Concentration Curl

How to Perform the Concentration Curl

1. Sit on a bench with your feet flat on the floor, wider than shoulder-width apart. Hold a dumbbell in one hand.
2. Lean forward slightly and brace the back of your working arm against the inside of your same-side thigh, just above the elbow.
3. Let the dumbbell hang at arm's length with your palm facing away from your thigh. This is your starting position.
4. Curl the dumbbell upward by contracting your bicep, keeping your upper arm braced against your thigh throughout.
5. Continue curling until the dumbbell reaches shoulder level and your bicep is fully contracted. Squeeze and hold for one second.
6. Slowly lower the dumbbell back to the starting position with a controlled 2-3 second eccentric. Complete all reps on one side before switching.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Muscles Worked

Benefits

• ✓Produces the highest bicep EMG activation of any curl variation according to ACE research studies.
• ✓The braced position completely eliminates cheating and momentum, ensuring pure bicep isolation.
• ✓Excellent for correcting bicep strength imbalances between arms since each side is trained independently.

Pro Tips

• ●Supinate (rotate your pinky upward) at the top of the movement for a harder bicep contraction.
• ●Focus on the mind-muscle connection since this exercise is designed for quality contraction, not heavy weight.
• ●Keep your non-working hand resting on your other thigh for stability rather than using it to assist the lift.

Variations

Recommended Sets & Reps