Dumbbell · intermediate · chest
Dumbbell incline hammer press to hammer curl
Also called Incline hammer press, Neutral grip incline press to curl, Incline hammer curl and press.
This joins two exercises into one rep on a tilted bench: a hammer curl from a hanging start, then a neutral-grip press from the chest to full extension. Each half has its own muscle doing the work. The curl belongs to your elbow flexors and the press belongs to your chest, so the arms are only holding the weight through one half and the chest does nothing at all through the other. In the demonstration the curl is performed lying back, with the upper arms hanging behind your torso, which makes it an incline curl rather than a seated one.
How to do it
- Step oneSet a bench to a 30-45 degree incline and lie back holding a dumbbell in each hand with a neutral grip.
- Step twoPress both dumbbells upward from your chest until your arms are fully extended.
- Step threeLower the dumbbells back to your chest, then sit up slightly and perform a hammer curl by curling the dumbbells toward your shoulders.
- Step fourLower the dumbbells and return to the press starting position.
What usually goes wrong
Each starts with what you would notice.
You sit up off the bench to finish each curl.
WhyComing away from the pad brings your upper arms back underneath your body, which is where a seated curl starts. Lying back is what puts them behind you, and that position is the entire reason for curling here rather than anywhere else.
FixKeep your shoulder blades against the pad for every rep of the set. If the curl only finishes when you sit up, the dumbbells are too heavy for this version of it.
The dumbbells clip the bench frame at the bottom of every rep.
WhyYour arms hang behind you rather than beside you, so on a bench with uprights behind the pad that is exactly where the dumbbells travel.
FixSet your hands a little wider than the frame before the first rep so the hang is clear. Fix it before you start rather than shortening the rep to avoid the metal.
One weight is wrong for one of the halves, every single time.
WhyThese are two exercises with two different ceilings. Almost nobody can curl what they can press on an incline, so the pair moves at curling weight and the pressing half is underloaded by definition.
FixDecide which half you are actually training and load for that one. If it is the press, run it on its own. If it is the curl, treat the press as something you get rather than something you are working.
What it is for
The incline hammer press to hammer curl combines an incline neutral-grip chest press with a hammer curl, targeting the upper pectorals and biceps in one fluid sequence. The neutral grip reduces shoulder stress while adding biceps engagement at the end of each repetition.
Questions people ask
- What muscles does the incline hammer press to hammer curl work?
- Two sets of muscles, one per half. The curl is your elbow flexors: the biceps, the brachialis that sits under it, and the brachioradialis running up the forearm. The press is your chest, helped by the arms and the front of the shoulders, and the tilt moves the chest's share upward. During the press your elbow flexors are only holding the dumbbell.
- Does the neutral grip change the press?
- Not in the way it is usually sold. The hammer press entry sets out what a palms-facing grip does and does not do to a dumbbell press, including the fact that nothing supports the claim that it protects the shoulder. Tilting the bench does not change that answer. Here the grip is inherited from the curl, which cannot be done any other way.
- Is the curl part an incline curl?
- Yes, as it is shown here. Lying back leaves your upper arms behind the line of your body, and that shoulder position is what defines an incline curl. The incline curl entry covers what the position is for. It never requires sitting up.
- Does the incline position matter for the curl half?
- It is the reason the curl is done lying back at all. One trial split 63 young women across 8 weeks, one group curling on an incline bench and one on a preacher bench, and the incline group added more thickness at the top of the arm while the preacher group added more down by the elbow, with neither ahead overall. Those were palms-up curls, so carrying the result across to a neutral grip goes past what was measured.
- Should you do this instead of a press and a curl separately?
- Nobody has compared them. What is plain without a study is that the pair travels at the curl's weight, so the pressing half is lighter than a press you had programmed on its own. If both halves matter to you, they are better off as two exercises.
- Which comes first, the press or the curl?
- As demonstrated, the curl. The rep starts with the dumbbells hanging, curls them to the shoulders, presses them up, then reverses the whole path. The name reads the other way round, which describes the second half of the rep rather than the start of it.