OAC - gains in bicep curl?

Hi

I'm currently training for the OAC (doing negatives, along with front lever and all the other BTGB stuff)

I'm aware that the strength for this is primarily in the lats- but it's obvious the biceps are involved (given how sore they were initially!)

My question, is that how much would you curl (one armed dumbbell curl, strict form) if you could do a 1 arm pull up, what % of your body weight can you curl?

Anyone who can do a OAC- if you know, please post how much you curl!

I'm 145lb, and curl about 40lb when I try (rarely) I'm a long way off the OAC yet!

Thanks

When I go to the gym, I'll post it here for you.

Thanks!

I look forward to your reply!

I'm 160lbs right now, and my one arm bicep curl is 75 lbs, so 44% for me.

okay thanks!

Looks like I need to curl about 65lb then:s

And i'm obviously going to get bigger to do that, so probably nearer 75lb...

That's a 25lb increase....

You can get a OAC in a year you say?

I better get training....

I wouldn't worry much about bicep curl for judging how close you are to a OAC, since there are so many more muscles involved in a OAC than just biceps. Weighted pullups would give you a lot better idea. As for how long it'll take you to achieve it, everyone is different, but if you train right and have a good diet you'll get it eventually beyond a doubt.

The first time I tried an OAC, i had a not-to-failure curl of 60% BW for 3 reps, but I was no closer than a beginner. Your main weapons are weighted chin-ups, assisted OAC as seen in BTGB and one arm rows. I believe the brachialis works more than the biceps in the OAC and the lats and rear delts along with the grip are the most important groups to train for OAC.

for OAC should the palms be facing out or in?

John Dalton said:

The first time I tried an OAC, i had a not-to-failure curl of 60% BW for 3 reps, but I was no closer than a beginner. Your main weapons are weighted chin-ups, assisted OAC as seen in BTGB and one arm rows. I believe the brachialis works more than the biceps in the OAC and the lats and rear delts along with the grip are the most important groups to train for OAC.

Agreed, I could curl 100 lb dumbbells strictly at 205 lbs and wasn't even close to a OAC...

You need to do curls, but not specifically for OAC.

At the moment I'm working primarily negatives, along with the fsp's, and front lever pulls...

Will these do me?

Be consistent and don't over due it. OAC is a longterm skill to get. How is your shoulder position during the negative? I see too many who rush into negatives but they cannot even hang comfortably on one arm, nor can they get any shoulder motion while hanging. One arm hanging shrug?

Slizz....100 at 205...damn nice still even without the OAC..

Yea, it seems like those days are gone forever Stupid injuries! It is taking forever for my arm to heal properly.

Still recovering from tearing the tendon sheathing in my right hand here. I feel your frustration...

I'm okay with one arm hangs, thoug I'll try these shrugs soon!

canthar said:

Still recovering from tearing the tendon sheathing in my right hand here. I feel your frustration...

ouch!

I am finally able to curl 35's again for 8 reps without pain, seems like I'm getting 3-5 lbs improvement every 4-6 weeks on my biceps curls, which is about right. Better form than before too, traps are holding the shoulders in place nicely now. At this rate it'll be another 8 months or so until I am back to curling 65 lb DB for 8-10 good reps. Fingers crossed... Elbow is rehabbing well, can do 30 lb slow full butterfly pulls (15s down, 15s up) on the freemotion for 2 reps without pain, and 25 lbs on DB supine straight arm work is my work set now, also no pain. Slowly but steadily putting this body back together... right upper traps are still the most difficult part but they are getting better, can finally "feel" them on command now with some effort.

Amazing how that trap improvement seems to help my arm and shoulder work better!

Progress is sounding damn good.

Got my freestanding HS to 15-20sec now with more and more nice straight ones. Still need to kick to a wall, though the impact is getting less with some good kicks and minimal hand / wrist pain. Need to warm it up a lot though. Can hold a FG front lever between tuck and adv. tuck for 15-20 pain free. Traps, oh the traps. Finally have activation of my right lower trap! No clue how long that was dead. Got enough that Romanian Rows are in the mix now. Curls hmm, you got me beat 25-30lbs for 5 reps on a 2.5inch handle is about my limit right now. Diet has been getting more evened out. 143 @ 7-8% right now. Even with one night out with the wife a week, which includes dessert.

