapped out. They might look at someone and say that his legs are too big and his arms or chest are too small or something. In fact they invented bodybuilding. They even used an ancient form of dumbells called a Halteres, granted they didnt just do curls with them but point still stands. This funckshional thing can get taken too far because it looks like you're just projecting your beliefs onto them. There's also nothing wrong with using a tool to isolate and target a lagging muscle group for practical reasons.
Biceps that peak and look sexy when flexed aren't _just_ for looking sexy. They can do shit. That's what's really sexy. Not just they look a certain way but when that way means there's shit that can get done.
Maybe that's what made people like the look so much in the first place!
The shot of the Forrest canopy in black in white had such an olf fantasy beauty to it
Always trying to bring as much fantasy into these as I can 🙂
Love your training approach as always. As a full-time(+) carpenter, my training philosophy has had to change completely from when I was a student. Your insights are helping restructure my philosophy and programs!
Hey thank you! That's no easy job, a few guys have said it was shoulders that really wore out quick for them doing carpentry, has it been the same for you?
I just found your channel. I'm definitely subscribing. I'm a welder and machinist who regularly does Manuel labor. When I'm not getting a workout at work, I like to go run around the track that is built around a local lake in my town and do push-ups, pull-ups, chin-ups, and dips. This is rewarding and beneficial in so many ways. This channel seems to be a good fit and great source of knowledge for everyday calisthenics newbies like me. 👍
Hey awesome I'm glad to have you here!! Calisthenics and sandbags are my favorite things so I try to put out videos on both as often as I can!
Hopefully you also do something for your legs too
@roaklarson9699 Yeah, I do body weight lunges, horse stance, and Bulgarian split squats in between. Also, calf raises.
@@thestonecircle thanks for the welcome and I look forward to watching some of your content.
I never thought about it but you're right. I've neglected my biceps training for "performance" but slowly have been adding some direct work for them again as they are by far my weakest upper body muscle. Another muscle group that's very important for real word strength are the forearms and grip strength. Like you had mentioned, rarely do we need to exert strength on a nice, perfectly sized and knurled bar. Since I've started doing more direct and forearm work pretty much for the first time seriously in my training career, I've noticed how much stronger I just feel in general in everyday life. Great video, thanks!
Hey thank you I'm glad you liked this one! You're definitely right about the forearms/grip. Sandbags and stones helped a lot with that but I could use more grip strength myself
@@thestonecircle your grip is definitely stronger than mine with all that sandbag work! The past few years I’ve been doing 90% calisthenics, so different pushups and pull up variations for upper body, with some rows and presses thrown in. My leg work is mostly weight vest + kettle bell lunges and squats. Needless to say, my grip was sorely lacking.
Nice video! Love the editing and voice-over essay, bro. 💪
Hey thanks man!
The worst lifting injury I've ever gotten was a nasty bicep tear that left my arm unusable and took ages to recover from....and i got it at work, not in a gym. We use our biceps way more than we realize
Dang that's the worst
Really great video Cody. Think this is the best one yet!!
Hey thank you!! Listening back I couldn't help but think, "this is either the worst video I've made or the best" haha. Im glad to know it turned out okay!
My man has painting in his gym, truly a man of culture.
I just started heavy mace training about a month ago and evey movement with the mace is bicep and shoulder taxing . Already more shredded then 2 years of weight lifting .
I really need to get myself a mace or clubbell, looks so fun, my shoulders could use the mobility work too
@@thestonecircleget yourself sledgehammers.
They're cheap and are as functional and is a tool as well
Great video and so true. I've been doing ring bicep curls at the end of my workouts for the past 3 months to bring up my bicep strength. No surprise, my sandbag lifts and pullup numbers have been going up after stagnating for some time.
Heck yeah! Focusing on curls for a while did the same for me too
Man what a breath of fresh air this video is...
Working with stones every day i have to say that most important is posterior chain and core, biceps and grip is number two for sure...pecs, triceps and even quads are almost useless in that domain haha
Also just an observation for reference - 405 deadlift will transfer to like 180-200lbs stone? Maybe? Its laughtably low carryover that people usually dont think about
Thank you I'm glad you liked it! Definitely agree, getting that core built up makes such a huge difference. That sounds like a pretty good comparison! For me off the ground was easy at first, with the deadlifting experience, but moving the Stone from the lap to chest height was completely new territory!
