Preacher curl (barbell)

A preacher curl puts the back of your upper arm against a sloped pad. The arm cannot move, so the only thing that can lift the bar is the elbow bending.

The slope also means the hardest part of the rep is the bottom, with the arm nearly straight. That is the opposite of a standing curl, where the bottom is easy and the middle is hard.

Sets, reps and RIR

Single-joint work responds to reps and time under tension more than to heavy load.

RIR means reps in reserve: how many you could still have done when you racked it. RIR 2 is two short of failure.

How to do it

1. Set the seat so your armpits rest on the top of the pad with your feet flat on the floor.
2. Take the bar with an underhand grip, hands roughly shoulder width, and let the arms straighten.
3. Curl the bar up by bending the elbows, keeping the whole upper arm flat against the pad.
4. Stop before the forearm becomes vertical, so the biceps keeps tension instead of resting against the joint.
5. Lower slowly all the way to straight arms, and control the last part of the way down in particular.

Common mistakes

Bouncing out of the bottom

Dropping fast and rebounding puts a stretched biceps under a sudden load at the point where it is weakest. This is the position biceps tears happen in.

Elbows lifting off the pad

Once the upper arm comes away from the pad you have reinvented the standing curl and lost the reason for sitting down.

Not straightening at the bottom

The stretched position is what this exercise is for. Stopping halfway down leaves out the part no other curl gives you.

Straight bar on angry wrists

A straight bar forces the forearm into full supination. If that hurts, the EZ bar lets the wrist sit at an angle without changing the work much.

How it differs from the neighbouring variants

The incline dumbbell curl also loads the stretched position, and lets each arm move on its own path. The preacher is steadier and easier to load heavy.

The standing barbell curl lets you use the most weight and the most body english. It is the better choice for loading, and the worse one for isolating.

What it suits

Preacher curls go after the heavy pulling, when the arms are already warm and nothing about the set depends on your grip being fresh. Eight to fifteen reps, one or two in reserve. This is not an exercise for a maximal single, because the bottom position is the wrong place to find your limit.

Muscles worked

Primary: Biceps.

Secondary: Forearms.

Estimate your one-rep max

Epley's formula, from a set you have actually done. It is an estimate, and it drifts above eight reps, so keep the input between one and twelve.

What it is called elsewhere

• Norsk Preacher curl (stang)
• Svenska Preacher curl (skivstång)
• Dansk Preacher curl (vægtstang)
• Deutsch Scottcurl (Langhantel)
• Español Curl predicador (barra)
• Italiano Curl alla panca Scott (bilanciere)
• Português Rosca Scott (barra)
• Русский Подъём штанги на скамье Скотта
• Français Curl pupitre (barre)

Related arms exercises

• Biceps curl
• Hammer curl
• Concentration curl
• Incline dumbbell curl
• Overhead triceps extension
• Triceps kickbacks

athlate logs this exercise, keeps the numbers, and tells you what you lifted last time.