Preacher Curl Alternative: 7 Swaps That Load the Stretch

The best preacher curl alternative is a single-arm dumbbell curl over the backrest of an adjustable bench set to about 45 degrees, because it recreates the preacher pad with kit most home gyms already own. If you train somewhere with a cable stack, a single-arm cable preacher-style curl or a Bayesian cable curl will do the same job and, in one direct comparison, built biceps just as well. Concentration curls and spider curls are decent fallbacks, but they load the biceps at a different point in the rep, so treat them as second choices rather than straight swaps.

Quick pick: match your kit to the closest swap

Kit you have	Best preacher curl alternative	How close a match
Adjustable bench and dumbbells	Dumbbell curl over the bench back	Very close
Adjustable bench and EZ bar	EZ-bar curl over a 45-degree backrest	Very close
Cable machine	Single-arm cable preacher-style curl	Very close
Cable machine, no bench free	Bayesian cable curl	Close (different shoulder angle, similar results)
Incline bench, light dumbbells	Spider curl	Partial: strict, but hardest mid-range
One dumbbell, no bench	Concentration curl	Partial: strict, but hardest mid-range
Resistance bands only	Low-anchored banded curl	Weakest match; fix it with slow lowering

What the preacher curl does that other curls don't

Before choosing a swap, it helps to know which parts of the preacher curl you're actually trying to keep. There are three.

Your shoulder sits flexed in front of you. The back of the upper arm rests on a sloped pad, so the elbow is out ahead of your torso. That shortens the long head of the biceps a little and makes the short head do more of the work.

The load is heaviest near the bottom. On a 45-degree pad, your forearm hits horizontal (where a free weight is hardest to move) early in the curl, while your elbow is still fairly straight and the biceps is long. By the top, the weight is almost resting on the joint and the tension drops right off. In an EMG study of dumbbell curl variations, the preacher curl hit around 80% of maximum biceps activity at the start of the lift, then fell away for the rest of the range (Oliveira et al., 2009).

Cheating is close to impossible. With the arm pinned to a pad, you can't swing your hips, lean back or roll the shoulder forward to get past a sticking point.

The second point matters most for growth. A 2025 trial had trained lifters do preacher curls with one arm using only the bottom half of the movement (0 to 70 degrees) and the other arm using the full range for eight weeks. Both arms grew, and the bottom-half arm showed a small extra gain further down the upper arm (Havers et al., 2025). It's a modest effect in a small group, but it supports what most coaches already suspect: the hard, stretched bottom of the rep is where the preacher curl earns its place.

So the best alternatives keep the stretched-position loading and the strictness. Shoulder angle seems to matter less than people assume, which brings us to the Bayesian curl.

Bench and free weight alternatives

1. Dumbbell curl over the bench back

Set an adjustable weight bench to around 45 degrees and stand or kneel behind it. Drape one arm over the top of the backrest so the back of your upper arm lies flat against the pad, with your armpit snug against the top edge. Take a dumbbell in that hand and curl.

That's a preacher bench in everything but name. You get the same forward shoulder, the same pinned elbow and the same heavy bottom range. Doing one arm at a time also lets you shift your body until the pad sits exactly where you want it.

• Cue: lower for two to three seconds and stop just short of locking the elbow out. Don't bounce off the bottom.
• Sets and reps: 3 sets of 8 to 12 per arm.
• Watch out for: a hard top edge digging into the arm. A folded towel fixes it.

A bench that holds steady at 45 degrees is what makes this work. The METIS bench we covered in our METIS adjustable weight bench review has 10 backrest settings and a heavy steel frame that shouldn't shift when you lean over it, though the listing doesn't state the exact angles.

Check the METIS bench price on Amazon

2. EZ-bar curl over a 45-degree backrest

Same setup, both arms at once. Kneel behind the bench, rest both upper arms across the top of the backrest and curl an EZ bar. The angled grip is kinder on the wrists than a straight bar, which matters here because the stretched bottom position already pulls the wrists into extension.

It's the closest thing to a gym preacher curl you can do at home, and you'll load more than the single-arm version. Expect to use less than you'd curl standing; most people do. Our EZ bar weight guide explains how much the bar weighs on its own, which helps when you're working out light starting loads.

• Sets and reps: 3 to 4 sets of 8 to 12.

