Episode 255: The Top 20 Biceps Exercises Ranked S to F Tier

0:00:12.1 Mike Vacanti: Hello Jordan.

0:00:12.7 Jordan Syatt: Michael’s not in Benghazi anymore, those watching on YouTube.

0:00:17.9 Mike Vacanti: Spotify’s video.

0:00:18.8 Jordan Syatt: Or Spotify’s video. That’s true. They can see where you are. Most people have to know that famous background right there.

0:00:25.0 Mike Vacanti: I think a lot of our audience knows what’s going on in this background. Depending on how big, how wide my screen is at the moment, how much you’re seeing.

0:00:32.1 Jordan Syatt: No, you don’t need… You just need a little view to know exactly whose office you’re in.

0:00:39.0 Mike Vacanti: Gary just got a big-time workout in, this morning here on Tuesday, December 23rd.

0:00:45.6 Jordan Syatt: Let’s go.

0:00:47.2 Mike Vacanti: And was gracious enough to let me use his office to record this podcast and then our Q&A since I didn’t quite have enough time to make it back to my previous recording studio in Benghazi.

0:01:01.4 Jordan Syatt: The CEO of Gary’s body is using the CEO’s office. I love it. Let’s go.

0:01:04.7 Mike Vacanti: That’s right.

0:01:06.2 Jordan Syatt: How you doing, brother?

0:01:08.5 Mike Vacanti: I’m great, man. How are you?

0:01:10.5 Jordan Syatt: Dude, I have everything that I need.

0:01:13.3 Mike Vacanti: I like that.

0:01:14.1 Jordan Syatt: That’s good, right?

0:01:14.9 Mike Vacanti: That’s not a normal response from you.

0:01:17.3 Jordan Syatt: No, I was listening to this…

0:01:18.7 Mike Vacanti: That’s something I would say.

0:01:19.8 Jordan Syatt: I was listening to this Jewish scholar last night, and she was quoting a rabbi who very famously said, just like, “I have everything that I need.” But then it went into the story of Jacob and Esau and how Jacob… I forget the exact story verbatim, but it was to the effect of Jacob asked Esau, “Can I get you anything?” And Esau said, “I have a lot.” And then Esau said, “Can I get you anything?” And Jacob was like, “I have all that I need.” And it’s just the difference between like, you might have a lot, but there could always be more versus, no, I have everything that I need. The difference in that.

0:02:05.0 Mike Vacanti: I like that.

0:02:05.7 Jordan Syatt: Is that misquoting?

0:02:06.7 Mike Vacanti: No, I think you’re right. Jacob was the deceptive one who… And Esau was the good one, right? Or was it the other way around?

0:02:18.5 Jordan Syatt: I thought it was the other way around. We’re showing our major lapses in biblical understanding.

0:02:27.1 Mike Vacanti: Dude, the old… No, it’s not understanding. The Old Testament’s got a lot going on. The Tanakh, the Torah, there’s a lot going on in those stories.

0:02:34.3 Jordan Syatt: Oh, no, you’re right. Jacob was the primary deceiver. You’re correct.

0:02:37.2 Mike Vacanti: No, but you still might be right in what you’re describing. I’m just thinking of when they tricked, his dad, their dad into giving… Jacob tricked him into getting Esau’s inheritance.

0:02:49.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, you’re right.

0:02:50.9 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, ’cause Esau was hairy and jacked, how I picture him. Jacob was kind of a little bit weaselly.

0:02:57.3 Jordan Syatt: He got the sheepskin on him or something to pretend…

0:03:00.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, to pretend he’s his brother. Flawless transition because I have to give you credit on… I have two things that I’m wrapping into one here. And then we’re going to circle all the way back to what you just said. Are you ready for this?

0:03:15.4 Jordan Syatt: Dude, I’m ready.

0:03:16.5 Mike Vacanti: Audiobooks are superior to sitting and reading a book.

0:03:19.8 Jordan Syatt: Wow.

0:03:20.4 Mike Vacanti: I’m giving you credit. Sitting and reading a book isn’t feasible in 2025, at least not with my busted prefrontal cortex. And if my prefrontal cortex is in trouble, I know that 95% of others are in trouble. Moving, so like walking plus listening to audiobook at a high speed somehow allows me to retain better than listening to an audiobook at a lower speed or reading a regular book. I’ve been listening at two to two and a half X speed while going on these walks, which is basically anytime I feel scrolling, I’m replacing it with walk plus audiobook at high speed. And my mind doesn’t wander. I can actually like, I can retain the information better when it’s at a higher speed.

0:04:03.0 Jordan Syatt: Interesting, ’cause the slower speed gives your brain space to think about other stuff and…

0:04:07.7 Mike Vacanti: I think so.

0:04:08.7 Jordan Syatt: But with the fast speed, you’ve got to focus. You’re like…

0:04:10.7 Mike Vacanti: I’m locked in.

0:04:11.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. I bet that’s more similar to real reading too. When you actually read, it’s faster than the slow discussion. That makes a lot of sense.

0:04:22.3 Mike Vacanti: Yes. Further, related to Jacob and Esau, I finally made it through the rest of the Old Testament for the first time on audiobook. And it picks up a lot.

0:04:36.1 Jordan Syatt: Which version are you reading?

0:04:38.0 Mike Vacanti: NIV.

0:04:38.8 Jordan Syatt: Okay, got it. Okay, cool.

0:04:40.3 Mike Vacanti: New International Version, I believe that stands for. But essentially, there’s just so much, it gets more interesting when you get into the prophets later in the Old Testament, starting with Ezekiel, funny enough. And then from there, a lot of the books are actually shorter, which I think… And the stories are a little bit more brief, which makes… And just more interesting. There’s more prophetic, visions and it was more interesting for me, at least. So the combination of audio…

0:05:17.5 Jordan Syatt: More interesting than Leviticus…

0:05:20.3 Mike Vacanti: More interesting than… Yeah. Build this and it’s got to be 80 cubits by 90 cubits. And then we’re going to give you the family lineage going back 42 generations. And we’re going to name them all. Seven by seven by seven. Like, what is going on? Honestly, Genesis is kind of hype with all the stories. And then Exodus is pretty classic, but I think a little bit more boring than Genesis. My subjective opinion. And then Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy are a slog. Respectfully. Like, respectfully.

0:05:53.5 Jordan Syatt: Bro they’re tough.

0:05:55.6 Mike Vacanti: And then even Judges, Kings, a lot of these early Old Testament books are long and important, but less exciting to the average reader, I would say. But replacing scrolling with movement plus audiobook, and that’s what I’ve been listening to, has me feeling a completely different person than laying on the couch just dopamine seeking on vertical video.

0:06:24.6 Jordan Syatt: I’m gonna chalk that up as a big win in my column right there. Does this mean then…

0:06:28.0 Mike Vacanti: For the audiobook?

0:06:30.0 Jordan Syatt: That you’ll do Harry Potter audio with me? ‘Cause before we said we would do Harry Potter, and you’re like, “Only if you read it. You can’t audio it.”

0:06:41.0 Mike Vacanti: Maybe. I’m definitely more open to it than I was before.

0:06:43.8 Jordan Syatt: Sick.