I've recently started stone work and walked confidently up to one knowing I can deadlift 606lb. Then I picked up what I thought would be a good starting weight of 260 and was floored at how damn heavy the prick was haha. I've not done a deadlift since and have managed to load a 330lb stone to 5'2 and every ounce of my posterior chain is tougher, my arms stronger and my coordination better. I'm not sure I see much point in ever trying to get my deadlift up past where it is when there really does seem to be a laughably low carry over to picking up anything that isn't a barbell.
@@IsaacMorgan98 i still do something like deep deficit stiff legged deadlifts, because i think they have at least better carryover but still...maybe general hypertrophy work is all prep one need
@@IsaacMorgan98 btw you are one strong mf
@@watsonkushmaster3067 I've just ended up a bit disenfranchised with standard barbell work because of its poor carry over to other things for me
I commented on one of your videos a few months back how surprised I was by the bicep soreness after starting sandbag training. Today I just upped the weight so probly bout to feel it again! Thanks for the inspiration!
I remember! Heck yeah good luck with it, let the great soreness begin 😁
I've been slowly coming to this realization over time, great video man! It's broadly apparent as I've been doing more strong man events, the stones and sandbag been getting me
Heck yeah man it's awesome to see you doing that stuff, I have no doubt you will become elite in whatever strength sport you choose to focus on!
@@thestonecircle I appreciate that brother! Thank you! Congrats on breaking 10K subscribers too, glad to see your content is getting out there 😁👊👊
@@Aliistrength thanks man!!
I do kettlebell cleans doubles and i have noticed this has made me stronger. Plus my back is good.
Brilliant stuff, your channel is a goldmine.
All the best man
Hey thank you!
Awesome video! Thank you for this perspective!
Hey thanks I'm glad you liked it!!
I just saw this!! Cant wait to watch it with lunch.
Cody, im so happy for you dude, look at the views! Looks like a well put together video so far, as always. Hope you're fckin awesome brother!
Thanks man!! People seem to be really liking this one! It's actually taken mostly from the book I'm working on, though I expanded on it a bit for the video. Hope the same for you man!
I often carry big wood baskets upstairs, to my stove in my house. My biceps have became stronger due to the way i lift my baskets.
My father was often conspuating biceps and chest muscles, deeming them useless. but that's because he only ever lift stuff at the gym.
Awesome real world experience thank you!!
Excellent video Cody!
Hey thank you!!
Extremely important for off-axis or awkwardly loaded pulling movements.
Nice one Cody. I've also really come tp appreciate the functionality of bicepts lately. Also, in my opinion, when the brachialis msucle is well debeloped its one of the most aesthetically pleaaing muscles out there. For me, having thick bicep tendons and strong working foreames just looks way cooler than big bulging biceps. And it seems the best way to develop that look is with awkward object lifting and climbing (especially rope climbs like wrestlers do). All the best bro! Your videos are just getting better !
Hey thanks a lot!! Glad you're still enjoying the vids after all this time 🙂
I have to agree that brachialis can looks so awesome, and so much of sandbag lifting is with that neutral grip it definitely builds it well!
I remember back in high school my wrestling coach used to discourage bicep training, I mean, he wasn’t really big in weight training at all, but especially biceps. And yet I can say without a doubt that having stronger muscles was a huge benefit when I was wrestling, and my biceps definitely did a lot of work.
Seems so strange now that any type of weight lifting used to be looked down on haha
It's funny when people say curls are not a "functional" movement.
You don't need pink tighty whitey bosu ball pistol squats to be functionally strong, you need compound exercises like squats, hinges, rows, overhead presses, etc. Add in a loaded carry for strengthening the hip girdle and core. Do a moderate amount of explosive/plyometric work.
And train your arms. Forearms and grip are of course super important but in any real world activity you have to curl your elbows. There's a reason humans feel a psychological impression from big arms, we know, at a deep primal level, that big arms are an indicator of strength. Because in the wild, the only people with big arms are strong people who do heavy physical labor
Agree 100%!
I 100% agree, I neglected isolation movements for years chasing compound strength, however I recently started training bi tri and shoulders in a typical isolation way, and have noticed incredible strength transfer to my profession. I'm a bricklayer and lifting and settting blocks have become so much easier. It's mind blowing!
Man that's a tough job if you say it works who can argue with that!!
Yep. Having done alot of manual labour, i have concluded that bicep, forearms and traps are very important for moving heavy objects and carrying stuff.
