maratoolStanding One-Arm Cable Curl
How to do the standing one-arm cable curl
- Start out by grabbing single handle next to the low pulley machine. Make sure you are far enough from the machine so that your arm is supporting the weight.
- Make sure that your upper arm is stationary, perpendicular to the floor with elbows in and palms facing forward. Your non lifting arm should be grabbing your waist. This will allow you to keep your balance.
- Slowly begin to curl the single handle upwards while keeping the upper arm stationary until your forearm touches your bicep while exhaling. Tip: Only the forearm should move.
- Hold the contraction position as you squeeze the bicep and then lower the single handle back down to the starting position as you inhale.
- Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.
- Switch arms while performing this exercise.
Muscles worked
The prime mover is the biceps brachii, which bends the elbow and rotates the forearm palm-up.
Every exercise for:Biceps
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:
- Step Up Single Leg Balance with Bicep Curl using Dumbbellsdumbbell
- Wide Grip Standing Biceps Curl with Barbellbarbell
- Bicep Curl Lunge with Bowling Motionmedicine ball
- Bicep Curl with Machinemachine
- Brachialis-SMRfoam roll
Difficulty
Listed at intermediate level. It assumes you already own the underlying pattern and can hold position under load — if the position breaks before the target muscle tires, drop back to a beginner variation until it does not.
Of the 99 biceps exercises in this database, 14 are listed at intermediate level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.