0:06:44.6 Mike Vacanti: I’ll mark that down for consideration.

0:06:46.6 Jordan Syatt: Good.

0:06:48.0 Mike Vacanti: Full circle. In the summer of 2023, I talked to you on this podcast about, I think I misquoted. I think I attributed it to Socrates or someone way back in the day, but really it was Benjamin Franklin had one variation of it, which was, there’s two ways that you can do something. Basically it was, you can increase your means, so you can work harder and get more, or you can reduce your desires, so you continue to do the same thing you’re doing, but you just want or need less.

0:07:21.7 Jordan Syatt: That was Benjamin Franklin?

0:07:23.1 Mike Vacanti: Often attributed to Benjamin Franklin, who suggested those are the two paths to happiness. I would call it more like contentment, but somewhat similar to what you described, going full circle back to Jacob and Esau.

0:07:39.9 Jordan Syatt: I like that.

0:07:40.9 Mike Vacanti: You like that now? I don’t think you liked it when I shared it two and a half years ago.

0:07:45.1 Jordan Syatt: A lot changed. Well, I don’t remember, but I’m sure I believe you. I like that.

0:07:51.2 Mike Vacanti: Cool.

0:07:51.7 Jordan Syatt: I agree with contentment, not happiness. I agree, increasing your means doesn’t increase happiness, but it can potentially improve your contentment.

0:08:02.1 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. And it’s almost like…

0:08:04.2 Jordan Syatt: I guess it’s up to a point.

0:08:05.3 Mike Vacanti: I don’t even know what the end product is, but just that there are two paths to get to the thing. Either working to get more or just not wanting as much.

0:08:18.7 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:08:19.3 Mike Vacanti: Anyway, we’re getting some feedback. Mentorship sale is well past at this point, the Black Friday sale, but we’re getting some feedback from the sale and our pricing in general that I haven’t shared with you, that I thought I’d share live because it’d be make for interesting content and reaction.

0:08:35.8 Jordan Syatt: Okay. Yeah. Am I going to be surprised?

0:08:39.2 Mike Vacanti: I don’t know if you’ll be surprised, but from multiple sources, our prices are way too low, and relative to the rest of the industry and what you get upon signing up and what you get in the group and what other gurus are offering, basically we’re priced too low, is what I’ve been told.

0:08:57.8 Jordan Syatt: That makes total sense to me.

0:09:00.5 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:09:00.7 Jordan Syatt: I was bracing for impact. I was gonna get furious if it was the other way around. I was like, “I know what other people are charging. I know… “

0:09:09.9 Mike Vacanti: And what they’re providing.

0:09:11.2 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, and what they’re providing. I know. So I was about to be like, don’t tell me multiple people said it’s way too high. I was gonna lose my mind.

0:09:19.9 Mike Vacanti: No, multiple people said, unbelievably cheap for what they’re getting. Which probably means a price increase here in 2026.

0:09:29.2 Jordan Syatt: That’s what we’ll do for the next sale. For the next sale, we’ll… Which by the way, even though the last sale is over, if you want to get in now, it’s the cheapest it’s ever going to be. It’s between… So if you want to apply, this is the… For now and it’s the lowest it’ll ever be.

0:09:45.6 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. I’m excited for today’s Q&A. We got some good questions. We got a good core group coming to those weekly Q&As.

0:09:54.7 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, I really enjoy those weekly Q&As.

0:09:57.1 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:10:00.3 Jordan Syatt: Bro, I’ve been doing this movement.

0:10:00.6 Mike Vacanti: I was going to ask you something about what you’ve been doing.

0:10:02.8 Jordan Syatt: So I’ve been doing… It’s funny, I learned this movement from Louie Simmons when I trained with him, which was what? Was I 21 when I trained with him? So it’s that 14 years ago or 13 years ago? That’s crazy. But you know what an SS bar is?

0:10:20.8 Mike Vacanti: Mm-hmm.

0:10:24.7 Jordan Syatt: So it really… You can sit up further on your neck because it has that huge pad and it has the weight, the handles that come out in front of you. So a really well… There are ones that are shitty designed and I wouldn’t recommend those. I would recommend spending the money on a good SS bar, because the ones that are lower cost typically have a really shitty design. But you get a good SS bar and you sit down on a bench in a deep-seated position and you… The only movement is it’s not a good morning. It’s, you’re sitting down fully upright, and you tuck your chin and then just round your upper back. So you round the upper back and then you fully extend and come up. You round and come up. And it’s like what… The movement that people do when they try and fix their posture is essentially what it is. When someone is like, “Oh, I need to sit upright.” And boom, they come right up.

0:11:16.5 Mike Vacanti: Oh, I see.

0:11:17.4 Jordan Syatt: But you make that movement bigger.

0:11:18.8 Mike Vacanti: So you’re stopping the flexion at like what, the bottom of the T-spine or mid T-spine?

0:11:24.7 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, it’s mid-back. You don’t go into lumbar. It’s all upper back.

0:11:27.7 Mike Vacanti: Okay. Got it.

0:11:28.1 Jordan Syatt: All upper.

0:11:28.9 Mike Vacanti: Cool. I’m into this.

0:11:29.1 Jordan Syatt: So it’s just upper rounding, so you round over like Quasimodo, get a turtle shell and boom, extend up.

0:11:36.9 Mike Vacanti: I like it.

0:11:37.6 Jordan Syatt: Think of the worst posture in the world and then go to the best posture in the world. That’s what you’re doing back and forth, back and forth. And man, I’ve been doing this and number one, the soreness that I get in my mid-upper back, I don’t get from any other movement. And no other movement hits my back, that part of my back, I’ve ever done, no rowing variation, nothing. It’s just that postural extension. And it just feels so good.

0:12:06.3 Mike Vacanti: Nice.

0:12:06.8 Jordan Syatt: Oh my gosh. And I load it heavy. I do it for sets of 8 to 10 reps. Yesterday I was doing it with, it was either 115 or 125 for sets of 8 to 10. Man it’s…

0:12:18.1 Mike Vacanti: How long have you been doing it?

0:12:20.8 Jordan Syatt: A few months, once a week, or once every 7 to 10 days.

0:12:23.5 Mike Vacanti: What did you start at, weight wise?

0:12:25.2 Jordan Syatt: Just the bar, the bar is 65.

0:12:27.5 Mike Vacanti: Oh, okay. Which is a decent amount.

0:12:29.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, it’s a significant amount. Yeah.

0:12:30.5 Mike Vacanti: It’s a good exercise recommendation from the Syatt repertoire.

0:12:36.4 Jordan Syatt: And that’s actually been my main movement on an upper body pull day. So I’ve been doing the inner circle three times a week, push, pull, legs. I just put that one before the rest of the workout. So that’s my heavy move, getting really good position, upper back, just get it like blood pumping in it, and then I do the rest of the pull day.

0:12:58.4 Mike Vacanti: Nice.

0:13:00.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:13:00.8 Mike Vacanti: I like that.

0:13:00.9 Jordan Syatt: Excited about it.

0:13:01.6 Mike Vacanti: Great for posture. Great for upper back strength.

0:13:04.9 Jordan Syatt: Oh my gosh, yes.

