How To Do Concentration Curls

From the Hammer Curl to the Bicep Curl machine, there are all kinds of curls, but few exercises are as recognizable as the classic Concentration Curl.

Here’s the thing though:

Guys, it’s no secret that I’m not the biggest fan of Concentration Curls. But do you know what I really don’t like?

When I see people doing Dumbbell Concentration Curls the wrong way.

They aren’t my favorite but that doesn’t mean they can’t be a part of an effective workout routine… so long as you’re doing them with perfect form.

If you love doing Concentration Curls, I want to make sure you’re avoiding common mistakes and doing them the right way for maximum gains.

Here’s a complete breakdown of how to do the Standard Concentration Curl along with more effective Concentration Curl alternatives.

ANATOMY OF THE BICEPS MUSCLES

As always, I want to break down the anatomy of the primary muscle before jumping into how to do the exercise.

The better you understand how the muscle functions, the stronger your mind-to-muscle connection.

And the stronger your mind-muscle connection, the better your results, especially if your goal is building strength and size.

Let’s get to it with the anatomy of the biceps brachii muscle.

Everything you need to know about the bicep muscle is in the name. It’s called the BI-ceps because the muscle has two heads: the long head and the short head.

BICEPS LONG HEAD

The biceps long head starts up near your shoulder blade, at a point on a bone called the scapula. From there, it runs down the inside of your upper arm.

The long head of the biceps is important for keeping your shoulder stable, and it helps out with several arm movements including bending your elbow, turning your palm up, and lifting your arm in front of you.

Even though there’s no one exercise that only works the long part of your biceps, there are many exercises that focus on this muscle.

 BICEPS SHORT HEAD

Next up, we have the short head of the biceps. It starts from a small hook-like part on your shoulder blade, called the coracoid process.

The short head joins with another part, the long head, to form what you refer to as the biceps muscles. This muscle then attaches to a bone in your forearm, the radius.

Similar to the long head, the short head’s main function is to assist in active elbow flexion and forearm supination, which is the action of rotating your forearm muscle to position your palm upwards. Additionally, it plays a role in stabilizing your shoulder.

BRACHIALIS

Strictly speaking, the brachialis muscle isn’t considered part of the anatomical biceps muscle.

But it’s crucial in making your arm look aesthetically impressive, even if it isn’t technically part of the biceps.

When you work on the brachialis, your arms start to appear thicker from the front, when someone is looking at you dead-on.

In other words, focusing on the brachialis ensures a well-rounded set of arms, which is why I never leave it out when discussing arm workouts.

CONCENTRATION CURLS: COMMON MISTAKES

The Concentration Curl is not like your traditional Biceps Curls when you use a pair of dumbbells or a barbell.

So, what is the purpose of doing the Concentration Curl?

If you said that it’s to practice building connections, tapping into the right muscular recruitment pattern, and getting maximum muscle contraction of the biceps, you’re not alone.

In fact, most people would argue that the sole reason for doing this type of bicep curl is to isolate that feeling of the muscle contracting.

In other words, people want a better and more intense mind-to-muscle connection in the biceps muscle.

But the problem comes in the form of a few common mistakes that sacrifice excellent technique.

If you’re making one of the following Concentration Curl mistakes, the last thing you’ll get is the mind-body connection you’re chasing.

ELBOW ON TOP OF THE KNEE

Keeping your elbow in contact with the top of your leg is easily one of the most common mistakes that I see people making when performing the Concentration Curl.

You shouldn’t be keeping your elbow stationary on your thigh and then following it up with the standard curling motion. That’s because this creates a literal see-saw effect.

When the weight comes down, the positioning of your elbow brings the weight back up again, removing most of the muscle contraction that you’d normally get with a typical Biceps Curl.

Whatever weight you think you’re lifting with this form, you’re actually lifting a lot less because of that mechanical positioning.

USING THE ELBOW FOR LEVERAGE

Okay, so let’s say that you’re not making our first mistake.

You put your elbow joint right where it needs to go, against the thigh, and then you start curling.

Looks good, right?

The problem here is that now you’re taking that elbow and using it for leverage.