So well thought out and well said. Love your channel. I've been very depressed lately. Really trying to get back at it. Get back to really living. I bought a couple different size canvas bags, then never committed to it. I need to go buy the sand. I really need to get more and more active, more strong. Would love to not only look good but feel good. I think i need something like this, a goal to work towards to feel better, to feel I have something to strive for. Thanks so much for your videos/ channel.
Hey thank you I appreciate it! Sandbags have given my training a whole new purpose hopefully it can do the same for you, good luck with everything 🙂
@@thestonecircle man I appreciate the reply that's awesome. Yeah your videos are so well produced informative it's so cool. I definitely got to start doing it I'm sure the progression would make me feel like I have more purpose and give me that feeling of achievement and fulfillment even if it's just a small thing like lifting a heavy bag instead of it being like a career advancement or something LOL. I think maybe sometimes it is the little things in life that help.
@d_no_allyn_86 I really appreciate that!
That's always been the thing about training for me too, it's one of the few things you have absolute control over. No one else gets a say. You get out what you put in, even if it takes forever, and that's a nice feeling
Excellent critical thinking in this video. I just started learning about the importance of direct, hard bicep training and this came up. Opening my world
Thank you, good luck with your training!
Watching these videos take me back to why i started all this. Especially the outdoors stuff. I love seeing the old hiking footage.
Man I'm glad you liked it! Do you have any stone/odd object goals for after your comp??
@thestonecircle I feel like a make a new one every day lol. I was invited to lift stones with a legend. I'd love to go after the ohp stone world record. I understand that is a massive undertaking, that might take away from competing. I'll play that one by ear.
I'd love to compete in highland games. That's looks fun. My main goal is opening a gym near me. I'd like to start training people in the "unconventional" methods you and I often practice. I'd like to learn much more before coaching though.
I think the future is an exciting one. Full of possibilities. That's fortunate. To be hopeful. That means work is getting done!
@unknownstrongman can't wait to see it man! I hope you can open one up and it's successful, maybe the one upside to your area becoming more populated? People need a gym!
@thestonecircle true!
This is how strong men train for the world’s strongest man events. I spent 30 plus years working in the construction industry mainly with bricklaying and stone masonry and my biceps,legs,back muscles and forearm muscles are strong,I don’t look like a fitness freak or a bodybuilder but I have a lot of hidden strength and core strength.
Strength you can do something with, something to be proud of for sure!
In the Marine Corps we like to fill up a sandbag and wrap it in tape. We call it a pig egg. Youll see squads running down the street with their own pig eggs (that they probably gave names) every morning. They will humble you for sure. Btw Im loving your channel man.
I love stories like this man! So badass. And thank you!
Shoulders, biceps and grip are usually the first to give out. Oh and traps burning is super common when doing hard work too.
Cool topic! Love your channel. Pick it up and put it down. I have never directly worked biceps as I have always been a pull-up person and never felt the need to do more. Whenever I think of historical strength, I don’t just think of farmers but of sailors who climbed the rigging in all types of weather. Their grips and forearms must have been next level. Climb or die.
Hey thank you! That's an awesome point, it really would be climb or die!!
I have a log, her name is Stacy...lol...seriously. i ruck with a 45lbs. vest and pick stacy up and carry her. i am amazed at how my whole body is engaged when we walk together. from picking her up on 1 knee and twisting to be able and carry her in my arms. People look at me like why?...lol...and i think if they only knew.....Subbed
Hahah hell yeah,the perfect name. That sounds tough with the vest too! Yes if only they knew 😄 glad to have ya here!
Total believer in real world strength over gym strength. When I was 18, I had a job in a brick factory on the packaging line that required me to move up to 250,000 pounds of bricks (several at a time) over a ten hour shift. That job would cripple guys that came to fill in for a day or two. I'm now 56 and spend hours some days dragging firewood logs 100's of feet out of my forest by hand. I decided to call it my cardio/conditioning sessions to keep mysslf motivated. I'm not the strongest guy in the gym by any means, but many of the gym bros can't work their oversized muscles like that.
Wow that is a tough day of work if I've ever seen one!
such a great "re-framing" over coffee ☕ and waking up this morning! I've never considered the "functional components" of the biceps, and how modernity has afforded the majority to approach them purely for "aesthetics" or neglect them outright, like the rest of the body ...
