What muscles does the preacher curl work?

The biceps, with the muscles underneath and below it assisting the elbow bend. Because your upper arms are held forward on a pad, the long head of the biceps is short at the shoulder for the whole set, which is what separates this from an incline curl.

Why do preacher curls hurt my elbows?

Usually because only the point of the elbow is on the pad, or because the elbows are flared so the arm is not lying flat on it. Fix the contact first. Dropping into the bottom and bouncing back out is the other common cause. If something hurts and keeps hurting, that is a question for a physiotherapist.

Should you fully straighten your arms at the bottom?

Go down under control to the point your arm is nearly straight, and start the next rep from a dead stop rather than a bounce. The bounce is what causes trouble at the bottom of this exercise, not the range itself.

Why is my preacher curl so much weaker than my standing curl?

Because the pad has removed the lean-back you were using without noticing. The gap between the two numbers is a fair measure of how much of your standing curl was momentum.

Do preacher curls build a bicep peak?

No. Peak shape comes from the length of the muscle belly and where its tendon attaches, and no exercise changes that. If anything, holding your arms forward on the pad keeps the long head at its shortest, which is the opposite of what the claim would need.

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Barbell · intermediate · upper arms

Barbell preacher curl ez bar

Also called Preacher curl, Scott curl, EZ bar preacher curl, Preacher bench curl.

The short answer

The preacher curl lays the back of your upper arms along an angled pad so the only thing that can move is your elbows. Your biceps do the work and there is nowhere for the rest of you to help. Holding your arms out in front of you also keeps the long head of the biceps short at the shoulder end for the whole set, which is why this curl and an incline curl are not interchangeable.

How to do it

Step oneSit at a preacher curl bench and place the back of your upper arms flat against the angled pad.
Step twoGrip an ez curl bar with an underhand grip using the inner angled handles.
Step threeStarting with your arms nearly fully extended, curl the bar upward by contracting your biceps.
Step fourPause at the top of the movement and squeeze your biceps.
Step fiveSlowly lower the bar back to the near-extended starting position.

What usually goes wrong

Each starts with what you would notice.

The point of your elbow hurts more than your biceps work.

WhyYou are balanced on the elbow itself instead of resting the whole arm. All the pressure lands on one small area and the joint takes it.

FixSlide forward until the back of your upper arm lies flat along the pad from elbow to armpit. Your chest should be against the top of the bench, not reaching over it.

The curl feels like it is running diagonally across your body.

WhyThe elbows are pointing outward, so the pad is only supporting part of the arm and the bar is traveling at an angle to it.

FixTurn the arms so the inside of each elbow faces the ceiling and the back of the arm sits flat. The bar then travels in the plane the pad was built for.

You drop into the bottom and bounce back out.

WhyThe weight is heavier than you can start a rep with from a dead stop, so the rebound is doing the first part of it.

FixPause at the bottom and start again from still. If you cannot reverse it without your elbows lifting off the pad or your backside coming off the seat, take weight off.

You cannot come close to your standing curl weight.

WhyNothing is wrong. The pad has taken away the small amount of swing every standing curl gets, and that swing was worth real kilos.

FixTreat it as its own exercise with its own numbers. The gap between your standing curl and your preacher curl is roughly a measure of how much you were throwing.

Preacher curl or incline curl

These put your shoulder in opposite places, and that turns out to matter. On a preacher bench your upper arms are held out in front of you. On an incline curl they hang behind your torso. The long head of the biceps crosses your shoulder, so it is short in the first position and stretched in the second.

That difference has been trained and measured. Over eight weeks in 63 young women, the incline curl grew the upper end of the elbow flexors slightly more, and the preacher curl grew the lower end slightly more. The result lines up exactly with where each one puts the shoulder.

The word doing the work there is slightly. The differences were about a millimetre. It is enough to say the two are not the same exercise and it is nowhere near enough to say one wins. If you like both, do both.

Preacher curl or standing barbell curl

The pad is the whole difference. A standing curl lets your body lean back a fraction on the hard reps, and that fraction is worth more weight than most people admit. A preacher bench removes it completely.

So the preacher curl is the stricter movement and the standing curl is the heavier one. Both statements describe the same pad.

Stricter is not automatically better. It is better if what you want is to know exactly what your biceps can lift, and it is worse if what you want is the most total load through the muscle. Most sessions can afford one of each.

The peak is decided by your tendon

The preacher bench is sold on the peak, which is the one thing it is least equipped to deliver. How high a biceps peaks is decided by how long the muscle belly is and where the tendon attaches, and no exercise moves either. If any curl were going to make a case, it would be one that stretches the long head at the shoulder, and this is the curl that does the opposite.

Beyond making you honest, it does nothing a standing curl does not. Removing momentum is genuinely useful and it is a smaller claim than the marketing around this bench suggests.

What it does well is let you find out what your arms actually lift, and load the lower end of the muscle a little more than the alternatives. That is a real, narrow job and it is worth having.

What it is for

The preacher curl with an ez bar is a bicep isolation exercise performed on a preacher bench. The angled pad locks the upper arms in place, eliminating momentum and placing maximum tension on the biceps for focused growth.

Questions people ask

What muscles does the preacher curl work?: The biceps, with the muscles underneath and below it assisting the elbow bend. Because your upper arms are held forward on a pad, the long head of the biceps is short at the shoulder for the whole set, which is what separates this from an incline curl.
Preacher curl or incline curl?: They grow slightly different regions. Over eight weeks of training in 63 young women, the incline curl produced a little more growth at the upper end of the muscle and the preacher curl a little more at the lower end, matching where each one puts your shoulder. The differences were about a millimetre, so neither is the answer on its own.
Why do preacher curls hurt my elbows?: Usually because only the point of the elbow is on the pad, or because the elbows are flared so the arm is not lying flat on it. Fix the contact first. Dropping into the bottom and bouncing back out is the other common cause. If something hurts and keeps hurting, that is a question for a physiotherapist.
Should you fully straighten your arms at the bottom?: Go down under control to the point your arm is nearly straight, and start the next rep from a dead stop rather than a bounce. The bounce is what causes trouble at the bottom of this exercise, not the range itself.
Why is my preacher curl so much weaker than my standing curl?: Because the pad has removed the lean-back you were using without noticing. The gap between the two numbers is a fair measure of how much of your standing curl was momentum.
Do preacher curls build a bicep peak?: No. Peak shape comes from the length of the muscle belly and where its tendon attaches, and no exercise changes that. If anything, holding your arms forward on the pad keeps the long head at its shortest, which is the opposite of what the claim would need.