No, they will probably even stimulate growth. This is a myth parents tell their kids to keep them out of the gym to prevent them from injury.

 

 

 

The most important thing for exercise selection for your routines is that you are focused on the goals you want to achieve. Most of the times this is easier said than done. Many beginners want everything and nothing: 

 

 

These are just some examples of goal sets of beginners. It is completely normal to be timid or unsure about what you want to achieve and can achieve. It always helps to prioritize first what is important to you. The fields usually are: 

 

 

You can categorize it in a million different ways, but to keep it simple prioritize these five for yourself. 

 

Looks are all about what you see in movies, on Instagram and the magazine covers. While these are highly artificial, fabricated images of people, their impact on social life is very real. If you look for fame or financial success based on your looks you can achieve this, just be aware that the choices you will make to get there are not necessarily healthy, make you enduring, strong or well-performing in sports. Eating disorders and steroids might provide an outstanding look, but don’t help you to be strong or have healthy sperm. 

 

If your main focus is the health you will mainly choose moderate diets and exercise regimen. You won’t go crazy on diets or schedules as this means too much stress. This will keep you healthy but probably never get you to the pinnacles is endurance, strength, looks or endurance. But that is ok as long as you are fertile and happy. 

 

Performance is usually sports-related. This means that endurance and strength training is still important, but play a secondary role in skill practice in the relevant sport you pursue. It is of not a lot of use to be strong like a bull but not being able to skate if you play ice hockey. The good news about sports is that looks don’t matter that much. If you are a blob that can lift a fire truck in a very truck lifting competition, nobody cares that you are not ripped or have shining white teeth. Even though that might help to attract sponsors. 

 

If you are mainly into strength you can park all efforts and time on endurance and skill practice. You can fully focus on lifting barbells, stones, and other heavy objects. You might even toss them in the general direction of people in the gym who get on your nerves. 

 

If you are mainly about endurance you can spent your time on your long runs, swims and cycles around the country and maybe never look at a rack. Yes, you might not be the strongest or most buff, but who cares when you cycle the Ardennes with a smile. 

 

Prioritizing these five areas for yourself will help to make it a lot clearer to you, your GP and your personal trainer which exercises to pick and at which intensity to perform. This will determine which rack is the best for you or whether you need one at all. 

 

 

Your body grows based on many different factors. The main ones are genetics, hormones, nutrition, recovery and activity levels. Age also plays a role as all of these components will deteriorate over time and take more time to maintain. 

 

Your genetics are the basis that influences all of the other four components. You can’t really control them as they are being passed down to you by your parents. Your genetics will determine your maximum potential, how fast you can reach it and how long you can stay at that level. This is why some people eat sugar and gain 2 kilos while others can eat mountains and still stay slim. 

 

Hormones are your bodies on why to regulate your bodily functions. They can send organs into overdrive or keep them dormant. They are produced in multiple glands in the body which are controlled by the hypothalamus. While it is hard to control your hormone production directly they can be injected into the body. This is where doping comes into play. Naturally, you can control your hormones by your way of thinking as positive and negative thinking usually correlates with certain hormones being released in the body. 

 

Nutrition is the next component. By controlling how much and how you eat you can influence whether and how you grow. Overly simplified the more you eat the bigger you get. In which direction you grow is an interplay of genetics, hormones, and activity. 

 

The last point is the activity. This relates to how much exercise you do in a day or how much you move. The higher the activity level the more energy you will need to cover. To grow you should at least be in balance, but mostly a surplus of energy works best. This is why teenagers and babies are always hungry and tired. They are growing like mad. Activity it is the easiest to influence as it is under your direct control. Nutrition is harder to control as you either get your food made for you and buy it or only have access to food of which you don’t control the production.

 

A dumbbell has little to no negative impact on most of these aspects. 

 

 

Dumbbell curls are a form of activity which mainly focuses on your biceps. This is one of many muscles in your body and not even one of the biggest. 

 

 

Dumbbell curls are probably one of the best exercises to make your biceps grow. Try hammer curls on the preacher bench. I find them to be highly effective. 

 

 

Dumbbell curls are not a compound exercise which means the time you spend training is not directed at many muscles and their interplay, but only one muscle with little interplay. The most famous barbell compound exercises are the bench press, deadlift, squat, clean and jerk and snatch. 

 

Alternatives to dumbbell curls: 

 

 

That dumbbell curls can stunt growth is a myth which is told to teenagers when their parents do not want them to train with weights. In fact, the added testosterone of weight training is even likely to stimulate growth. One thing in favor of parents is that injuries in the teenage years should be avoided. This is where you grow the most and have the least coordination. Broken bones because of stupidity will stunt growth in this age group and often there is not discipline to handle the equipment without supervision.