The preacher bench puts the back of your upper arms flat on an angled pad, which makes swinging physically impossible and forces every rep to start from a fully straight arm. Nothing else removes cheating this completely, and the price is that the bottom of the rep is brutally hard, so the weight you can use is honest rather than flattering.
How to do it
- Armpits against the top of the pad so the arm cannot cheat backwards.
- Control the bottom — this is the position where the biceps is most vulnerable.
Common mistakes
- Dropping fast into full extension with heavy weight.
What it trains
- Biceps
- flex the elbow from a dead-straight start, with the shoulder taken out of the equation
- Brachialis
- takes real load at the bottom where the biceps is at its weakest
- Forearms
- hold the bar; on a straight bar they also fight the wrist strain the pad angle adds
Variations and alternatives
Common questions
Should I straighten my arms completely at the bottom?
Nearly, but do not let the elbow snap into a hard lock. The stretched bottom is where the preacher earns its keep, and cutting it short leaves you doing the easy half. Lower slowly and stop just before the joint takes over from the muscle.
Why does the preacher curl hurt my elbows?
Almost always the transition at the bottom — dropping fast into full extension with the arm pinned means the tendon catches the whole load at once. Slow the last third of the lowering, keep a fraction of a bend, and use an EZ-bar so the wrists are not adding a twist.
Is the preacher curl better than a standing curl?
Better at strictness, worse at load. You will curl noticeably less on a preacher bench because the momentum and the shoulder are gone, which is the point — use it for clean volume and keep a standing or barbell curl for the heavy work.
In StackUp. Logged as weight and reps per set, and your heaviest working set decides whether the weight goes up next time. Get the app.
Arms
