🏋️‍♂️ 5 hammer curl variations for serious mass

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Here’s everything we’ve got for you today:

• The truth about high-carb diets

• All about the hammer curl

• Why you need sled pulls in your life

Nutrition

The Cold Carb Truth

Carbohydrates have been the villain of the MCU (macronutrient collective universe) for most of this century. And recently, nutritional scientist Dr. Layne Norton directed his YouTube lens at a study analyzing the effects of a carb-heavy diet and resulting tendencies toward weight gain.

Dr. Norton maintains that sugary and carb-heavy foods aren’t satiating and often result in people consuming more total calories in a quest to satisfy their hunger. While the study in question suggests greater carb loads may lead to increased body weight, Dr. Norton suspects the macronutrient profile should suffer less blame than the overall caloric density of the foods eaten.

Get all the details on carbs directly from the horse’s mouth in this article.

A Message From Lumen

Understand Your Metabolism to Stay on Track During the Holidays

If you’ve been dieting, lifting weights, and doing cardio without seeing the results you want, you might be missing out on one key piece of the puzzle: your metabolism. And with Lumen, you can get a better understanding of your metabolism right at your fingertips. 

Lumen is the world's first portable device that measures your metabolism with a single breath by tracking the CO₂ concentration in your breath. With the help of Lumen, you receive:

• Guidance on whether you are burning fat or carbs as fuel so you can choose your pre-workout meal accordingly.  

• Pointers on how to improve your nutrition, workouts, sleep, and stress management

• A personalized nutrition plan for the entire day based on your measurements so you know whether your body needs a low-carb or low-fat day.

• Complete macro breakdown that leads to improved metabolic flexibility, which is your body's efficiency in shifting between using fats and carbs

The result of all this data? More sustainable muscle growth and fat loss tailored to your individual needs and goals.

If you want to unlock the potential of your metabolism and start crushing your fitness goals, read more about Lumen here. And right now, BarBend readers will get an exclusive 15% discount on their purchase. 

Training Tips

Hammer It Home

Hammer curls work so gosh-darn well because they hit your forearms and brachialis harder than a supine curl (remember, the brachialis is what makes your arms look thick). And if you really want to hone in on your arm development, there are some key variations and alternatives to the standard hammer curls that you can do for an even better pump. And that’s exactly what we’re talking about today. 

You can impress your friends and co-workers with towel pull-ups if you want to pummel your arms from a different angle, or you can try the preacher version to isolate your biceps better than ever. It doesn't take any sleight of hand for bigger arms, just a slight turn of the hand. Check out all the major variations below. 

Everything Else

A One-Horse Open Sleigh

• Santa may have a power gut, but his work capacity is on point from dragging his sled full of toys around in the freezing cold. Up your body’s general capacity with some sled pulls of your own.

• Learn all about why magnesium is one of the most underused and over-performing additions to your supplement stack.

• Last week, Katrin Davidsdottir took to social media to announce her retirement. In this article, we look back at one of the most prolific careers in CrossFit.