0:13:06.3 Mike Vacanti: What’s your tempo like on the eccentric on that?

0:13:08.7 Jordan Syatt: It’s probably about a second and a half.

0:13:10.9 Mike Vacanti: So you’re not trying to go like, vertebrae by vertebrae, like it’s…

0:13:15.1 Jordan Syatt: No. I’ll do that. I do vertebrae by vertebrae with either a Jefferson curl or with more like a cat-cow, very slow. I really like that with a cat-cow. But with heavier weight, I’m just like, “Let’s just go through the range.”

0:13:31.6 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, and your upper back is that much lower risk than some of that lower stuff. Good, bro. Well, I have another training question for you.

0:13:40.7 Jordan Syatt: Okay.

0:13:41.3 Mike Vacanti: I had a friend text me, an old, good friend of mine who I’ve helped with his fitness for a long time.

0:13:48.5 Jordan Syatt: Do I know him?

0:13:49.7 Mike Vacanti: You do. And got him pretty jacked back in the 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 era. But he skipped basically every lower body movement that I ever programmed for him. And then got obsessed with training lower body for the last seven to 10 years.

0:14:08.8 Jordan Syatt: Oh, I know who this is, right?

0:14:10.5 Mike Vacanti: And probably seven to eight years you do. And then made some amazing lower body strength and hypertrophy gains. And then he got obsessed with neck training for a couple years and I got him a bunch of comprehensive neck work. And then he texted me the other day and he was like, “My glutes are huge, my neck is huge. Now I want massive hands.” And I said, “Funny enough, I got a buddy who had a goal of growing his hands for his handshake with his daughter’s future boyfriend.” What’s the status of your hand training?

0:14:47.4 Jordan Syatt: It hasn’t been as consistent lately.

0:14:50.3 Mike Vacanti: Just less like the goal wasn’t as exciting as it was initially?

0:14:53.9 Jordan Syatt: No, I’m still super excited by it. My training overall over the last four weeks has not been as… It hasn’t been as frequent because before I was training almost every day, but especially as I’ve been really trying to focus more on my sleep. I haven’t been in the gym at 10, 11, 12 as much as I was before. I was doing that almost every day. And now it’s more about four times a week, trying to get at least two long cardio sessions in. So I just haven’t been as consistent over the last month or five weeks or so.

0:15:32.2 Mike Vacanti: That makes sense.

0:15:32.7 Jordan Syatt: I’m hoping once the new year comes in and things calm down with travel and stuff, I’ll increase it more.

0:15:41.7 Mike Vacanti: Okay. So we’ll have a hand update in the next few months.

0:15:44.9 Jordan Syatt: Is he buying some equipment for his hands?

0:15:47.8 Mike Vacanti: I’m sure he will, yeah.

0:15:49.7 Jordan Syatt: Cool.

0:15:50.9 Mike Vacanti: What has been happening with your sleep, with both your sleep and what time of day you’re training?

0:16:00.6 Jordan Syatt: There’s always something that has to give. There’s always something in my schedule I’m gonna have to move around or something that’s gonna have to essentially lose. And so lately I’ve been adding a couple more sessions in during the day around 10:00, 11:00 AM for my workouts.

0:16:26.4 Mike Vacanti: I like it.

0:16:27.2 Jordan Syatt: Which has been really good. But the issue… Here’s the time issue that I have. At least two days a week I’m running security at my daughter’s school, which is, we leave the house at 8:30 and I don’t get back again until 1:30. And so I’ll try and either get some work done, either social media posts and/or just walking. So if I’m on break, I’ll just try and get a social media post in while I’m still just at a coffee shop across the street keeping an eye out. But if I’m just running security, I’m just walking around, just trying to get steps in. And that’s a huge amount of time, several days a week that I could be doing training that I’m not. So on those days I typically end up training at night. It’s just where I… I’ve got to fit it in.

0:17:20.0 Mike Vacanti: Just one second, brother. I’m sorry.

[background conversation]

0:17:42.3 Jordan Syatt: Who is that?

0:17:47.4 Mike Vacanti: Dude, these plumbers in New York City are the biggest scam artists of all time. I don’t even know how do not disturb works. How did he break through my DND?

0:17:55.5 Jordan Syatt: If you call two times in a row, it will break through, as though it’s an emergency.

0:18:00.9 Mike Vacanti: I got a guy in the area. That was a week and a half ago. I’m gonna blow a gasket. I’m furious.

0:18:08.8 Jordan Syatt: Can we keep all this in, please?

0:18:10.1 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, we can keep it in. I’m so upset right now. And I feel 20% bad because I just cut you off. I was interested in what you were saying and then I didn’t comprehend the last minute because I was so angry. My blood’s boiling.

0:18:24.3 Jordan Syatt: Dude, no worries.

0:18:26.1 Mike Vacanti: I’m gonna explain what’s going on. I got a situation where basically a kitchen faucet needs to be replaced. And the way that these… I don’t even know what you call them. Plumbers for sure, exterminators like air conditioning, when I had an air conditioning issue a year or two back, on Google Maps, all these places have five stars. And I call them and it’s not the actual technician. It’s like someone who’s in charge of setting you up with a technician. But it’s impossible to schedule with them. And so they’re like, “Yeah, I’ll have a technician stop by sometime between 8:00 and 5:00 PM.” And they just never stop by and they never contact you and they never answer any of your calls or texts. And then a few days later, they’ll be like, “Hey, I’m here, I’m in the area. Can I come up?” It’s like, “No, you can’t come up right now.” Or on the pricing… I was telling my wife when I was on the phone with one of these characters the other day, I was like, this guy is 100% a drug dealer in addition to this, based on how shady he is.

0:19:40.2 Mike Vacanti: He’s like, “I can’t schedule it because needs someone else in the area, someone else in the area.” And he’s talking real fast. He’s like, “It’d be $900 for service call, but don’t want to do $900, we’ll do $700 for service call.” I’m like, “No, thank you, not interested, I’ll find someone else.” And then they’ll follow up on text and like, I had already texted this guy and said, “Hey, I’m not interested, thank you and bye.” And then a week went by and he called four times in a row in the middle of a podcast to tell me…

0:20:07.6 Jordan Syatt: Dear Lord.

0:20:08.3 Mike Vacanti: “Hey, I got someone nearby who I can get in there.” Anyway, this is either atrocious content or maybe you find it mildly entertaining, but…

0:20:17.5 Jordan Syatt: That’s fucking annoying. I can feel the anger emanating off of you.

0:20:19.8 Mike Vacanti: Okay. Something’s got to give is the last thing I remember.

0:20:26.8 Jordan Syatt: There’s just always, right? Life is a series of tradeoffs. Is like, I’m doing this so then I can’t do this at that time, so I’ve got to do this at another time. And for a long time, my sleep is what’s been being sacrificed as a result of it. It’s like, I’m giving up sleep so I can do all these other things. Lately, I’ve been, okay, I need to get back on the sleep train. And the thing that’s been being sacrificed is a combination of a little bit less training frequency and also a little bit less posting frequency on social media. So it’s a combination of those two, where I’m still posting a little bit and I’m still training more than the average person, but not as much as I would enjoy to train. Yeah, but my sleep has been infinitely better.

