Steps
- Lie face forward on a tall flat bench while holding a barbell with a supinated grip (palms facing up). Tip: If you are holding a barbell grab it using a shoulder-width grip and if you are using an E-Z Bar grab it on the inner handles. Your upper body should be positioned in a way that the upper chest is over the end of the bench and the barbell is hanging in front of you with the arms extended and perpendicular to the floor. This will be your starting position.
- While keeping the elbows in and the upper arms stationary, curl the weight up in a semi-circular motion as you contract the biceps and exhale. Hold at the top of the movement for a second.
- As you inhale, slowly go back to the starting position. Tip: Maintain full control of the weight at all times and avoid any swinging. Remember, only the forearms should move throughout the movement.
- Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.
Tracking it in OneRep
Add the lying high bench barbell curl 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.