Hey glad I could be a part of that precious morning coffee time 🙂 thanks as always!!
A lot of people, even in the strength world, downplay the importance of bicep work. Great video!
Hey thank you!
@@thestonecircle You're welcome!
I kinda have had the mentality recently that the best test of functional strength is how much you can bicep curl and how many pistol squats you can do. Great vid!
Thank you, that's a killer combo right there!
yeah i mean i work in a supermarket so you might think i don't get it but i 100% get it. sure you've got the bench press and the overhead press for "upper body strength" and then the squat and deadlift for "lower body strength" but i tell ya what. i'm pulling with my upper body in the supermarket more than any other movement
tbf tho, that doesn't get neglected by most modern strength programs. barbell rows and chin-ups are becoming pretty fucking standard for a reason. back and biceps are definitely the 2 most "functional" muscle groups irl by a country mile
you know what tho, it's interesting. i was working before i started going to the gym, and i'd always noticed my biceps always seemed to be looking pretty fucking good. you'll also notice it's pretty challenging to try and train biceps for strength instead of for hypertrophy in the gym, because all you can really do is isolate them most of the time. but it turns out that simply using them irl will be the best workout in your life. tbh, it's possible we're misunderstanding why someone who has a physical job might still hit the gym. i can tell you why i do: to round myself out. to have full-body strength. to reach my ceiling
Like your channel and content man. You aren't just spewing out bullshit or toxic fitness bs, there is truth to what you say. Subscribed.
Hey thank you I really appreciate that!
You just earned yourself a subscriber. Good job, and great content. Keep it up. Thank you
Hey thank you glad to have you here!
I do calisthenics and most exercises use the biceps, even pushing exercises and especially the more advanced ones, like planche, maltese, etc, where, even if it is straight arm strength, the biceps are working really hard to maintain your arms in a good position
Definitely I'm glad you mentioned that! My first draft of this video had a few pages on straight arm calisthenics strength, but it went a bit too far off topic haha. That stuff is no joke though!
You are the right guy to call when need help moving furniture💪
Haha thats the plan 😁
As an electrician, at work I regularly lift a lot of awkward heavy objects (machinery, material, tools, etc), dig trenches and pull wire (both huge feeder wires and small branch circuits) through conduit, to name some of the big things. I can attest to the importance of biceps strength, and back and core strength are mostly valuable insofar as they are strong enough to avoid injury (notice legs aren't included in the list, your legs allow you to lift/push things far heavier than your upper body allow). I weight train on a schedule at home (and have been consistantly for almost 6 years, after a hiatus in my early 20s), and aside from isolated bicep curls (which I don't prioritize or always do on pulling day anymore) Bent over rows on a bench, and supinated / pronated chinups prove to be far more effective and valuable in building applied strength... You will also end up with some meaty biceps 😅 A side note, the most ignored and underdeveloped group of muscles the average gym goer has are forearms and grip strength. In my line of work (and really any physical job) your hand and grip strength are key, and for a long while after starting my forearms were more sore than any other muscle group in my body, despite my workout schedule. I have developed them signifigantly, and both chinups and pull ups are a great way to get a base in the weight room, though if you don't want to be caught lacking some targeted excercise would be helpful. At the end of the day, if you don't have the strength for a good grip on whatever you're trying to move an extra 30 lb max in an isolated pull just means your wrist/fingers will hurt more when they give or slip.
That means I’m doing something right squeezing my medicine ball as if I’m trying to pop it 💪🏿💪🏿💪🏿💪🏿💪🏿
Actually a surprisingly tough thing to do!
We used to always use heavy rubber balls for conditioning work. Try and get a ball off the ground and over your head without using your biceps. Try moving the ball from side to side in a Roman chair without using your biceps. I never program biceps specifically, but these “awkward mass” type workouts will really teach you how undertrained your forearms and biceps are.
My brother and I just cut down 3 trees, at least 20m tall, last weekend. After cutting the branches off and cutting the trees into about 1 meter long logs, we carried the logs into a pile. After all that work, my biceps were the sorest of my muscles.
That's tough work!
We have to ask ourselves why biceps are attractive and aesthetic in the first place. Their size (correlated with strength) is an indicator of ability in the natural world
Great point!
