maratoolOne Arm Bicep Curl with Olympic Bar or Barbell
How to do the one arm bicep curl with olympic bar or barbell
- Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and your knees slightly bent.
- Grasp an Olympic bar (empty weight bar) in the middle with one hand so that the bar is equally balanced.
- Keep your free hand at your side for support.
- Curl the bar up so your forearm touches your bicep.
- Slowly lower the bar and change arms.
- Note: If an Olympic bar is too heavy use a lighter weight barbell.
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:
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.