maratoolClose Grip Standing Biceps Curls with Barbell
How to do the close grip standing biceps curls with barbell
- Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, your knees slightly bent and your abs drawn in.
- Grasp a barbell with palms up, about 12 inches apart.
- Extend your arms fully against your thighs.
- Keeping your elbows straight, raise the bar towards your chest until your forearms touch your chest.
- Pause for moment and then return to the starting position.
- Note: Lean up against a wall or post if you have problems keeping from swinging.
Muscles worked
The prime mover is the biceps brachii, which bends the elbow and rotates the forearm palm-up.
Even with a single joint doing the moving, the muscle is not working alone — the forearms hold the grip, which is often what gives out first.
How this movement works
Everything happens at one joint. That gives you direct control over where the tension sits; the trade-off is that the muscle gets no help, so the load that feels hard here is a fraction of what a multi-joint version of the pattern would take. Slow, complete repetitions beat heavy ones.
It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.
What you need
A barbell locks both hands to one bar, so neither side can drift and the load climbs in plate-sized steps. That makes it the simplest way to add weight and the least forgiving thing to bail out of.
Every exercise using:Barbell
These train the biceps too, using equipment this one does not:
- Close-Grip EZ-Bar Curl with Bande-z curl bar
- Concentration Curlsdumbbell
- Hammer Curls with Rope and Cablecable
- Machine Preacher Curlsmachine
- Medicine Ball Biceps Curl on Stability Ballmedicine ball
Illustration: Everkinetic — CC BY-SA 4.0 — license. Modified versions are shared under the same license. Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.