Biceps exercises

A lot of people assume biceps work starts and ends with curls, done in isolation from the rest of the program — but that skips a real secondary mover: any back exercise pulled with a bent elbow (barbell row, lat pulldown, pull-ups, machine row, seated cable row) puts the biceps to work too, though it's never supposed to be the muscle you feel most there; if it is, something's off in the technique. On the curl itself, a straight bar and a dumbbell change the movement through grip, not muscle: the bar locks the wrist in full supination and sidelines the brachioradialis, while the dumbbell lets the wrist rotate and spreads the load more evenly across both heads of the biceps. Rocking the torso with the hips to help the weight up drains tension from the biceps exactly where it should feel it most. And on any back pull, a tighter or supinated grip pulls more biceps into the movement at the back's expense — a genuine second mover, not a bonus.

Exercises

  1. 1. Barbell row

    back · barbell

    The prime mover is the lat, which fires hard as you pull the bar toward your abdomen, especially through its middle portion, the part that adds thickness to the back seen from the side, not just width from the front.

  2. 2. Bicep curl

    biceps · dumbbells

    The prime mover is the biceps brachii, with both heads, long and short, working relatively evenly when the arm stays at your side, as in a standing curl.

  3. 3. Dumbbell row

    back · dumbbell and bench

    The prime mover is the lat, which drives most of the work of pulling the arm from up and forward to back and down, especially in the last part of the pull once the elbow passes the torso.

  4. 4. Lat pulldown

    back · cable machine

    The prime mover is the lat, the largest muscle in the back, which does most of the work of pulling the arm from overhead down toward the body.

  5. 5. Hammer curl

    biceps and forearm · dumbbells

    The shared prime movers are three muscles, not one: the biceps, the brachialis, and the brachioradialis, the three elbow flexors, all activated together by the neutral grip that defines this exercise.

  6. 6. Pull-ups

    back · pull-up bar

    The prime mover is the lat, doing most of the work of pulling your arm from overhead down toward your body, the same action as the lat pulldown but with your entire bodyweight as resistance instead of a stack of plates.

  7. 7. Machine row

    back · chest-supported row machine

    The prime mover is the lat, pulling your arm from in front of you back toward your body, with the machine fixing the path so you can focus on squeezing the muscle instead of holding the line of the pull.

  8. 8. Seated cable row

    back · cable machine

    The prime mover is the lat, pulling the arm from in front of you back toward your body with constant tension through the whole range, something the cable delivers that free weight can't match.

  9. 9. Barbell curl

    biceps · barbell

    The prime mover is the biceps brachii, with both heads working evenly since the arm stays pinned to the side of the body through the whole range, same as with the dumbbell version.

  10. 10. T-bar row

    back · machine or landmine

    The prime mover is the lat, pulling the arm from in front of the body back toward it, along a path the bar or the machine guides.

  11. 11. Preacher curl

    biceps · preacher bench

    The prime mover is the biceps brachii, and specifically the short head more than in a standing curl: the bench position brings the arm in front of the torso through the whole range, the same angle that, in any incline-forward curl, loads that head more instead of splitting the work evenly between both.

Workouts with these exercises

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Frequently asked questions

Barbell or dumbbell curls?

The barbell lets you move more weight; dumbbells let your wrist rotate and work each arm on its own, so one side can't make up for the other.

What is the hammer curl for?

With a neutral grip it works the brachioradialis, on the outer forearm, harder, and gives the brachialis a bigger share of the effort. It adds size to the arm and forearm alongside the biceps curl, not instead of it.

Do back exercises train the biceps?

Yes: rows, pulldowns and pull-ups bend the elbow, so the biceps works as a second mover. That's why push pull legs puts the biceps curl at the end of pull day, after the rows and pull-ups.

Why does my wrist hurt with a straight bar?

Because the bar locks your wrist at one angle from start to finish. If it keeps bothering you, an EZ bar or dumbbells are direct alternatives.

Other muscles

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