0:21:12.7 Mike Vacanti: And what does that look like for sleep? You’re getting to bed earlier and you’re getting more total sleep each night?

0:21:17.1 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, I’m getting to bed by like, probably about 11:00 usually. Yeah, and I get at least seven to eight hours. And I’m waking up, my watch is telling me for the first time in since I’ve had the watch, for the first time it’s being like, “You’re primed and ready to go.” For the first time since I got the watch, it’s literally being like, “You had a great night of sleep.” I’m like, “Oh, awesome.”

0:21:42.7 Mike Vacanti: I got a good feeling about you and sleep.

0:21:44.9 Jordan Syatt: Well, we’ll see, dude. B’Ezrat Hashem we’ll have another girl in late May, early June, and then that goes down the shitter one more time. But the good news, aside from having another beautiful daughter, is I get to train at night again.

0:22:00.2 Mike Vacanti: Because you’ll do the midnight feed.

0:22:00.9 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Super dosing caffeine, maybe a little nicotine in there and just getting that training in. You know what it is? There’s also that nostalgia of just being up late and just working, and it’s like that little competitive of, like…

0:22:16.4 Mike Vacanti: Nope.

0:22:17.2 Jordan Syatt: You know what I’m talking about.

0:22:18.4 Mike Vacanti: Oh, I know what you’re talking about, but I don’t have a drop of it in my system anymore.

0:22:21.7 Jordan Syatt: It’s gone. You burned it out. The gasoline’s gone.

0:22:25.1 Mike Vacanti: No, it’s dry. The tank is… Honestly. No, no, no. Do you know what it is? It goes back to earlier in the episode. It’s like the desires have been reduced. So I don’t have… That’s actually on my list, too. Epicurean lifestyle within the day and the week. But not a true Epicurean, which is more focused on sensuality and pleasure and food and things of that nature. But Epicurean in the way that Jordan and I misused the phrase in 2019, which basically meant work hard for the first half of the day and then relax for the second half of the day. That’s what we mean when we say Epicurean, going back to more of that, which is like I’m not setting any PRs in business right now, but doing what I want to be doing and getting work done for a good chunk of the day. Maybe it’s four hours, maybe it’s eight hours, maybe it’s ten hours, who knows? But then after that point, it’s like, turn it off and have family time and chill time and relax. And then within the week, have days where going harder during the day, but then days where you… A training day, a higher caffeine day, go harder in the day and then more relaxing days, weekends, et cetera, has felt really good for these past two weeks.

0:23:48.0 Jordan Syatt: Dude, I love that, these past two weeks.

0:23:51.0 Mike Vacanti: Well, that’s what it’s been. I’m on day 15 of that lifestyle, which is… Yeah, the nostalgia of like… The upside of late night work or workout is that the world is quiet.

0:24:06.5 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:24:08.4 Mike Vacanti: You know what? I’ve been feeling that the other way, going to bed at 8:15, waking up at 4:15, getting on a train, going to the… And the world is quiet then too, get work done early. My online coaching clients are probably like, “Why is Mike emailing me at 4:00 AM Central Time when it’s usually much later than that.” On the train, just up early, world’s quiet. All right.

0:24:30.0 Jordan Syatt: No interruptions. Yeah.

0:24:31.0 Mike Vacanti: You know what? I do relate to what you’re describing, just in the morning, not the evening.

0:24:35.7 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Either way, you’re cutting into your day, whether you’re doing it at night, you’re doing it in the morning. I was listening to… I think it was Jeff Dye. He’s a really funny comedian. He was talking recently, he was like… I’m gonna butcher it, but he was going off and he’s like, “I hate when people are like, ‘Yeah, you gotta start your day really early. You gotta get up at fucking 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning.'” He’s like, “You go to bed at 8:00.” He’s like, “You have the same total amount of time. You’re just fucking going to bed earlier.” That’s like… Yeah.

0:25:07.1 Mike Vacanti: It’s funny. I completely agree with the concept and the premise. Actually, there was another funny content creator making something along the lines of people who wake up at 5:00 AM and doing an impression about how they think they’re better than everyone else. The one part of me that disagrees is the research behind going to sleep earlier compared to going to sleep later with the same amount of time being more beneficial.

0:25:39.1 Jordan Syatt: Makes sense. It makes sense.

0:25:41.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Being more matched up with the sun. The sun and the moon, Jordan. You know? It’s a circadian rhythm. Look at shift workers.

0:25:53.8 Jordan Syatt: Dude, it’s brutal.

0:25:55.5 Mike Vacanti: And so like a 9:00 PM to 5:00 AM, compared to a 3:00 AM to 11:00 AM isn’t as bad as shift work, but it’s moving in that direction.

0:26:07.2 Jordan Syatt: You’re right.

0:26:07.9 Mike Vacanti: That being said, people who wake up early and tell you about it are very annoying.

0:26:13.2 Jordan Syatt: So obnoxious.

0:26:14.1 Mike Vacanti: I’m with Jeff Dye on that one. We are going to rank 20 biceps exercises.

0:26:25.1 Jordan Syatt: Oh wow, 20. Do you have them all written out?

0:26:26.8 Mike Vacanti: I have them all written out. I don’t think we go order on this one. It’s too much to keep track of. I think what we do is we just go S, A, B, C, D, E, F.

0:26:36.4 Jordan Syatt: Oh, got it. Okay, yeah, got it.

0:26:38.9 Mike Vacanti: You can have multiple…

0:26:39.7 Jordan Syatt: Okay. S is the top one. Cool. Okay, and F is the worst one, but we’ll rank it anywhere within those.

0:26:44.3 Mike Vacanti: Yes.

0:26:45.9 Jordan Syatt: Cool.

0:26:46.7 Mike Vacanti: And on whatever metric, effectiveness, strength, muscle building, feels good to you personally, enjoy programming it, cool, dangerous, whatever it all just kind of clumps together. This is…

0:27:01.1 Jordan Syatt: I already know which one you’re giving a really bad score to.

0:27:04.6 Mike Vacanti: Which one?

0:27:05.3 Jordan Syatt: It’s the one… Man, I wish there was a way that I could tell the podcast listeners without you knowing this. No, I think that you’re gonna give a bad score…

0:27:17.3 Mike Vacanti: You’re gonna say preacher curl.

0:27:18.7 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:27:20.1 Mike Vacanti: No, I won’t. I’m not gonna let my own biases of feeling like my biceps gonna rip off my…

0:27:24.9 Jordan Syatt: Based on danger. Based on the fear.

0:27:27.0 Mike Vacanti: No, it’s not real danger. It’s just like, I’ve seen enough videos on Instagram that it’s perceived danger and I know it’s perceived danger. It’s not real danger.

0:27:39.3 Jordan Syatt: Got it.

0:27:40.2 Mike Vacanti: Actually, I like a machine preacher curl a lot more than I like a barbell, an EZ bar preacher curl.

0:27:47.8 Jordan Syatt: Agreed.

0:27:48.4 Mike Vacanti: All right, first one, standing barbell curl.

0:27:50.6 Jordan Syatt: Man, I’m gonna give that S. Maybe…

0:27:54.3 Mike Vacanti: Wow.