The elbow starts pushing into the thigh, and by pushing into the thigh, it’s giving me leverage to lift this weight.

Don’t believe this is happening? Take a look at your front delt as you do the Concentration Curl.

When you get to the hardest part in the range of motion during the curl, you’ll see your front deltoid activate. This is a clear sign that the biceps muscle isn’t doing what it should be.

Why does that happen?

Because when it’s most difficult – which is at the top of the exercise – then the delt has to kick in to help me push this up.

The delts are becoming active because I’m pushing my arm into an immoveable object – which is my leg – and that’s helping to get some leverage in the opposite direction.

MISSING A FULL RANGE OF MOTION

Finally, let’s say you know not to put the elbow on the top of your thigh or directly against the thigh, then what?

You’ll probably take your triceps and put it up against your thigh, right?

You finally figured out how to do the Concentration Curl with proper exercise technique! Not so fast.

Go back to what we said in the beginning. What is the purpose of the Concentration Curl?

You want to get a complete bicep contraction and to have the most tension in that contracted state. This means you really need to pay attention to the motion during basic Concentration Curls.

As you curl up with your triceps muscle against the thigh, you’ll get elbow flexion and supination here, but this is where the problem comes in.

The dumbbell is almost parallel with the downward force of gravity that’s acting on it. What does that mean?

That means if you go completely parallel, you could stay here for a very long period of time.

So even though I’m in a more contracted state of the biceps, I don’t have as much tension because the forces are parallel to each other.

So, what we want is to be in this fully contracted state, have gravity acting downward as much as possible on our perpendicular forearm.

We can do that by changing where we put our arm.

And that finally brings us to how to do the Concentration Curl the right way.

HOW TO DO CONCENTRATION CURLS

It’s not enough to avoid the training mistakes I mentioned above. You also want to learn how to properly perform the Dumbbell Concentration Curl.

But before we talk about how to do that, let’s talk about the repetition number.

First, you want to focus on controlled repetitions. That means getting the most out of the necessary time under tension.

Second, think about your goal. If you want to increase the size and maximum strength of your biceps, use a heavier weight, and aim for 8-12 reps. If your goal is muscle endurance and conditioning training, go for 15-20 repetitions with lighter weights.

Here’s how to do the basic Bicep Concentration Curl the right way:

CONCENTRATION CURLS

SHOULD CONCENTRATION CURLS BE IN YOUR WORKOUT?

Now, let’s go to the people that might be saying, “Jeff, I remember you said you didn’t like the Concertation Curl – That it wasn’t the best thing to do.”

You’re right. As a personal trainer, I’m not the biggest fan of this exercise and there are two main reasons for that.

The first reason is that I like more athletic technique exercises – ones that involve us using more energy and being on our feet in a standing position.

Second, and more importantly, if you’re going to go for complete contraction of the biceps, where is the flexion of the shoulder?

We know by virtue of the connection of the longhead of the biceps, past the shoulder joint, to the upper portion of our glenohumeral joint, we have room for shoulder flexion here.

It has to be part of the complete contraction. So, what does that mean for you?

It means you should have your arms up to ensure a complete biceps contraction.

If you’re sitting down, you’re not getting that.

Whether you do it with the cable machine or resistance bands, I have better curl variations you can do – ones you’ll get more benefits from.

For example, the potential for muscle growth is much higher with these exercises.

Both bicep Concentration Curl exercises get your arms up in this position, allowing for the necessary supination and elbow flexion.

In other words, I’d recommend doing these biceps isolation exercises instead for optimal biceps recruitment. Give these two variations of concentration curls a try:

STANDING CABLE CONCENTRATION CURLS

WALKING CONCENTRATION CURLS

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: there are better options than the Concentration Curl, guys.

But if you really want to use these bicep curls, I just ask that you make sure you’re doing the exercise right with a focus on quality repetitions.

Be sure to also mix it up with other bicep curl exercises like Standing Cable Concentration Curls.

For a comprehensive strategy aimed at enhancing lean muscle and max strength throughout your body, explore our ATHLEAN-X programs. Pick the one that aligns best with your fitness goals and available equipment.

CONCENTRATION CURLS FAQ