The dumbbell hammer bicep curls target the biceps as the primary muscle group but they also hit the forearms and the brachialis muscle, which is the area of the arm that is often neglected since most biceps exercises involve curling or twisting the dumbbell with the palms facing up. The key aspect of the hammer curl is the fixed position of the wrists and the dumbbells, with the palms facing in throughout the entire range of the exercise. This really places a lot of the stress on the forearms and the brachialis muscle. It’s always good to incorporate many different angles into your biceps workouts in order hit the muscle from all different angles and stimulate growth.
Exercise Advice:
- Grab 2 dumbbells and position yourself on a bench in the seated position with your feet placed firmly on the floor.
- Let both dumbbells hang down at your sides.
- Slowly raise both dumbbells up to top position while keeping your wrists in a fixed position with your palms facing in towards you.
- Do not curl or twist the dumbbells at any point during the movement.
- Slowly lower the dumbbells back down to the starting position.
- Try to focus all of your attention on your biceps muscles by using a slow and smooth tempo throughout the entire range of motion.
- At the top position, try to focus on placing peak tension on your biceps.
Things To Avoid:
- Avoid arching or slouching your back while sitting on the bench. Make sure to keep your back straight with your eyes looking forward.
- Focus on keeping your elbows in close to your sides on this exercise. You might have the tendency to flare out your elbows in order to get the weight up to the top position but this means you’re simply using too much weight.
- Reduce the weight and make sure to use the strict form to ensure that you get the most out of this exercise. Also, try to avoid any jerky or quick movements with this exercise.
- Always use a slow and controlled tempo and focus all of your attention on your form. Sitting in front of a mirror really helps to visually see your technique.
Reps and Sets:
- For overall muscle building, your repetition range should be between 8-12 reps per set.
- The total sets for this exercise should be in the range of 2-3 and your total overall sets for your entire biceps workout should be around 4-6 sets for optimal results.
- Since your biceps are a smaller muscle group, you really don’t need to overwork them with 10-12 sets.
- This will most likely result in over-training your biceps and any growth with be halted.
- Hit your muscles hard with short, intense workouts, and then let them rest, recover and grow.
Other Exercises To Use:
A few other great exercises to combine the seated dumbbell hammer bicep curls with for a great biceps workout are the:
Incline Bench Dumbbell Curls and the Standing Dumbbell Curls. This will allow you to really hit the biceps from all different angles in order to shock your arms into growth!