0:27:54.7 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, I’m gonna give that an S. That’s a supreme variation. I love that variation. What about you?

0:28:01.4 Mike Vacanti: I’m gonna go A tier just because… By the way, can I compliment you? Great job not just spending three minutes giving nuance right there out the gate. Now I feel like I’m about to, but I don’t want to. It’s an A. It’s a great exercise. Arnold loved them. Get a lot of tension. You can go super heavy. I’m fighting the urge to say something nerdy and sciency. So I’m not even going to. Just A.

0:28:33.7 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, it’s an amazing exercise. Everything from the history to the legitimate benefits to the ease of overloading it, done. Next one.

0:28:43.9 Mike Vacanti: Standing dumbbell curl. Alternating or simultaneous?

0:28:48.4 Jordan Syatt: A.

0:28:49.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, I’m also going A.

0:28:50.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:28:51.1 Mike Vacanti: Chin up.

0:28:52.6 Jordan Syatt: Purely for biceps?

0:28:53.7 Mike Vacanti: Yes. Yeah, that’s how we’re ranking it here.

0:28:56.4 Jordan Syatt: Okay. Purely for biceps, I’m giving chin-ups a C.

0:29:02.7 Mike Vacanti: I’m gonna go B only for, it’s one of the biceps moves that you can, how do I wanna say this? It’s not the primary mover, obviously, but you can go heavier in a lower rep range more naturally than you can on a lot… Doing a curl variation that you’re taking to complete failure for four reps is more awkward than a weighted chin-up for four reps to failure.

0:29:44.9 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, I agree with that.

0:29:46.5 Mike Vacanti: And there’s also a little bit of anecdotal, people struggling to grow their biceps. Let’s get you doing chin-ups with 90 pounds hanging from your waist and see what your biceps look like. That I’ve just seen help grow biceps a lot.

0:30:02.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, I agree. Listen, as a whole, chin-ups are an S-tier exercise by and large. But purely for biceps, I’m just… Yeah, I’ll give it a… I’m sticking with C.

0:30:15.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. You can also bias them to train more biceps, which might move it up the rank slightly where you’re not fully extending.

0:30:26.9 Jordan Syatt: It’s not as much of a back exercise anymore. It’s a bicep. Yeah.

0:30:29.0 Mike Vacanti: Right. But that’s kind of a separate conversation. Preacher curl, bench or machine?

0:30:36.4 Jordan Syatt: Machine, I’m giving a, A. That’s an A. Machine is an A-tier exercise. A standard barbell, EZ bar preacher curl, I’m gonna give a B. Yeah. The machine is nice because it changes the resistance as you go through it. It has that accommodating resistance. So when you have the barbell, it will get very easy at the top. So you’re really only getting that end range where I like the machine a lot better.

0:31:10.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. The consistent resistance profile through the whole range on the machine is more effective and feels better.

0:31:17.9 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:31:20.6 Mike Vacanti: Man, this is hard without having it all in front of us. I’m also gonna give the machine preacher curl A tier.

0:31:27.9 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. What about barbell? EZ bar.

0:31:33.8 Mike Vacanti: I suppose B. End of B or top of C. Somewhere in there. You get so much stretch and discomfort at the bottom and then the top half of the range feels nothing almost. I would do the EZ bar. Depends on, probably not even anatomy so much as just personal preference and how your wrists feel and your elbows feel and your forearms feel. But making sure you have a grip that feels good and doesn’t have you feeling anything nagging or overusing certain tendons. Just wrist pain, all that.

0:32:15.4 Jordan Syatt: Agreed.

0:32:16.3 Mike Vacanti: Concentration curl.

0:32:20.7 Jordan Syatt: A concentration curl done really well, I’ll give it a B.

0:32:24.4 Mike Vacanti: Do you program these?

0:32:25.5 Jordan Syatt: Never. I’ve never once programmed them.

0:32:27.9 Mike Vacanti: I probably have, but not in the last decade, I don’t think.

0:32:31.5 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. I don’t think I’ve ever programmed it maybe ever for anybody else. Mainly because most people have no clue how to set it up. When you watch someone who doesn’t know how to set it up try and set it up even after a tutorial video, you have no idea. And it’s just like, it’s a little bit… You really have to be in tune with your body and I think be a more intermediate lifter to set it up properly. You watch Arnold do it and it looks so easy when he does it. It’s so smooth. It’s perfect. It’s so well done.

0:33:10.3 Mike Vacanti: You can tell he’s using his bicep.

0:33:11.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. And I like doing it. For me, personally, I haven’t done it in a long time, but when you do it properly it’s… I’d give it a B. I think it’s a really good exercise.

0:33:21.5 Mike Vacanti: If you’re an intermediate who wants to do it, would you do it sitting on a bench or would you do it standing?

0:33:26.4 Jordan Syatt: Sitting on a bench. I do it sitting down, arm up against the leg and using that as the base of support to block the elbow from moving backwards. Yeah, I would do it sitting down like hunched over.

0:33:37.3 Mike Vacanti: I think Pumping Iron has some footage of Arnold doing them standing bent over like that.

0:33:41.7 Jordan Syatt: Which is even more difficult.

0:33:42.6 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, even less stability. That’s what one of the downsides for the beginner is like you just don’t have a lot of stabilization.

0:33:52.9 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:33:53.5 Mike Vacanti: Even if the elbow’s in the right position “where it’s supposed to be” it’s just everything’s moving around.

0:34:00.6 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, agreed. You have to be very coordinated, especially to do it standing, to do it properly. Getting someone who’s uncoordinated is very… I would never do that for someone who’s uncoordinated.

0:34:12.2 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. And with so many other really good variations available like why program that?

0:34:18.1 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:34:19.0 Mike Vacanti: EZ bar curl.

0:34:20.9 Jordan Syatt: Man, a standing EZ bar curl?

0:34:22.9 Mike Vacanti: Mm-hmm.

0:34:23.9 Jordan Syatt: It’s an A tier.

0:34:24.2 Mike Vacanti: Why do you think it’s inferior to a straight bar barbell curl?

0:34:28.4 Jordan Syatt: Purely not based on anything physiological or anything based on, it’s purely based on the coolness factor.

0:34:35.2 Mike Vacanti: Good. I’m amazing. That needs to be more of a factor in exercise selection.

0:34:40.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, it’s just the nostalgia of it, the coolness of it. A heavy straight bar barbell curl is S tier and an EZ bar… It’s great, but it’s A tier.

0:34:49.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. We need more 1980 to 2012 mentality worked back into fitness in general.

0:34:57.4 Jordan Syatt: If you see someone doing a standing EZ bar curl with 45-pound plates on it, that’s badass. But if you see someone with a standing straight bar with 45-pound plates on it, that’s even more badass. So it’s just like that’s it.

0:35:14.9 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. What’s this guy doing? Is he about to flat bench? We don’t know, is he… Like oh, he’s curling. Oh, and they look great. Wow.

0:35:22.2 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, that’s just… It’s wild.

0:35:24.9 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. I’m going A tier as well for the EZ bar. I really like them. Personally, I find both grips on the EZ bar curl, both, the wide and narrow grips, to be much more comfortable, and way less wrist discomfort than a straight bar barbell curl.

