Curlbro is a pejorative slang term referring to gym-goers that focus on training their arms when weight lifting. It is often used on 4chan’s /fit/ board and the BodyBuilding Forums to stress the importance of compound exercises and leg training or to mock those who perform curl exercises in the squat rack. Curlbros are often associated with the Jersey Shore "guido" stereotype along with steroid use and excessive tanning.

Origin

The earliest known use of the word "curlbro" was posted in the "Life and Fitness" board of the United Kingdom-based Internet forum The Student Room^[2] on November 11th, 2010. In the thread, forum user TheWaterfield critiqued the original poster’s workout regimen by calling him a "curlbro" for excluding leg exercises in his routine.

6 sets of 6 on the pectoral machine Three chest 3 isolations 4 sets of 6 on the chest press machine Four chest 4 isolations 3 sets of 6 on the lateral pulldown machine Five Isolations 1 Lat You are a curlbro, congratulations. You have not exercised your legs so you're already reducing the growth hormones which are produced by them. You don't exercise your back properly, you missed out the triceps. If you want bigger arms (which is what it looks like, that and chest, then train your triceps, the muscle is BIGGER than your biceps.

Spread

The first Urban Dictionary ^[1] definition for "curlbro" was submitted by user Broseidon_ on December 10th, 2010, which defined the term as a type of weight lifter who prefers arm isolation exercises.

A curlbro enjoys lifting weights in his free time. The focus of his workout regimen is on 'getting big arms' – because that's the only part of your body that usually sticks out when curlbros are 'in da club, partying it up wid da chixx'. A curlbro usually doesn't know anything about fitness and his goal isn't to develop an aesthetically pleasing body but rather just grow big 'disco muscles, bro!' to impress 'da chixx, brah!'.

On January 8th, 2011, BodyBuilding Forums^[7] member MrGoodcat joked that a poster was an evolved form of curlbro for posting a photoshopped picture of his biceps. On February 7th, a greentext story about dealing with curlbros at the gym was submitted to the /fit/ (fitness) board on 4chan.^[6]

File 1297980474.ipa-(143 KB, 400x400, 1282409915240.jpg) □しろいしかく Anonymous 02/17/11(Thu) 17:07 No.6207869 Just got back from the gym, dual rage stores, greentext mode: engaged 1: >I start squatting >Curlbro walks up to me >Dude, you do legs everyday >I tell him I squat three times a week before every work out you should only work out your legs once a week >I begin to tell him about hormones, core, hips, stability, functionality, more mass, etc.. >I dunno dude, you shouldn't work out big muscles that much.. >Squatted 405 ATG >Kid walks away speechless

On April 28th, a user named "Curlbro" joined the BodyBuilding^[8] forums, but was banned for linking to the rival forum Dual Fit^[9] on February 5th, 2012. On June 6th, the Twin Muscle Workout YouTube channel posted a video titled "Don't be a curl monkey in the gym!" (shown left), which mocked men who focused on curl exercises while ignoring tricep training. On December 22nd, YouTuber lolzgym uploaded a compilation of gym-related fail clips accompanied by a remix of the Gregory Brothers' Double Rainbow song with several jokes about "curling in the squat rack" (shown right).

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On March 3rd, 2012, a "Curlbro" page was created on the image macro generator Quickmeme ^[5], which featured a stock photo of a muscular man with the caption "Rack's closed / due to curls." On April 19th, the @CurlBro Twitter account was launched with facetious tweets written from the perspective of an obnoxious gym-goer.

Old man tried telling me that my technique was wrong when I was doing my #curls and that the #dumbbells were too heavy. #GetOutOfMyFace

— Curl Bro (@CurlBro) April 19, 2012

Notable Examples

Several YouTubers have uploaded videos labeled "Curl Bro" with gym footage of men performing the curl exercise with poor form or in inappropriate locations

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