maratoolReverse Plate Curls
How to do the reverse plate curls
- Start by standing straight with a weighted plate held by both hands and arms fully extended. Use a pronated grip (palms facing down) and make sure your fingers grab the rough side of the plate while your thumb grabs the smooth side. Note: For the best results, grab the weighted plate at an 11:00 and 1:00 o'clock position.
- Your feet should be shoulder width apart from each other and the weighted plate should be near the groin area. This is the starting position.
- Slowly lift the plate up while keeping the elbows in and the upper arms stationary until your biceps and forearms touch while exhaling. The plate should be evenly aligned with your torso at this point.
- Feel the contraction for a second and begin to lower the weight back down to the starting position while inhaling
- Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.
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
These train the biceps too, using equipment this one does not:
- Seated Bicep Curl with Dumbbelldumbbell
- Seated Bicepsbody only
- Seated Close Grip Concentration Curls with Barbellbarbell
- Spider Curle-z curl bar
- Standing Biceps Curl with Cablecable
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.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.