0:35:45.1 Jordan Syatt: That’s sort of why straight bar is S tier too, because it’s like, oh, maybe he’s doing the 45 pounds with the EZ bar because he’s got some wrist pain. Okay. Oh, that dude with the straight bar, he doesn’t care. You know what I mean?

0:35:57.3 Mike Vacanti: He’s feeling it and he’s just curling.

0:35:58.5 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. He doesn’t care about the comfort.

0:36:04.4 Mike Vacanti: You know, it’s such a good point because I only get the discomfort going heavy. So I can go heavier on EZ bar curl than I can on a straight bar curl. But high reps, so a little bit lighter and in the 12 to 15 range with a straight bar just annihilates the biceps.

0:36:21.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:36:22.2 Mike Vacanti: Hammer curl.

0:36:23.2 Jordan Syatt: I think a hammer curl is an A tier bicep exercise. It’s a great bicep exercise. It’s fantastic. My initial gut was B, but it’s like, it’s just not. It’s not a B tier. It’s a great bicep exercise.

0:36:40.8 Mike Vacanti: What are your favorite variations of the hammer curl?

0:36:44.1 Jordan Syatt: I prefer alternating as opposed to at the same time with both hands. So I think alternating you get a better squeeze on the bicep because when you do it at the same time, it’s more ab. Like, you get a lot of core stabilization that has to happen to do both at the same time. So I like alternating and with a slight inward movement. It’s not straight up. It’s slightly inward.

0:37:11.8 Mike Vacanti: So what Jordan did there on video was his hand is coming more to the midline of his body on each rep. Yeah, I’m gonna go A tier as well. I’m a big fan of the hammer curl just in terms of nostalgia and variety. Basically every other curling motion is underhand. I guess we got a neutral grip chin-up, you can throw in there, but…

0:37:41.3 Jordan Syatt: Or even overhand or Zottman curls and all that.

0:37:43.6 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. True. More forearm stuff. I like a seated back supported, which takes a little bit of that core workout. Even like, a bench that’s not straight up and down, but maybe a 75 degree incline, get a little extra stretch at the bottom.

0:38:08.1 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, that’s a great one.

0:38:09.5 Mike Vacanti: And alternating. I love that.

0:38:12.7 Jordan Syatt: That’s a great one.

0:38:14.0 Mike Vacanti: I think scientifically, maybe less optimal, but just a rope cable hammer curl for high reps.

0:38:21.1 Jordan Syatt: Love that.

0:38:21.5 Mike Vacanti: And just getting a massive pump. Even some lengthened partials, which probably got too popular over the last couple years, but at the end of one of those sets, just you’re going past failure and just doing what you can for a few more reps at the end of the workout. And I think it’s inferior, but I like a seated back unsupported, lightweight high rep hammer curl. But you’re using a lot of other stuff. Core, which you described, but also a lot of upper back, just maintaining a consistent shoulder position throughout the entire set. But that’s a good one too.

0:39:04.7 Jordan Syatt: Love that description. That’s important nuance. I like that back supported, high incline, big stretch at the bottom hammer curl. That’s a great one.

0:39:13.8 Mike Vacanti: All right, incline dumbbell curl. We just kind of, so same thing except underhand.

0:39:18.9 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Same thing.

0:39:19.4 Mike Vacanti: A tier.

0:39:19.9 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:39:20.4 Mike Vacanti: Cable curl.

0:39:21.4 Jordan Syatt: I love the cable curl, dude. A straight bar cable curl or even with a rope hammer curl. But we’ll go straight bar, cable curl, dude. I’m going to give that… That’s an A tier. I love that one.

0:39:34.8 Mike Vacanti: I’m with you. Do you, because I… This is old school/I don’t know even what this is, but I always do my cable curls facing the attachment. Do you ever turn away and have it going through your legs?

0:39:52.7 Jordan Syatt: No, not with a straight bar. I do that with individual handles and I’ll do… Oh, sorry.

0:39:58.2 Mike Vacanti: It’s okay.

0:39:58.5 Jordan Syatt: No, I’ve never done that facing away.

0:40:01.4 Mike Vacanti: Okay. It’s on my list of things to try.

0:40:04.0 Jordan Syatt: Interesting.

0:40:04.8 Mike Vacanti: Just with a little bit bigger stretch at the bottom. And I just haven’t tried it and I saw it.

0:40:10.4 Jordan Syatt: Would it be at the lowest attachment at the bottom and the lowest setting?

0:40:13.6 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:40:14.3 Jordan Syatt: Okay. Yeah. I’ve never tried that. I don’t even know if I’ve ever seen that.

0:40:18.6 Mike Vacanti: I think it was Steve Hall, Revive Stronger. I saw him sometime somewhat recently. Yeah.

0:40:24.3 Jordan Syatt: That almost would be a little bit of a concentration curl because you’re using your body to block your elbows.

0:40:30.7 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:40:31.0 Jordan Syatt: Because your elbows can’t go back behind you.

0:40:35.2 Mike Vacanti: Right. The main benefit just from me trying to mentally visualize what it would feel like is, the direction of the tension in the stretch position at the bottom. Like it’s pulling almost against your biceps rather than… But I’m fully with you. I like a straight bar. I like a rope hammer. I an EZ bar, cable curl. Yeah, all all great variations. A tier. Seated dumbbell curl. Man, 20’s a lot.

0:41:15.4 Jordan Syatt: Seated dumbbell curl? I’m going to go B tier on this one. This is not back supported?

0:41:25.9 Mike Vacanti: No.

0:41:26.6 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Seated straight up. It’s a good variation. It’s a very good variation. I think it can be a little bit awkward. Sometimes the dumbbells having to clear the bench. Sometimes I have to do a little bit of movement to finagle your position to make sure that the dumbbells don’t hit your leg, don’t hit the bench. Like, it’s great. It takes the core work out of it so you can really focus on the biceps. I typically prefer a hammer variation here as opposed to a complete underhand. It’s just easier in terms of the…

0:41:54.2 Mike Vacanti: Your body can get in the way.

0:41:55.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, exactly. So it’s a good exercise.

0:41:58.0 Mike Vacanti: B tier. Reverse curl.

0:42:01.9 Jordan Syatt: Man, this is interesting. I’ve never been a big fan of just straight up reverse curls, and I know a lot of people are like, ” it’s good for your forearms.” And I’m like, “I don’t know.” Yeah, there are so many other exercises that I could do for my forearm. It’s sort of when people are like, “It’s really good for your forearms.” It’s like, that’s saying, yeah, for me doing chin-ups because it hits your biceps. It’s like, there are so many other forearm exercises I’d rather do. And by the way, I still sometimes do reverse curls. I will sometimes do… I like Zottman curls. I actually really like Zottman curls. But doing a straight up reverse curl when the goal is purely bicep because it also hits forearms, to me just doesn’t make sense. I’m gonna say reverse curl. I’m gonna go C tier.

0:42:52.3 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. I’m going B tier just because I have nostalgia of this EZ bar overhand followed by EZ bar underhand superset that I loved.

0:43:04.9 Jordan Syatt: High school?

0:43:07.0 Mike Vacanti: I don’t even know. I don’t even remember when, somewhere along the way. No, after high school for sure. Late in a workout, high reps, just like biceps are taxed.

