The ergonomic curl bar, sometimes known as an EZ curl bar, is a short, wavy-looking barbell you'll find in almost any gym. Because it's shorter than a regular barbell, a curl bar is useful for almost any exercises in limited space. But the curl bar's real advantage is the different angles the wavy-looking shape allows you to position your hands at; even slight modifications to hand and forearm position can reduce wrist discomfort during a number of exercises.
Curls
As you might expect from its name, an ergonomic curl bar is primarily used for doing curls. The "crinkled" body of the bar allows you to position your thumbs slightly higher than your smallest fingers during palms-up biceps curls or preacher curls. Just as importantly, you can grasp the bar with your palms down and do reverse curls, again with your thumb higher than your smallest finger. Everybody's body is built a little bit differently, but most will find these slightly angled hand positions much more comfortable than doing curls on a straight bar. Note that you can't use an ergonomic curl bar for hammer curls,
Extensions
The same variation in hand positioning allows you to perform some triceps exercises without the elbow discomfort you might experience while using a straight barbell. For skull crushers, also known as headbangers, you lie faceup on a bench, arms straight up, with the bar in an overhand grip. Then bend and straighten your elbows without moving your upper arms.
The curl bar's relatively short length is also helpful for overhead triceps extensions; you can still load it up with your regular weight plates, but you're less likely to accidentally take out innocent bystanders than if you were using the typical 7-feet Olympic barbell you'd find in most gyms. You may feel more secure holding onto a bar instead of a single dumbbell, and the bar doesn't hang down behind your head like a large dumbbell would.
Presses
Close-grip bench presses work your chest and inner triceps, but doing them with a straight bar forces your wrists into an uncomfortable position that only gets worse as you add more weight. Once again, the curl bar's variety of angles allows you to perform the exercise comfortably without enduring extra shear forces on your wrists.
Rows
By the same reasoning, you can use curl bars to ease wrist and elbow discomfort during both bent-over rows and upright rows. Whether or not you use the curl bar for bent-over rows is a matter of preference -- it's unnecessary for wide-grip rows -- but the bar is almost essential for staying comfortable during upright rows, which force your elbows considerably farther apart than your wrists.
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