Talk:French curl

I have been trying to get some solid references on this, because there seems to be a lot of confusion on this topic. The exercise being described here is also referred to as a French press. (At the moment, French press only links to an article about coffee.) There seems to be great confusion about which one is correct -- possibly there are regional variations -- which is added to by the slangy names as well. Some instructors have tried to clear up the confusion by renaming it the "[dumbbell/barbell] triceps extension".

There is also a view, however, that only "French press" is correct for this exercise, and "French curl" actually refers to a biceps curl executed with the palms facing down. This view has the advantage of being logical: the "French curl" described in this article is clearly not a "curl" at all, but a press; whereas the reverse grip curl is at least a curl. Not only that, but in this view, a "French press" is in fact a sort of variant of the bench press, while a "French curl" is a variant of a biceps curl.

Thus "French" becomes a consistently used modifier, meaning "a bit different to the normal one". Which is also consistent with a lot of other usages, of "French", as in French cricket, French knitting, etc.) -- 144.138.137.253 11:35, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

In fact this article should be merged with Lying triceps extensions, with an added section about the confusion in the various names. -- 144.138.137.58 20:55, 12 November 2006 (UTC)


 * It's a nonsense to call these 'curls', as has been pointed out by the original poster - I actually suspect someone has made a mistake somewhere along the line, whether it's with regional variation or slang, or just outdated terminology. As said above, if anything this should be merged into Lying triceps extensions (not the other way around). Lying triceps extensions is definitely the generic and more widely used term for this exercise as it's currently described. Incidentally it's interesting to check some of the older versions of this article, and watch the description change over time. --jjron 14:39, 17 December 2006 (UTC)
 * I agree; the exercise described in this article is an extension, not a curl. This should be merged into lying triceps extensions and turned into a redirect.  I've already changed the redirect at skull crusher to point to the other article. &mdash; EagleOne\Talk 19:22, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
 * I agree with the move to merge both articles under Lying Triceps Extension. The movements are essentially the same, with the grip being supinated in the barbell exercise called Lying Triceps Extension and being ostensibly neutral in the dumbbell exercise called French Curl. // 70.200.25.196 20:37, 17 June 2007 (UTC)