Monday's Move of the Week

The Move: Barbell Preacher Curl

Our biceps work all day long every time our elbow bends whether it’s to carry heavy boxes or to lift a fork full of food to our mouths. Therefore, it’s important to keep this muscle strong. AND…let’s face it, it’s a nice muscle to look at too!

The Barbell Preacher Curl is a fantastic bicep exercise because it isolates the bicep in a way that is difficult when doing a standing bicep curl. Because of the position you are in (seated with backs of the arms resting on a preacher curl set up), there is no way to help lift the weight with your back, shoulders or with a swinging motion.

The Muscles Worked: Biceps

How to:

1. Start by sitting at a preacher curl bench. Adjust your seat so that your arm pits can rest near the top of the pad.


2. Grasp the barbell with an underhand grip with arms fully extended


3. Curl the bar up towards your face and then lower the weight so that are your arms are fully extended in the starting position.

Trainer Tips:

• Keep your back straight and your shoulders down and relaxed so as not to strain the neck muscles when lifting the weight.


• Inhale as you lift the weight and exhale as your lower it back down.


• If you don’t have access to a preacher curl bench, you can use the back of a chair. Simply start in standing position with the back of the chair facing you, bend your knees and bend over at the hips so that you are in leaning forward squat position and rest the back of your arms on the back rest of the chair. Complete the move from this position.

Make 'em Harder: The more weight you add to the barbell the harder the move will be. Just make sure that you can fully extend the arms down at the end of the move to promote full range of motion in the muscle. You can also do this move with dumbbells.

Enjoy!