Close-Grip EZ-Bar Curl

How to do it

1. Take an EZ bar with an underhand grip on the inner angled sections, hands closer than shoulder-width.
2. Stand tall with your feet hip-width apart and your elbows tucked against your sides.
3. Let the bar hang at arm's length in front of your thighs.
4. Curl the bar up, keeping the upper arms still.
5. Stop when the forearms are roughly vertical, then squeeze briefly.
6. Lower under control to straight arms.

Common mistakes

• Gripping narrower than the bar's angle allows. The EZ bar's bends set where the hands sit comfortably; forcing them closer puts a twist into the wrist for every repetition of the set.
• Expecting the narrow grip to build the outer part of the biceps. Grip width changes where the arms sit relative to the body and how the wrist is loaded; the biceps has two heads and neither is selected by hand spacing.
• Letting the elbows drift forward. Once the upper arms travel, the front deltoid raises the bar through the top half and the biceps get a shorter range.
• Cutting the bottom short. Full extension between repetitions is where the biceps is longest and least assisted.

Muscles worked

Primary

• Biceps

Secondary

• Forearm Flexors
• Forearm Extensors