Zottman Preacher Curl
Trains the Biceps, Brachialis and Brachioradialis.
- Equipment
- Dumbbells and a preacher bench
- Mechanic
- Isolation
- Force
- Pull
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
- Set a preacher bench so the top of the pad sits under your armpits.
- Rest both upper arms on the pad with a dumbbell in each hand, palms up.
- Curl both dumbbells up until the forearms are roughly vertical.
- At the top, rotate your hands so the palms face the floor.
- Lower slowly in this overhand position, taking longer coming down than going up.
- At the bottom, rotate back to palms-up before the next repetition.
Common mistakes
- Rushing the lowering half. The overhand descent is why the exercise exists — it is where the brachioradialis and the wrist extensors are loaded — and on a preacher pad it is also the hardest part of the range.
- Rotating on the way up rather than at the top. Turning early means curling in the weaker position and lowering in the stronger one, which is the exercise backwards.
- Choosing the weight by what you can curl. The lowering half happens overhand and against the pad's hardest angle, so the load is set by what you can control coming down.
- Snapping the arms straight at the bottom of the overhand descent. That is the least supported moment in an already demanding position.