Concentration Curl
A seated one-arm curl: you brace the back of your upper arm against the inside of your thigh and curl a dumbbell or cable handle toward your shoulder, isolating your biceps.
Equipment
- Primary muscles
- Biceps
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Logged as
- Weight × reps
- Primary muscles
- Biceps
- Secondary
- Forearm flexors
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Logged as
- Weight × reps
Loads from YouTube only when you press play. The video is by an independent creator.
Why do it
It suits anyone who wants strict, focused biceps work at the end of an arm session, since bracing on your thigh makes swinging almost impossible. Training one arm at a time also shows up any difference between sides. The dumbbell version is the classic and needs only a bench; the cable version keeps tension at the bottom where a dumbbell goes light. Loads are light compared with standing curls, so treat it as a finisher rather than a main lift.
How to do it (Cable)
Attach a single handle to the low pulley and sit on the end of a bench facing the machine, feet wide.
Take the handle underhand in one hand and brace the back of that upper arm against the inside of your thigh.
Curl the handle toward your shoulder, moving only your forearm.
Lower it slowly to full extension. Finish all reps on one arm before switching.
Sit on the end of a bench with your feet wide and a dumbbell in one hand.
Lean forward and brace the back of that upper arm against the inside of your thigh, letting the dumbbell hang with your palm facing forward.
Curl the dumbbell up toward your shoulder, moving only your forearm.
Lower it slowly to full extension. Finish all reps on one arm before switching. Bracing against your thigh makes cheating almost impossible, which is the point of the exercise.
Common mistakes
Bracing the elbow, not the upper arm
Resting just your elbow on your knee lets the arm pivot and slide. Press the back of your upper arm against the inside of your thigh so it stays put.
Lifting your shoulder to finish
Raising your shoulder or twisting your torso gets the weight the last bit up. Keep your shoulder down and stop when your forearm can't go further.
Letting the weight drop
With such a light load it's easy to let it fall back down. Lower slowly to full extension so the biceps works on the way down too.
Sets, reps and progression
How many sets you do and how close to failure you take them depend on your goal and your week, not on the exercise. These guides cover it:
Alternatives that train the same thing
Same movement, a different angle or piece of equipment.
