Weights - Barbells, bicep curl bar

dioltas

Hey,
I was just wondering if anyone knows the weight of the shorter than standard barbells, and of those bendy bars for doing bicep curls. I know the standard bars weigh 20kg right? Is there a standard weight for the shorter bars?

Also, the bendy bars for the bicep curls, they usually have two positions where you can grip the bar, for a narrow grip or a wide grip. I usually use the narrow grip, but have recently tried the wider grip, and it seemed harder.
Does anyone know what the difference i.e. does it target different areas of the biceps or what?

Thanks.

dioltas

Ok, so after a good bit of searching on google I managed to answer my own question. I suppose I was a bit vague in the original post. For anyone who's interested:

The standard bench press/squat etc barbell that you see in most gyms is an olympic barbell and weighs 45 lbs or 20 kg.
The shorter straight bars vary but are normally around 10 kg.


The "bendy bar" is called an EZ bar or EZ curl bar

(not sure if i inserted that image right)

It weighs about 7 kg, but again this varies. The difference between using a wide or narrow grip is that it gets different parts of the biceps. Kinda obvious I suppose...

"The EZ curl bar offers both narrow-grip and wide-grip hand positions. When you use the narrow grip, your hands are in a semi-neutral position and put primary resistance on the long head or outer portion of your biceps....
...As you become more experienced with this exercise, and for balanced biceps development, you should also use the wide grip hand position which increases development of the short head or inner section of your biceps."

The purpose of the EZ bar is to reduce the stress placed on your wrists when doing bicep curls, but the straight bar is actually better. It gets your biceps more because your palms are facing up.
Here's a good article on it.