maratoolStanding Biceps Curl with Cable
How to do the standing biceps curl with cable
- Attach a short bar to a cable pulley to the bottom of the weight stack.
- Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, your knees slightly bent and your abs drawn in.
- Grasp the bar with palms facing up, and hands fairly close together.
- Lower your arms fully to above your thighs and bending only your elbows, raise the bar to your upper chest.
- Pause for a moment and then return to the starting position.
- Note: Do not swing your hips or back during this exercise.
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; the deltoids stabilise the shoulder and add force at the top of the range.
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:
- Standing Concentration Curldumbbell
- Wide Grip Standing Biceps Curl with Barbellbarbell
- Bicep Curl Lunge with Bowling Motionmedicine ball
- Bicep Curl with Machinemachine
- Brachialis-SMRfoam roll
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.