3. Spider curl

Lie chest-down on a bench set to about 45 degrees, let your arms hang straight down, and curl. A spider curl is just as strict as a preacher curl; with your chest on the pad, there's no way to cheat. The difference is where it's hardest. Your arms hang vertically, so the forearm reaches horizontal at 90 degrees of elbow bend, which shifts the toughest point from the bottom to the middle and top of the rep.

Use it when you want strictness and a hard squeeze at the top. It doesn't replace the stretch.

4. Concentration curl

Sit on a bench, brace the back of your upper arm against the inside of your thigh, and curl a dumbbell towards your shoulder. The concentration curl needs one dumbbell and nothing else, which makes it the handiest swap on the list. Like the spider curl, it puts the hardest point in the middle of the range, and the thigh is a softer brace than a pad, so it's easier to let the shoulder help.

Lean forward enough that your arm hangs at a slight angle in front of the knee. That nudges the hardest point a little further down.

Cable alternatives

Cables let you set where the hardest part of the curl falls, which is why they make the most faithful preacher curl alternatives. Our cable bicep curl guide covers attachments and handle choice.

5. Single-arm cable preacher-style curl

Set the pulley low, put a preacher bench or an adjustable bench at 45 degrees in front of it and curl a single handle with your arm over the pad. If there's no bench near the cable, kneel side-on and brace your upper arm across your thigh or a box instead.

Because the cable pulls along its own line rather than straight down, the tension stays on through the top of the rep where a dumbbell preacher curl goes slack. You keep the loaded stretch at the bottom and gain a harder finish.

• Sets and reps: 3 sets of 10 to 15 per arm.

6. Bayesian cable curl

Set the pulley low, stand facing away from the stack holding a single handle, and take a step forward so your arm is pulled behind your body. Curl from there without letting the elbow drift forward. Your shoulder is extended rather than flexed, the opposite of a preacher curl, and the cable puts heavy tension on the biceps at long length.

This is the swap with the best direct evidence. In a 10-week study, 15 men trained one arm with a cable preacher curl and the other with a Bayesian cable curl, with resistance profiles matched. Biceps and brachialis thickness rose in both arms with no meaningful difference between them, and strength gains were equivalent (Attarieh et al., 2025). Shoulder angle, in other words, mattered less than how the load was spread across the rep.

If you also want more long head work, the Bayesian curl leans that way. Our long head bicep exercises guide explains why, and the incline dumbbell curl is the dumbbell version of the same idea.

Home alternative with no bench or cable

7. Low-anchored banded curl

Bands are the weakest match for a preacher curl, and pretending otherwise wouldn't help you. A band gets harder as it stretches, so it's lightest at the bottom and heaviest at the top, which is the exact opposite of the preacher curl's resistance curve.

You can claw some of it back. Anchor the band low in front of you (round a table leg, or under your foot with one knee down) and step back until there's tension even with your arm nearly straight. Brace your upper arm across your thigh or the arm of a sofa so it can't move. Then take three to four seconds to lower each rep, and add a few half reps at the bottom once the full reps run out. Pick a band set with a heavy option from our resistance bands guide, because light bands give almost nothing in the bottom position.

Mistakes that make any swap worse

Cutting the bottom off. The stretched bottom range is the reason you're doing a preacher-style curl. If you stop halfway down, you've made it a spider curl with extra steps.

Locking out and relaxing. Go long, but don't let the elbow snap straight with the muscle switched off under load. Keep a slight bend and stay tense.

Going too heavy. Every swap here is strict, so you'll curl less than you do standing. That's normal, not weakness.

Only ever doing one curl. Preacher-style work biases the short head and the bottom range. Rotate in a curl that biases something else; our hammer curl vs bicep curl guide covers how grip changes the work.

How to programme it

Treat your alternative as the preacher curl's direct replacement: first or second arm exercise of the session, 3 to 4 sets of 8 to 12, once or twice a week. Pair it with one curl that's hardest at the top, such as a spider curl or a standing cable curl, and you've covered the full range. If you're short on dumbbells, a pair of adjustable dumbbells lets you nudge the weight up by a kilo or two at a time, which matters on a small muscle like the biceps.

Recommended reads

• Preacher curl: how to do it, muscles worked and benefits
• Incline dumbbell curl guide
• Spider curl: setup, muscles worked and mistakes
• The best weight benches in the UK
• Hammer curl vs bicep curl