[AF] Acute and chronic regional changes in elbow flexor thickness after resistance training with dumbbell curl or dumbbell row exercises (2025)

[u/basmwklz]

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11332-025-01530-7

[u/AutoModerator]

Read our rules and guidelines prior to asking questions or giving advice.

Rules: 1. Breaking our rules may lead to a permanent ban 2. Advertising of products and services is not allowed. 3. No beginner / newbie posts: Please post beginner questions as comments in the Weekly Simple Questions Thread. 4. No questionnaires or study recruitment. 5. Do not ask medical advice 6. Put effort into posts asking questions 7. Memes, jokes, one-liners 8. Be nice, avoid personal attacks 9. No science Denial 10. Moderators have final discretion. 11. No posts regarding personal exercise routines, nutrition, gear, how to achieve a physique, working around an injury, etc.

Use the report button instead of the downvote for comments that violate the rules.

Thanks

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/basmwklz]

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the acute changes in muscle thickness (i.e., muscle swelling; Experiment 1) and chronic responses (i.e., muscle hypertrophy; Experiment 2) along the elbow flexor length (biceps brachii and brachialis together) after the dumbbell curl (DC) versus the dumbbell row (DR) exercises. For Experiment 1, 16 trained men completed a training session (4 × 8-12RM). For Experiment 2, nine untrained men underwent a resistance training program (8 wk; 2x/wk; 4-6 × 8-12RM). Both experiments followed a within-subject experimental design, in which each subject performed DC or DR for each upper limb. Panoramic ultrasound images of the elbow flexors (biceps brachii + brachialis) were captured before and immediately after the session (Experiment 1) or 72 h after the last training program session (Experiment 2). Muscle thickness (MT) was measured at proximal (25%) and distal (75%) regions of the biceps brachii length. After the acute training session, DC induced greater changes in elbow flexors MT (proximal = 19%; distal = 16%) than DR (proximal = 13%; distal = 12%), with a statistically significant difference between exercises for the proximal region (p = 0.024). After the 8-week training program, DC evoked regional hypertrophy (proximal = 5%; distal = 11%) and greater changes than DR, which showed increases only in the proximal region (5%) but not in the distal region (1%). Greater acute and chronic increases in MT were revealed for the DC exercise, but with different regional responses.

[u/GavinRayDev]

It would have been interesting if they had used double the sets of rows since biceps is an accessory mover