Seated Dumbbell Palms-Down Wrist Curl

🎯 Forearms🏋️ DumbbellBeginnerIsolation

How to do the seated dumbbell palms-down wrist curl

  1. Start out by placing two dumbbells on the floor in front of a flat bench.
  2. Sit down on the edge of the flat bench with your legs at about shoulder width apart. Make sure to keep your feet on the floor.
  3. Use your arms to grab both of the dumbbells and bring them up so that your forearms are resting against your thighs with the palms of the hands facing down. Your wrists should be hanging over the edge of your thighs.
  4. Start out by curling your wrist upwards and exhaling.
  5. Slowly lower your wrists back down to the starting position while inhaling. Make sure to inhale during this part of the exercise. Tip: Your forearms should be stationary as your wrist is the only movement needed to perform this exercise.
  6. Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.
  7. When finished, simply lower the dumbbells to the floor.

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:

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 25 forearms exercises in this database, 18 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.