Almost every company that manufactures barbells also produces curl bars: shorter, lighter versions of a regular barbell. The symmetrical angles bent into the body of a curl bar allow you to vary your forearm and wrist position, depending on how you hold the bar. Two varieties of curl bars -- the regular curl bar or super curl bar, with extreme angles that allow more dramatic shifts in hand position -- offer similar benefits during elbow flexion and extension exercises.
Pain Relief
Common gym exercises such as biceps curls shouldn't hurt your arms or elbows when done with a straight bar. But injuries, overuse or biomechanical abnormalities may cause elbow, wrist or forearm pain, especially when you lift heavy weights. The slight inward angle of your grip on a curl bar may help reduce your pain and discomfort.
Bodybuilding
Because curl bars move your forearms out of a strict palms-up position, they decrease the amount of load on your biceps muscle. This isn't beneficial for training the biceps, but it does help you train the brachialis and brachioradialis, the other arm muscles responsible for elbow flexion.
Size and Weight
Most Olympic barbells -- the type you find in a gym -- are seven feet long. Standard barbells, although shorter than Olympic bars, are still longer than the typical 47-inch-long curl bar, which can fit into much smaller spaces. With an average weight of 15 to 20 lbs., an Olympic curl bar is also much lighter than a full-size Olympic bar, which weighs about 45 lbs. with no weights added. The lighter curl bar allows you to lift less than 45 lbs. if you need to.
Olympic or Standard
If you already have a set of standard or Olympic weight plates, you can purchase a standard or Olympic curl bar for use with those plates. A standard curl bar has a 1-inch diameter sleeve on each end, designed to fit the smaller inner hole on standard weight plates, most commonly sold for home use. An Olympic curl bar has 2-inch diameter sleeves, meant for accepting the larger-holed weight plates you typically find in the gym.
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