Concentration CurlsMuscles Worked
Concentration curls work your biceps, with your forearms helping to hold the dumbbell steady. Bracing your upper arm against your inner thigh takes momentum out of the lift, so the biceps does nearly all the work and you can focus on a hard squeeze at the top.
How to do it
- Sit on the end of a bench with your feet wider than shoulder width and a dumbbell on the floor between them.
- Pick up the dumbbell with one hand, palm up, and brace the back of that arm against your inner thigh near the knee.
- Lean forward slightly and let the arm hang straight with the dumbbell just off the floor.
- Curl the dumbbell toward your shoulder while your upper arm stays pressed into your leg.
- Squeeze hard at the top, then lower slowly until your arm is straight. Finish your reps and switch sides.
Form tips
- Turn your pinky slightly up as you finish the curl to get a stronger biceps contraction.
- Don't use your thigh to push the arm up; the leg is only a brace.
- Keep your torso still instead of rocking back as the weight rises.
Why it made the list
No. 6 of 12
Best Bicep Exercises
Peak contraction isolation. Eliminates momentum cheating. A classic from the Arnold era that's still in every gym.
More bicep exercises
See it on your own body map
Log your Concentration Curls sets in KasMaker and watch your biceps and forearms fill in on the map, weighted by how much you did. Logging and the body map are free on iPhone.
