Exercise library

How to do the Flexor Incline Dumbbell Curls

A beginner isolation exercise using dumbbell, working the biceps.

Primary musclesBiceps
Secondary musclesNone recorded
EquipmentDumbbell
LevelBeginner
TypeIsolation
ForcePull

Steps

  1. Hold the dumbbell towards the side farther from you so that you have more weight on the side closest to you. (This can be done for a good effect on all bicep dumbbell exercises). Now do a normal incline dumbbell curl, but keep your wrists as far back as possible so as to neutralize any stress that is placed on them.
  2. Sit on an incline bench that is angled at 45-degrees while holding a dumbbell on each hand.
  3. Let your arms hang down on your sides, with the elbows in, and turn the palms of your hands forward with the thumbs pointing away from the body. Tip: You will keep this hand position throughout the movement as there should not be any twisting of the hands as they come up. This will be your starting position.
  4. Curl up the two dumbbells at the same time until your biceps are fully contracted and exhale. Tip: Do not swing the arms or use momentum. Keep a controlled motion at all times. Hold the contracted position for a second at the top.
  5. As you inhale, slowly go back to the starting position.
  6. Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.

Tracking it in OneRep

Add the flexor incline dumbbell curls to a routine and your previous weight and reps sit beside every set, so the decision to add load is made by what is already on the screen rather than by memory. Exercise history and volume trends are one tap away, and logging works offline for the gyms where signal does not reach.

Because OneRep tracks food on the same timeline, a stall on this lift can be read against what you were actually eating that month — which is the difference between a programming problem and an eating one. More on that in tracking progressive overload without a spreadsheet.

Where the instructions come from

The steps above come from free-exercise-db, a public-domain exercise dataset. They are general guidance, not coaching for your body: if a movement hurts, stop and get someone qualified to look at it.