Wow!!! Your absolutely right. Men who worked the farm and utilize forms of bodybuilding thru functional mobility. Essentially just as you said, lifting heavy objects with very uncomfortable positions builds a core strain unmatched by gym goers. At least most gym goers. Few gym goers select ones are able to build that same core strength through different means application. But they are building muscles and core strength to serve the same purpose that men and women who work on farms every single day are able to build naturally.
Men often pride themselves how much weight they’re able to push/press in a bench press. And while I myself must often agree it does look impressive. I have often been attracted to the application of core strength since my childhood. An example would be not just a man being able to benchpress 4 to 500 pounds a number of times. But actually watching the eccentric motion him being able to lower the weight with just as much power in control as he does at lifting it. The gentle nature of you rarely ever hearing it clink metal to metal because that is the strength the power which comes from the core of the man who is able to lower the wait until you don’t hear a sound. To me since childhood that is always been the true measure of power and strength the ability to control. Not just throw weight around.
Everything you said is 100%. The things we utilize in life with awkward positions as what usually Grant says greater mobility strength power a stronger core and most importantly control over said wait we seek to pick up or move out of our way. I’ve seen farmers have a grip strength unmatched by any gym goer. I’ve also seen those same farmers benchpress more weight effortlessly and easier than the gym Brose. Neither physically not always look ideal. But for those farmers who do have a physique that is ideal, they roughly look like Clark Kent from Superman well toned dick physique because they put it to use every single day.
I often think of it what if I don’t know where at one day the dinosaurs returned. What if we actually had to run every single day just to live what if we had to use our bodies in a way that forced us to survive. We would be much stronger and more intelligent in real time, because we are forced to either survive or die. Flight or fight. You have truly touched on something that has been true for a very long time and I am proud and happy to hear this from another person. Just subscribed notifications bell on!!!
Thanks for your awesome comment I'm glad to have you here! I've been pretty obsessed with core strength too ever since I started specializing in stone/sandbag to shoulder. There really is a lot to it!
Great video man.
Interesting points. Sand bag training always looked awkward to me simply coz there is no handle and it’s an odd shape. That to me sounds like a recipe for CNS demolition. Really hard stuff.
Hey thanks man it's an honor to have you watch my vid! It's strange, in my experience at least heavy sandbags feel way more difficult when you're lifting them, and they're definitely more fatiguing than some things, but I can push them harder and more often than I can with the iron. Partly because the overall weight is lower I'm sure, but I think there's more to it. A commenter once said lifting sandbags vs lifting iron is like jumping on sand vs jumping on concrete. It feels more difficult in the moment but it doesn't cut as deep. It's also really fun 🙂
@@thestonecircle yeh right that makes sense man. I haven’t trained with sandbags but your video here really has got me interested. I wanna try it and see.
Cheers man.
Hey awesome man I'd love to see that!
I weigh about 110 pounds, and i basically only have muscle in my legs, bicep and forearms. So I can say from experience that those are the most essential muscles for lifting real world objects because otherwise I would be useless lugging all the wood I have to move around at work
Another great video.
Thank you!
A lot of people have tried telling me bicep work isn’t “functional”. A lot of people who don’t frikkin work for a living.
As someone in industrial construction, it often stands out to me just how important my biceps are within my profession. Whenever I have to carry an armful of tools or materials, my biceps are the first thing to tire. Whenever I have to climb multiple storeys by ladder, my biceps get the biggest pump. Whenever there is a stubborn nut that no one can undo with a spanner or wrench, it’s my biceps (coupled with my forearms) that save the day.
Hey that's some tough work, thanks for your real world experience!!
it's usually always either biceps, upper back, and lower back, sometimes legs but that's mostly when you are trying to "hug lift" a large object which requires a sumo esk type position. I don't remember the last time I've even needed chest or tris. Pushing always seem inferior or less used than just lifting the object up and pulling up some wonky elevated area.
I move furniture for a living.
People really underestimate the strength and endurance we showcase over multiple hour long moves.
We lift awkward & oversized objects utilizing physics and strength that you just can’t replicate in the gym easily. My grip strength has increased tenfold since becoming a mover compared to when I was in the gym 5-6 days a week as well as my general strength.
I’m very happy to have a found a channel that is so involved in showing exercises completely removed from an isolated setting like the gym, keep up the content man!
Hey glad you liked this one! I have huge respect for movers, you guys really are on another level!
