maratoolPreacher Curl with Cable
How to do the preacher curl with cable
- Place a padded arm curl bench in front of a cable machine.
- Attach a short bar to the bottom pulley.
- Rest your arms against the bench and extend them fully.
- With a narrow grip (6 inches) grasp the bar with palms facing up and pull it towards your head.
- Pause for a moment and then lower the bar back to starting position.
- Note: Perform this exercise in a slow controlled manner for best results.
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
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
A cable holds tension for the whole range, including the point where a free weight would go slack. Moving the pulley changes the angle the resistance arrives from without changing the movement.
Every exercise using:Cable
These train the biceps too, using equipment this one does not:
- Preacher Curl with Machinemachine
- Preacher Hammer Curl with Dumbbelldumbbell
- Quick Alternating Biceps Curls with Bandband
- Reverse Barbell Curlbarbell
- Reverse Barbell Preacher Curlse-z curl bar
Difficulty
Listed at beginner level: the pattern is simple enough to pick up without coaching, and a position that goes wrong mid-set is obvious enough to correct on the next repetition.
Of the 99 biceps exercises in this database, 38 are listed at beginner level.
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.