Reverse Curl: How to Do It, Muscles Worked and Benefits

Everyone curls. Far fewer people turn their hands over and curl with the palms facing down, which is a shame, because the reverse curl builds the part of the arm that makes a rolled-up sleeve look like something. It targets the brachioradialis and brachialis rather than the biceps, it strengthens the wrist extensors that most lifters ignore until they start hurting, and it costs you nothing but ego, because you will lift roughly half what you curl. Here is how to do it properly.

How to do a reverse curl

You need a barbell, an EZ bar or a pair of dumbbells. The EZ bar is the kindest option for most wrists.

1. Take the grip. Stand tall and hold the bar with your palms facing down, hands roughly shoulder-width apart. Your knuckles point forward and your thumbs wrap the bar rather than sitting on top of it.
2. Set your posture. Feet hip-width, ribs down, shoulders back and elbows pinned lightly against your sides. The bar should rest against the front of your thighs at the start.
3. Curl up. Bend at the elbows and lift the bar towards your collarbone, keeping your wrists straight and locked. Do not let the bar tip back towards you; the back of your hand stays roughly in line with your forearm the whole way.
4. Squeeze at the top. Pause for a beat where the forearm muscles are working hardest, usually just past halfway rather than at full flexion.
5. Lower slowly. Take two to three seconds coming down. The lowering phase is where the brachioradialis does a lot of its work, so rushing it throws away most of the benefit.

Muscles worked

Turning your palms down changes which muscles get the work, and by how much.

• Brachioradialis. The main target. This is the thick muscle running from the outside of your elbow down towards the thumb, and it is what gives a forearm its shape from the front. It contributes most when the hand is pronated, which is exactly the position a reverse curl puts you in (muscular coordination of biceps brachii and brachioradialis with respect to hand position).
• Brachialis. Sitting underneath the biceps, this one pushes the biceps up as it grows, so training it makes an arm look bigger from the side. It works hard here because it does not care about hand position.
• Biceps brachii. Still involved, just less so. EMG work comparing handgrips during curls found biceps excitation around 19% greater with a supinated grip than a pronated one (different handgrips, different synergy), which is the whole reason the reverse curl feels so much weaker.
• Wrist and finger extensors. The muscles on the top of your forearm fire constantly to stop the bar tipping. Most people feel these before anything else on their first session.

If you want more work for the same group, our forearm exercises guide covers the rest, and a decent EZ bar makes reverse curls far more comfortable than a straight barbell does.

Benefits

It builds the forearm you can actually see. Wrist curls train the flexors on the underside. The brachioradialis sits on top and is visible from every angle, so if your forearms look thin despite plenty of curling, this is the missing lift.

It protects your elbows. Weak wrist extensors are heavily implicated in the tendon pain lifters call tennis elbow. Loading them deliberately, through a full range and under control, is more useful than resting and hoping.

It carries over to grip. A pronated bar is harder to hold, so every set is quietly a grip set too. Pair it with dedicated work from our best grip strengthener guide if you want to push that further.

It rounds out arm training. Standard curls, hammer curls and reverse curls hit the elbow flexors from three different mechanical positions, and the NHS guidance on training all major muscle groups on at least two days a week is easier to satisfy when your arm work is not all the same movement.

Common mistakes

Going too heavy. The single most common error, and it wrecks everything downstream. Your wrists buckle, your elbows drift forward and your body swings to get the bar up. Halve the weight you curl and start there.

Letting the wrists break. If the bar rolls back into your fingers at the top, the forearm extensors have given up and the exercise stops doing its job. Drop the load and rebuild.

Swinging the torso. Momentum from the hips makes the number bigger and the stimulus smaller. Stand with your back lightly against a wall for a set if you cannot feel the difference.

Elbows travelling forward. As soon as your elbows lift, your front delts take over the top half of the movement. Keep them tucked beside your ribs.

Only doing one set at the end of a session. Small muscles need volume and frequency. Two or three sets, twice a week, beats one heroic set on arm day.

Variations

• EZ bar reverse curl. The default for most people. The angled grip reduces wrist strain while keeping the pronated position.
• Dumbbell reverse curl. Each arm works independently, which exposes side-to-side differences and lets your wrists find their own comfortable angle. A pair of adjustable dumbbells makes the small jumps in weight this exercise needs much easier.
• Cable reverse curl. Attach a straight bar to a low pulley and you get constant tension from bottom to top, with no dead spot at the start of the rep.
• Reverse preacher curl. Lying your upper arms on a preacher pad removes every trace of swing. Brutal, and the fastest way to learn what the brachialis feels like.
• Reverse curl 21s. Seven bottom-half reps, seven top-half reps, seven full reps. Use an embarrassingly light weight and expect your forearms to stop cooperating.

Sets and reps

• Size and strength: 3 sets of 10 to 15 reps, twice a week, resting 45 to 60 seconds.
• Elbow health and prehab: 2 sets of 15 to 20 with a very light bar, focusing on a slow three second lowering phase.
• Learning the movement: 2 sets of 12 with an empty EZ bar, checking your wrist position every rep.

Add weight only when you can complete every rep with the back of your hand still in line with your forearm. Given how small the jumps need to be, microplates or dumbbells beat trying to add 2.5kg a side to a bar.

Recommended reads

1. Forearm exercises
2. Hammer curls
3. Bicep curl
4. Best EZ bar UK
5. Best grip strengthener UK