Instructions

  1. Hold one dumbbell in each hand and stand up straight with your feet about shoulder-width apart.
  2. Curl your right hand toward your shoulder. Once the dumbbell is in front of your waist, rotate your wrist so your palm faces the ceiling.
  3. Keep curling the weight upward until your forearm bumps into your biceps and the dumbbell is directly in front of your shoulder.
  4. Lower the dumbbell, return to the starting position, and repeat the exercise with your left hand.

Expert Tips

  • This version of the dumbbell curl is technically the “alternating dumbbell curl,” since you’re alternating between each arm. You can also curl both arms at the same time. This is more time efficient, but can feel a little more awkward for some. Try both approaches and see which you prefer.
  • Allow your elbow to move forward a few inches as the dumbbell rises, but don’t force your elbows forward to increase the range of motion. Forcing your elbows forward to try to lift the weight even higher mainly taxes your front delts, not your biceps.
  • Keep your torso as still as possible throughout the entire set. Don’t heave your body back and forth to make your reps easier. Brace your abs and glutes throughout each rep.
  • Don’t let the weight fall back to the starting position or try to straighten your arm slowly. The entire “descent” should be controlled but only take about a half second.
  • Use a weight that allows you to maintain good form. It’s better to perform the exercise correctly with lighter weights than to perform the exercise poorly with heavier ones. The goal is to maximize tension within your muscles, not use the maximum weight possible.

Workout Programming

Generally, it’s best to do the dumbbell curl after your heavier, more technical exercises in a pull or upper-body workout. Or, if you’re specifically trying to develop your biceps, you can also do it as one of the first exercises in your workout, as in the arm workout below.

A good default is 3 sets of 8–10 reps. Take each set 1–2 reps shy of failure—the point where you can’t move the weight with good form despite giving your maximum effort—and rest 2–3 minutes between sets.

Count reps for each arm: 8 reps means 8 with your right arm and 8 with your left, whether you alternate arms or curl both dumbbells together.

Mike’s Take

The dumbbell curl has been a staple of bodybuilding programs for generations because it’s effective at isolating the biceps, safe, simple, and easy to learn, and allows you to take your sets close or all of the way to failure.

Research also shows that the dumbbell curl is particularly effective at building your biceps, even if you’re already doing compound exercises that train your upper arms.

For example, a 2021 study conducted by researchers at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro had 10 untrained men train one arm with dumbbell curls and the other with dumbbell rows for 8 weeks.1

The thickness of their elbow flexors—the muscles that bend the elbow like your biceps—increased by about 11% in the curl-trained arm and 5% in the row-trained arm. In other words, the dumbbell curl was simply more effective at building the biceps than the dumbbell row.

Personally, I like to program dumbbell curls after pulling exercises like the dumbbell row, lat pulldown, machine row, and so on. This way, you get the best of both worlds: your biceps, lats, traps, and mid-back all get trained by the rows, and your biceps get additional volume from the curls to maximize arm development.

What about barbell curls? During the barbell curl, your hands are fixed in a supinated (palms up) position during every rep, whereas in the dumbbell curl, your wrists can move more freely.

On the one hand, this means it takes a bit more coordination to do dumbbell curls, especially with heavy weights. On the other hand, it also means you can articulate your wrists in whatever position is most comfortable for you.

All in all, though, you can program both exercises interchangeably. If you find the dumbbell curl more comfortable, do that. If both exercises are comfortable, I typically recommend you focus on one for 6–8 weeks, then switch to the other for 6–8 weeks, and then rotate again or try another curl variation like the Bayesian cable curl or incline dumbbell curl.

This is how I personally like to organize my training, and it’s similar to the method I advocate in my fitness books for men and women, Bigger Leaner Stronger and Thinner Leaner Stronger.

Dumbbell Curl Alternatives

  • Incline Dumbbell Curl. The incline dumbbell curl trains your biceps while your upper arms are behind your torso, which helps emphasize the long head of your biceps.
  • Bayesian Cable Curl. The Bayesian curl is basically the same movement as an incline dumbbell curl, but performed standing, with a cable, and is almost always performed one arm at a time. It’s one of my favorite biceps exercises.
  • Barbell Curl. The barbell curl allows you to add weight in small increments, is safe and comfortable for most people, and you can do it in nearly any gym in the world.
  • Dumbbell Preacher Curl. In the dumbbell preacher curl, you place your upper arms against a preacher curl bench. This makes it hard to use momentum to cheat so your biceps do most of the work.
  • Dumbbell Hammer Curl. The dumbbell hammer curl uses a neutral grip (palms facing each other), which many people find more comfortable than the traditional palms-up (supinated) grip and also helps emphasize the brachialis.

3 Dumbbell Curl Workouts

Here are three sample workouts that show how to program the dumbbell curl into an arm, pull, or upper-body workout.

Arm Workout with the Dumbbell Curl

Dumbbell Curl: 3 sets | 8–10 reps | 1–2 min rest
Cable Triceps Overhead Press: 3 sets | 6–8 reps | 1–2 min rest
Machine Biceps Curl: 3 sets | 6–8 reps | 1–2 min rest
Seated Dip Machine: 3 sets | 6–8 reps | 1–2 min rest

Alternate between the exercises in each pair: do a set of dumbbell curls, rest 1–2 minutes, do a set of cable triceps overhead presses, rest 1–2 minutes, and repeat until you’ve done three sets of each. Then alternate between the machine biceps curl and seated dip machine in the same manner.

I don’t typically recommend dedicating an entire day just to training your arms, but if you prefer to train this way, this workout is a time-efficient and effective way to do it.

Pull Workout with the Dumbbell Curl

Barbell Deadlift: 3 sets | 4–6 reps | 2–3 min rest
Seated Cable Row: 3 sets | 6–8 reps | 2–3 min rest between sets
Seated Cable Shrug-Back: 1 set | as many reps as possible | 2–3 min rest afterward
V-Grip Lat Pulldown: 3 sets | 6–8 reps | 2–3 min rest
Dumbbell Curl: 3 sets | 8–10 reps | 2–3 min rest

Do the shrug-back set about 20–30 seconds after your last set of seated cable rows. The shrug-back gives your traps and mid-back extra work.

The deadlift trains your glutes and hamstrings, while the row and pulldown train your lats, traps, mid-back, and biceps. Finally, the dumbbell curls help isolate your biceps.

Upper-Body Workout with the Dumbbell Curl

Barbell Bench Press: 3 sets | 6–8 reps | 2–3 min rest
Seated Machine Row: 3 sets | 6–8 reps | 2–3 min rest
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press: 3 sets | 6–8 reps | 2–3 min rest
Dumbbell Curl: 3 sets | 8–10 reps | 2–3 min rest
Cable Side Raise: 3 sets | 8–10 reps | 1–2 min rest

The presses train your chest, anterior deltoids (front delts), and triceps. The row trains your lats, traps, mid-back, and biceps. The curls and side raises isolate your biceps and lateral deltoids.

To progress these workouts, use double progression: use a weight that allows you to work within the given rep range, take each set 1–2 reps shy of failure, and once you hit the top of the range for your first set, add weight.

The shrug-back finisher is the exception: take that set to failure.

Muscles Worked by the Dumbbell Curl

The long and short heads of the biceps brachii

Dumbbell curls primarily train your biceps—both the short and long heads—and brachialis, the muscle beneath them. Your brachioradialis, a muscle on the thumb side of your forearm, also helps bend your elbow.

More Biceps Exercises

Scientific References +