HOW TO DO HAMMER CURLS
- Stand tall with a dumbbell in each hand, thumbs up, arms long. Neutral grip the whole way. If the pinkies rotate, you left this lift.
- Pin the elbows next to the torso. The bells travel beside the body, not out in front like a front raise.
- Curl toward the shoulders until the biceps and brachialis shorten. Wrists stay stacked, handle stays in line with the forearm.
- Lower to a full hang. Alternate or both at once; keep the thumbs pointing up on every rep.
COMMON MISTAKES
- Supinating at the top and logging it here. The moment the pinkies turn up, it is a standing dumbbell curl with extra motion. Finish strict hammers or switch slugs. Do not blend them on one chart.
- Logging these as standing dumbbell bicep curls. Palms-up and thumbs-up are different loads and a different arm. Keep hammer-curls. LIFTAG will not merge the grips for you.
- Letting the bells drift into a front raise. Elbows leaving the ribs turns this into a shoulder exercise. Glue the upper arms and drop the load if they will not stay.
- Hiking the bells off the thighs. A kip is not brachialis work. If you need a swing to start the curl, go lighter. Save the heavy grip for dumbbell-farmers-walk.
VARIATIONS
- Standing dumbbell bicep curl — Palms-up counterpart, more biceps, same stance.
- Barbell curl — Supinated bar when you want one load and smaller jumps.
- Incline dumbbell curl — Start neutral on an incline if you want the stretch plus a hammer option.
- Dumbbell farmers walk — Same thumbs-up grip, loaded carry instead of a curl.
PROGRESSIONS
- Light bells, thumbs up the whole rep, no torso start.
- Working sets of 8–12 with the elbows quiet.
- Pause at the bottom before you add load.
- Cross-body only after the standard path is automatic, and write it in the note.
PROGRAMMING NOTES
Brachialis and forearm work: 3–4 sets of 8–12 after a palms-up curl. Do not log the palms-up work here. Log one bell. Cross-body stays on this slug only if the grip stays thumbs-up; put the path in the set note. Grip that dies here also shows up on dumbbell-farmers-walk, so do not smash both heavy in the same hour unless that is the point.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Straight up is the default. Across the body, toward the opposite pec, is still a hammer if the thumb stays up, but the load will not match. Pick one as the default and note the other. Do not chase a cross-body number with a strict week.
