Alternate Incline Dumbbell Curl

Muscle Targeted: Biceps

Starting position:

Set the bench inclination and choose appropriate weight dumbbells to match your type of training.

Sit down on an incline bench with a dumbbell in each hand and lean against the bench. Hands holding the dumbbells are held at arms-length, palms facing each other (inwards).

Exercise:

Curl the weight in one hand forward while rotating your wrist so that the palm is facing up at shoulder level. Bring the dumbbell back and repeat the contraction with your other hand. Breathe out when your forearm is moving upwards and breathe in as you come back to the starting position.

Note:

Choose the dumbbell weight to match your abilities, fitness level and training type. Start with lighter weight to master the technique well.
Focus on your abdominal breathing.

Only the forearms should move, not your elbows.
Avoid fast and uncontrolled motion as you are coming back to the starting position resulting from relaxation of the muscle contraction.

Recommendation:

Choose the number of repetitions to match your training type.

Watch yourself in the mirror to make sure you eliminate use of the trapezius muscles.

Avoid excessive motion in your elbows.

Frequency of repetitions depends on correct breathing and technique.

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This is a variation of incline dumbbell curls: while it is sometimes hard to coordinate the movement of both arms, alternate movement enables more concentration. Some athletes do the alternating curls in the last set (when the muscles are already exhausted) or only at the end of each set (for the same reason).

Sitting on incline bench is preventing the body movements leading to cheating and the incline position is stretching the biceps and surrounding muscles which is considered beneficial by some coaches.

Dumbbell biceps curl is a basic biceps exercise and it offers several advantages over barbell biceps curls:

  1. Less isolation (or more correctly less limited movement). Additional muscles are involved by balancing the arm.
  2. Equal weight on both arms. This is especially important for the beginners who tend to have their dominant arm better developed.
  3. Less stress on the wrists. While holding the barbell (and to some extent also EZ-bar) forces the hand into unnatural position that can lead to wrist injury. In biceps curl you start the motion from a position where the palms are facing each other.
  4. Additional movement – rotating the forearm from the position where the palms are facing each other to the position where palms are facing upwards. This is the second most important function of the biceps muscle (after elbow flexing).
  5. Better brachioradialis development. In the first phase of the movement, the brachioradialis muscle is directly involved.

Notice: do not extend your arms completely. Always keep some pressure on the muscle. This is not only beneficial for the workout but will also prevent elbow injury.