maratoolSeated Bicep Curl with Dumbbell
How to do the seated bicep curl with dumbbell
- Sit on bench with your feet firmly on the floor and your back straight.
- Grasp a dumbbell in each hand with your palms facing each other.
- Lower the dumbbells to your sides and slowly curl your arms up so your palms are facing up.
- Squeeze your biceps at the top and slowly lower to the starting position.
- Note: If possible use a short backed bench to help your posture.
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
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 biceps too, using equipment this one does not:
- Seated Bicepsbody only
- Seated Close Grip Concentration Curls with Barbellbarbell
- Spider Curle-z curl bar
- Standing Biceps Curl with Cablecable
- Bicep Curl Lunge with Bowling Motionmedicine 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.