Improving Your Dumbbell Curls

Here’s a little adjustment you can make to your dumbbell curls to one, make them a little more difficult and two, increase the challenge on one of the functions of the biceps – supination.

The obvious function of the biceps is elbow flexion – which is trained with any and all curling variations. However, another function of the biceps is supination of the forearm. This refers to the turning of the hand from a palms-down position to a palms-up position. To train this secondary function you need to be using dumbbells as your training implement.

You see a lot of people doing dumbbell curls and they’re really not focusing on the supination aspect of the movement, and thus, they’re missing out.

When you’re in the full elbow flexion/contracted position of your dumbbell curls, the pinky side of your hand should be slightly *higher* than the thumb side if you’re maximally supinated. This fully flexed and fully supinated position ensures your biceps are maximally contracted.

So that’s one thing – don’t forget to supinate! Now to add to that challenge you can use an OFFSET grip when you hold your dumbbells. So rather than gripping the dumbbell in the middle of the handle, you will *offset* your grip by moving your hand such that the thumb side of your hand is touching the inside of the dumbbell. This offset grip increases the resistance to supination so when you are curling and supinating, the supination aspect of your curl will be more difficult and thus the biceps more challenged.