0:43:18.7 Jordan Syatt: That’s two hours into the workout.

0:43:23.9 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Late in the session. But, I agree with you. You’re not taking your wrist through a range of motion, which is necessary to hit a lot of your forearm. It’s almost more isometric for parts of your forearm.

0:43:43.4 Jordan Syatt: It’s a plank for your forearms.

0:43:46.2 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Which is fine, but yeah. But it’s no hanging knee raise.

0:43:53.6 Jordan Syatt: That’s exactly right. That’s exactly right.

0:43:56.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. I’m going bottom of B tier on the reverse curl / middle of B tier for the nostalgia of that superset. Spider curl, face down on incline bench.

0:44:05.9 Jordan Syatt: Oh, I like those a lot. I’m giving those A tier. But the huge caveat to that is I don’t often program it, especially for women because breasts can get in the way.

0:44:28.1 Mike Vacanti: Chest supported.

0:44:29.1 Jordan Syatt: Chest supported can be super uncomfortable for them. So I personally love it and I program it a lot for men, but I never really put it in the inner circle. Just because the amount of times, whether it was that or a chest supported row…

0:44:44.8 Mike Vacanti: Just such a good move.

0:44:46.0 Jordan Syatt: It was such a good move, man.

0:44:47.4 Mike Vacanti: Probably S tier back move.

0:44:49.4 Jordan Syatt: Without question. Absolutely.

0:44:51.2 Mike Vacanti: It’s unfortunate.

0:44:53.6 Jordan Syatt: It can be… The only time it’ll work is like if you have a small bench that they can hang over so their chest is hanging over the top of it. But like, that’s… Or a T-bar row where it’s like, it’s just like right in the center. It’s not obstructed by the rest. Otherwise, yeah.

0:45:10.6 Mike Vacanti: Chest supported can be really uncomfortable for the ladies. I’m actually going lower than you on this one. Based on N equals one. Like, elbows feel they’re floating in space. Feels less stable. You’re on a bench, so you’re not. This is actually so hypocritical because I complain about the preacher curl and the feeling like I’m going to rip my biceps off, but I actually, the stability that it provides relative to the spider curl, where your arms are just hanging down. I get a lot of recruitment and pump and difficulty at the top of each rep of a spider curl, which I like. I feel at the bottom of each rep, I don’t feel as much biceps. I definitely like it more for higher reps, 15 to 20, compared to trying to do something lower rep. So top C, bottom B.

0:46:16.5 Jordan Syatt: Okay. Have you ever done it with a barbell?

0:46:19.0 Mike Vacanti: No.

0:46:19.5 Jordan Syatt: I like it with a barbell a lot.

0:46:20.7 Mike Vacanti: Yeah?

0:46:21.2 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. It’s easier to keep your elbows in place. With the dumbbells, it’s easier to be swinging around. With the barbell, it locks it in a little bit better.

0:46:28.6 Mike Vacanti: Oh, interesting. I gotta try that with the barbell. Okay. Zottman curl.

0:46:34.3 Jordan Syatt: I like Zottman curls a lot, and I actually do program them in the Inner Circle pretty frequently. I’m gonna give it a B tier. I’m not gonna give it A.

0:46:44.6 Mike Vacanti: Can you describe what it is for our listeners?

0:46:47.0 Jordan Syatt: Yes, so you start with your hands down by your sides in essentially… You could either start in a hammer position or underhand position. Either way, you’re gonna initiate with that underhand movement. So it’s gonna be an underhand curl. As you approach the top, you’re going to rotate your hands over so that it becomes a reverse curl position, and you lower down in a reverse curl position, and you go all the way down there, and then you repeat. So it’s underhand to overhand, underhand to overhand. So concentric is underhand, eccentric is overhand. And I like it a lot, which is, I’m almost battling in my head like why am I giving it a B tier, not an A tier? Because I actually… You know what it is, so many of the benefits that I like for it are not purely just bicep-related. So when it’s just bicep-related, I’m giving it a B tier, but like for so many other components, I think it is a really great arm exercise overall. But for biceps specifically, B tier.

0:47:47.2 Mike Vacanti: I’ll say B tier as well. Gun to my head, if I had to choose between A and C, I would go C, just because of personal preference, not because of anything actually good or bad about the movement. Maybe difficulty, maybe like mentally there’s a touch of… There’s so much going on with this exercise.

0:48:08.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. It’s tough for people to learn.

0:48:09.7 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. And, I have to think about this more, but I don’t know if there’s like… So this is a very extreme example, but on a reverse lunge to curl, it’s crap, because the difference between our bicep strength and our lower body strength is so uneven that like, basically you’re not getting good lower body work because you can’t load it heavy enough if you’re doing curls with it. I’m trying to think if there’s a degree of that here with curling. Well, no, not really, because if you’re slightly weaker overhand, you’re only doing overhand in the eccentric portion. B tier. Machine bicep curl. We’re going rapid fire. Machine bicep curls.

0:49:04.6 Jordan Syatt: Man. There’s just so many different machines.

0:49:07.2 Mike Vacanti: Let’s skip it then. 21s.

0:49:10.7 Jordan Syatt: Oh, bro. S tier.

0:49:12.5 Mike Vacanti: S tier. S tier on nostalgia alone.

0:49:14.6 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. On nostalgia alone, it’s S tier. That’s it. It’s just like, man. Yeah. So good.

0:49:21.1 Mike Vacanti: Because you can… Whoever YouTube science-y wants to come in here and be like, “Well, actually, the seven reps in the shortened position… “

0:49:28.2 Jordan Syatt: Shut up. Yeah.

0:49:29.1 Mike Vacanti: But if you weren’t in a high school gym between 2000 and 2012 banging out 21s while the lights go off because they’re closing it, you’re late for whatever, it’s like, “I don’t care, I’m doing my 21s right now.” You had to be there.

0:49:45.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Dude, it was the best. Get a group of people doing it at the same time, we’re all doing it together, looking in the mirror. Yeah. Dude, 21 is S tier.

0:49:52.9 Mike Vacanti: The best. Drag curl.

0:49:54.4 Jordan Syatt: You know, I do like the drag curl a lot. I’m giving it a B tier. I think it’s a great exercise, but I’m giving it a B tier. I actually had… We were talking about it in the Inner Circle recently. A woman posted, she was like, “Hey, this might seem weird.” It wasn’t a weird question, it was a great question. She was like, “What if our boobs get in the way?” It’s like you just stop when it hits your boobs is essentially it. But that can be a limiting factor, especially if you have larger breasts. That’s gonna be a much shorter range of motion. So generally speaking, I think it’s a great exercise, but it’s very individual-dependent. Going B tier.

0:50:35.5 Mike Vacanti: I can’t argue with B tier. Bayesian cable curl, behind the back.

0:50:40.2 Jordan Syatt: I like it a lot. The logistics of doing it in a public gym can be really fucking annoying.

0:50:48.3 Mike Vacanti: For the two arms.

0:50:50.2 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, because you have to take both cables, and then there’s… It can be really difficult. But I really like it a lot.

0:50:57.2 Mike Vacanti: It kind of has to be on where the pulleys are closer together, too.