Really interesting point, thank you for the video! Working sometimes with my family with timber on the farm and in the forest I can really relate to how the biceps really contribute when lifting large logs and stumps. I really like how you say that the biceps help realise the strength of the legs and back. If i am lifting up a large log or stump, I might hinge/squat it up and use my back to carry it in ex a zercher position. But without the biceps holding the object, there would be no point in having the back or leg strength
This is so true for grappling as well, where your arms constantly work as a contact point with your opponent and your biceps as a 'defence' for your arm. There are are quite a few BJJ guys and S&C coaches starting to really emphasize arm training
Yes you got it exactly thank you! I'm not surprised combat trainers are focusing more on the arms, it makes so much sense!
Your stuff reminds me of what the Bioneer used to produce. Down to earth functional strength. As an out of shape forty something father of two, I gotta sort out a good place to start building strength again. An intimidating prospect when going for a 2.5k walk wipes me out for two days.
That's such an awesome compliment thank you! I know what you mean too, some of those older videos seemed a lot less surface level. That's tough when you probably have so little time, if I only had 10 minutes a day I'd just do a couple sets of bear hug carries. I swear that exercise is the best thing ever!
Good introduction appreciate the honesty.
Hey thank you!
Yes! I’ve always thought it was funny how ”functional training” advocates look down on direct bicep training while at the same time the typical functional heavy lifting an individual will encounter like moving furniture always uses a ton of biceps
Exactly!
As a sprinter, I’ve noticed the exact same thing. Despite still being on artificial grass, athletes are dynamic in every move. Nothing is done like a machine, which why on my strength days, I never use machines. I do dynamic pushing, pulling, and throwing, motions that will cover a broad range of real world strength activities. I’ve recently started watching someone named Judd Lienhard, whose whole philosophy is strength training based on real world movements.
Hey awesome I'll go check out his channel!
Love the video!!!!
Thank you!!
Don’t forget strength endurance. Seen plenty of big strong dudes who can lift heavy, but come use a pole-trimmer for 5 hours and they can fall apart. Same with a mattock ripping the ground up to lay turf. Even a few hours of that will show your weak links. Pure burn in the arms and lower back once the hamstrings are cooked.
Great video.
Definitely good point! After reading Steve Justa's book Rock Iron Steel, I started doing these stone carry strength endurance workouts, 30 laps around the yard with a heavy stone etc, and it's a different thing entirely to basic max strength!
I feel like this is especially stated with how strongmen keep tearing their biceps. It’s clear they’re under an extremely heavy load that puts them under tension
Excellent! Subscribed!
Hey thank you, glad to have you here!
I love this guy, its like gym life is for cosmetic ans social appeal. Its commpletely a part of modernity
He's a great guy. Smart. There's no BS here. I consider him a friend
That's definitely the vibe I got the few times I went to a gym haha
@unknownstrongman man you are seriously the best, massive, bearded, and strong, and kind down to your core
@@thestonecircle that's an awesome compliment! I appreciate you dude
Why did society stop building strength, It seems to me that when building your body & your mind you are better prepared - These sheeple today are not prepared for anything but sittin on their a***
Hands, forearms, biceps, shoulders. If you cant grip it, you cant lift it, up it, twist it, break it. Insight: im some kind of operator. ;)
Yes! I work in a factory and carrying sheet metal and other raw material shreds my biceps and forearms (gripping sheet steel and sharp offcuts is challenging, even with gloves)
Dang that's tough I believe it!!
Carrying and walking around with odd objects or logs and holding them in front of the chest does indeed work the biceps. One of the hardest muscles worked. Maybe because we have weak biceps lol.
It's not only the biceps, but the forearms that take a beating, because the open hand grip is generally weaker than a closed hand grip.
As a fit guy who does bodyweight exercises mostly and some weights conditioning i can confirm this. I did shovel work many times and i also had to carry heavy things. I could do any type of bicep workout but it would never hurt as much as physical work in real situations. But im also aware of that the workouts gave me the strentgh to endure hard days of work. I would never be able to endure that if i had no experience in curls and chin ups
Hey great point there is definitely still benefit to training in the gym no doubt!
I’m a construction labourer and was using a wheel barrow moving wet soil up ramps all day for two days straight. My biceps were the most stimulated! Even just after them two days I can see more definition around my bicep and more vascularity. From my time working with my hands, bicep, shoulders and traps really do take the load
Thanks for your real world experience that's awesome!!
As a body builder and construction worker at 24, being able to curl 60lb dumbbells has its perks jack hammering all day