We can commiserate together for bit lol.

What are Romanian Rows?

I thought I typed that. DOH! Meant Bulgarian rows, bit sleep deprived right now.

haha ok

I can one arm bicep curl 50 lb dumbells at 115 lb bodyweight when I could do a one arm pull up, but I was curling about the same when I was far from the oap/oac. So bicep strength is hardly a limiting factor in contrast to lat strength for a oac. Your most important exercises to attain a oac are the mentioned oac specific exercises or the front lever exercises. I'm not even sure if you need oac specific exercises if you're also working to get a full front lever as I got my one arm pull up without any oap/oac specific exercises and just by attaining the full front lever hold for at least a couple seconds. The same may be true vice versa. Strangely I could not execute a oac (underhand grip) when I could do the oap (overhand grip) which is supposed to be harder than the oac and I know it could not be insufficient biceps strength, probably wrong initiation.

canthar said:

Progress is sounding damn good.

Got my freestanding HS to 15-20sec now with more and more nice straight ones. Still need to kick to a wall, though the impact is getting less with some good kicks and minimal hand / wrist pain. Need to warm it up a lot though. Can hold a FG front lever between tuck and adv. tuck for 15-20 pain free. Traps, oh the traps. Finally have activation of my right lower trap! No clue how long that was dead. Got enough that Romanian Rows are in the mix now. Curls hmm, you got me beat 25-30lbs for 5 reps on a 2.5inch handle is about my limit right now. Diet has been getting more evened out. 143 @ 7-8% right now. Even with one night out with the wife a week, which includes dessert.

We can commiserate together for bit lol.

Hahaha nice!

I am still making progress with the upper traps, but it is going well! I actually had a really good straight arm press today! My friends at the GSU gym were duly impressed, not that that was the purpose... they asked me how rehab was going so I showed them lol! I am starting to teach them ways to truly learn to use your traps as intended, without all the back arching and neck craning.

35 lbs felt good again today, but earlier in the week it was too much, had to go back to 25 lbs. Ah, the back and forth of true healing... On the positive side, with the trap work has come much higher quality straight arm work, in that I can actually use my scapula correctly with all the dumbbell straight arm exercises now as well as for cross pulls, which has added a ton of strength to them. I actually feel all the scapular muscles working, serratus as wellas the traps and rhomboids and the shoulderblades move around while my body stays fairly well locked into shape! Very exciting! This has translated into some new capabilities, like a controlled negative Bower and the straight arm press (which isn't quite perfect, but progress is very steady now that I am actually working traps so much!). Even push ups have gotten much better, and PPP are now no problem and have good scapular motion, something I didn't have before.

That's awesome. Great to hear. Sometimes the injury ends up a positive as it forces us to learn.

Well I'm doing front lever twice a week, allong with front lever rows, and front lever pulls,one a week respectively with one arm negatives twice- allong with planche and other work spread throughout.

I''m hoping to achieve by the end of the year!

I don't know what you guys are doing for OAC training but I though it would be interesting to show you how I've been training for it since I'm already able to do one of them for each arm after 2-3 months (not sure). However, I'm still not able to do them from a complete hanging position (about 3/4 or more complete arm extension). Anyway, here how I've been training (it doesn't include my other training stuff):

Day 1:

-Heavy Pullups (5/5/3/1-2) *always finishing with one rep or two in stock

Day 3:

-Assisted OAC (with fingers) *always finishing with one rep or two in stock

- 2 finger

- Index

- Pinky

- Pinky (optional)

* Some negatives from time to time...but strangely, I've never did them very much!

Thats it! Also, I'm 155lbs...and just for the subject of this post, last time I did curls (last month I think) I did about 45lbs for 10 total reps I think...seems weak, I'm not sure of this...anyway I'm gonna try them soon since I'm now able to do OAC (at least, to a correct level)

I'll need to make a video post but my camera quality is beyond shit! Hopefully, by the time I'll upload it with a better camera my OAC will be better :twisted:

It took me about 3 months to get my OAC once I started training for it regularly, nice work!