0:51:01.9 Jordan Syatt: Yes, you can’t do it on the super wide one. Yeah.

0:51:04.2 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:51:06.6 Jordan Syatt: I’m going to give it a B tier.

0:51:08.5 Mike Vacanti: Single arm Bayesian. Is that how you say it?

0:51:13.1 Jordan Syatt: I always thought it was Bayesian.

0:51:15.1 Mike Vacanti: Bayesian is such a Midwest way to just slur the whole word. Bayesian. Caramel. Do you say caramel or caramel?

0:51:27.3 Jordan Syatt: Caramel. Yeah, you say caramel?

0:51:30.6 Mike Vacanti: I did until I moved out east and then I changed. Just like, “Yeah, this is how it’s written.” I’m going S tier for the single arm Bayesian cable curl.

0:51:42.5 Jordan Syatt: Really? Oh, wow. Okay.

0:51:45.9 Mike Vacanti: Bottom of S tier, I guess. Ah, you know what? See, I’m doing this for nerdy reasons. I’m doing this because it’s like you have such great load, it’s under great tension in the stretch position. Putting this in S tier also makes me want to put a standing alternating dumbbell curl in S tier and even like a… This is between S and A for me.

0:52:16.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, that’s fair. It’s a great exercise.

0:52:19.5 Mike Vacanti: Overhead cable curl. I assume it’s these.

0:52:24.4 Jordan Syatt: Oh, okay. So it’s like you’re basically in like a… You’re in between two cable stacks and your arms are at 90 degrees.

0:52:34.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, your upper arm’s at 90 degrees. Your armpits at 90 degree angle.

0:52:37.1 Jordan Syatt: You and I did this one in Florida, in Naples. Do you remember that?

0:52:43.2 Mike Vacanti: What? This was the other session from when we did leg press for 10 by 10 and a 6 by 6 reverse lunge with a six-second eccentric and then 3 by 30 cable pull-throughs and almost puked everywhere. Different gym?

0:53:01.4 Jordan Syatt: Different gym. It was the other one on Vanderbilt. I’m giving this a D tier, to be honest with you. It’s fun and it’s fun to do, but it’s not really miraculously beneficial. It works the biceps, but it’s in a disadvantageous position. It’s can be a little bit obnoxious. It’s D tier.

0:53:27.3 Mike Vacanti: You’re taking up two cables on a pretty valuable real estate often underneath a pull-up bar. I’ll go D. Top D, bottom C. Yeah. It doesn’t feel great. Feel like you get a lot of… You really feel it in the flexed position of the bicep. But it’s awkward. I find it somewhat difficult to keep my upper arms… Your upper arms really shouldn’t be moving much if at all, and I find it difficult to keep them in that position. Yeah, D. All right two more. Lying cable curl, floor-based for full stretch. I’ve never done this.

0:54:14.9 Jordan Syatt: I did that in high school.

0:54:16.1 Mike Vacanti: Lying on your back, underhand grip and curling?

0:54:19.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. This kid named Skyler was like, “This is it, dude. This is it.”

0:54:25.2 Mike Vacanti: Shut up, Skyler.

0:54:26.2 Jordan Syatt: Skyler, man. Not a fan at all. It didn’t feel good. It’s like your elbows and the floor and then it was very, very challenging to actually get a good position on it. I’m giving this a D tier. This is another D tier.

0:54:46.1 Mike Vacanti: I’ll agree with you on D tier. This seems like an extreme version of the what’s been popularized in the last few years with the incline dumbbell curls. And I’ve seen some of these incline dumbbell curls done at an extreme incline, like a 20 or 30 degree incline on the bench. Or even borderline like on a flat bench. I find those slightly awkward with shoulder stabilization and just how my shoulders feel during the move.

0:55:20.0 Jordan Syatt: The shoulders are popping forward a little bit.

0:55:22.7 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, and you’re trying to keep them back, but then you want enough load.

0:55:27.6 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, not a fan.

0:55:28.5 Mike Vacanti: D tier, laying on the floor. Last one. Band curls. A home gym staple for resistance band users is what the note was.

0:55:38.4 Jordan Syatt: You know what’s funny? It’s a good exercise, especially if you don’t have any equipment. If all you’ve got is bands, you want to get a great pump in. Obviously the discomfort of the bands in your hands really sucks. It’s not really fun to deal with that. If you have access to dumbbells and/or barbells and/or machines, I would never be like, “Hey, let’s use the band instead.” It’s just, it would be not be anywhere on my list. I’m going to give it a D tier again. You know, I’ll give it a C tier. This is a C tier exercise, I’m not giving it a D.

0:56:15.3 Mike Vacanti: That’s very nice of you.

0:56:16.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, it’s generous.

0:56:19.8 Mike Vacanti: Jordan is the history professor who has a student who works pretty hard but just does not have it. And he just threw that student a C right there. Like, “Here, you’re passing my class. You kind of tried, but good luck out there.”

0:56:31.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, that’s exactly what happened. I’m giving it a C, but remember, D was my first choice.

0:56:38.6 Mike Vacanti: I’m gonna be a little meaner, and I’m just gonna give it an F.

0:56:45.6 Jordan Syatt: Like, we got to put an F in here. So this is getting the F.

0:56:48.7 Mike Vacanti: If anything’s getting an F, it’s the… This isn’t like the… You’re at the bottom of each rep, you just don’t have any tension. If you want to have a lot of tension at the top of each rep you’re just… You don’t have enough tension at the bottom of each rep. It’s weird on your hands. It’s hard to actually properly load it. It’s hard to measure progressive overload. Like, I understand the bare case here of if you don’t have any access to weights and like look, but even then, because my mind… If my mind went like, okay, poverty, someone who legit can’t afford the cheapest dumbbells off of Craigslist that are used and rusty, like you legit can’t afford those, you still have… I would prefer a chin-up over a banded.

0:57:35.5 Jordan Syatt: I agree.

0:57:36.9 Mike Vacanti: And you can go to a park, you can go to a deck. They’re an F, unfortunately. Banded curls are an F. I’ve probably programmed them for people who were on vacation maybe and wanted to get a pump or whatever it was, but…

0:57:48.1 Jordan Syatt: Ironically, banded tricep press-downs I like a lot, but banded curls? No.

0:57:57.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Banded tricep press-downs I like more than banded… Who knows? Maybe we’ll do a triceps episode. You never know.

0:58:07.6 Jordan Syatt: That was fun though. I like that.

0:58:09.0 Mike Vacanti: That was very fun. We got our whole chart. We got our ABCDEFS. Thank you very much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a five-star review. Jordan and I are off to do a Q&A with everyone in the Fitness Business Mentorship. Do we have anything else? Well, happy New Year.

0:58:28.6 Jordan Syatt: Happy New Year.

0:58:29.3 Mike Vacanti: This goes live December 30th. Let’s get a strong start to 2026, huh?

0:58:34.0 Jordan Syatt: Let’s go.

0:58:34.6 Mike Vacanti: You, me, everyone.

0:58:37.4 Jordan Syatt: Have a great one. See ya.

0:58:37.9 Mike Vacanti: See you next week. See you in the new year. See you next year.