Standing Dumbbell Reverse Curl
Trains the Biceps, Brachialis and Brachioradialis.
- Equipment
- Dumbbells
- Mechanic
- Isolation
- Force
- Pull
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
- Stand holding a dumbbell in each hand with your palms facing backward — an overhand, or pronated, grip.
- Set your feet hip-width apart, arms straight, elbows resting lightly against your sides.
- Curl the dumbbells up without letting the palms turn. The backs of the hands lead the way.
- Stop when the forearms are roughly vertical. The range is shorter than an underhand curl and that is normal.
- Lower slowly to straight arms, keeping the wrists in line with the forearms the whole way down.
Common mistakes
- Using the same weight as an underhand curl. Turning the palms down takes the biceps out of its strongest position, so the usable load drops — often by a third. That is the exercise working, not a failure of strength.
- Letting the wrists fold backward under the weight. The wrist extensors are holding the hand in line with the forearm, and they are usually the first thing to give out; when the knuckles start dropping, the set is finished.
- Turning the palms up partway through. Once the forearm rotates back to supinated it is an ordinary curl again, and the brachioradialis loses the leverage the pronated grip gave it.
- Treating it as a weaker biceps exercise. The point is the muscles underneath — the brachialis flexes the elbow whatever the hand is doing, and the brachioradialis has its best leverage nearer this grip than an underhand one.