Steps
- Start out by grabbing single handle next to the low pulley machine. Make sure you are far enough from the machine so that your arm is supporting the weight.
- Make sure that your upper arm is stationary, perpendicular to the floor with elbows in and palms facing forward. Your non lifting arm should be grabbing your waist. This will allow you to keep your balance.
- Slowly begin to curl the single handle upwards while keeping the upper arm stationary until your forearm touches your bicep while exhaling. Tip: Only the forearm should move.
- Hold the contraction position as you squeeze the bicep and then lower the single handle back down to the starting position as you inhale.
- Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.
- Switch arms while performing this exercise.
Tracking it in OneRep
Add the standing one-arm cable 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.