maratoolDumbbell Lying Pronation
How to do the dumbbell lying pronation
- Lie on a flat bench face down with one arm holding a dumbbell and the other hand on top of the bench folded so that you can rest your head on it.
- Bend the elbows of the arm holding the dumbbell so that it creates a 90-degree angle between the upper arm and the forearm.
- Now raise the upper arm so that the forearm is perpendicular to the floor and the upper arm is perpendicular to your torso. Tip: The upper arm should be parallel to the floor and also creating a 90-degree angle with your torso. This will be your starting position.
- As you breathe out, externally rotate your forearm so that the dumbbell is lifted forward as you maintain the 90 degree angle bend between the upper arms and the forearm. You will continue this external rotation until the forearm is parallel to the floor. At this point you will hold the contraction for a second.
- As you breathe in, slowly go back to the starting position.
- Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.
Muscles worked
The prime movers are the forearm flexors and extensors, which move the wrist and keep the hand closed around whatever you are holding.
Every exercise for:Forearms
How this movement works
One joint changes angle and the resistance travels toward you along a single arc. Nothing is positioned to help, so tension stays where you aimed it and the usable load drops sharply against a multi-joint pull for the same muscle. Protect the range of motion; buying weight by shortening the arc defeats the point.
It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.
What you need
Dumbbells let each side work on its own, surfacing a strength difference between limbs that a barbell would quietly cover for, and leaving the wrist free to rotate through the movement.
Every exercise using:Dumbbell
These train the forearms too, using equipment this one does not:
- Finger Curlsbarbell
- Seated Two-Arm Palms-Up Low-Pulley Wrist Curlcable
- Wrist Circlesbody only
- Bottoms-Up Clean From The Hang Positionkettlebell
Difficulty
Listed at intermediate level. It assumes you already own the underlying pattern and can hold position under load — if the position breaks before the target muscle tires, drop back to a beginner variation until it does not.
Of the 25 forearms exercises in this database, 7 are listed at intermediate level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.