Home / Exercises / Dumbbell Seated Hammer Curl
Dumbbell Seated Hammer Curl animation

How to do the Dumbbell Seated Hammer Curl

BicepsDumbbellIntermediate

The seated hammer curl locks out lower-body momentum, forcing your biceps and brachialis to do every ounce of the work with nowhere to hide. Mastering this neutral-grip variation builds serious arm thickness and elbow strength that standard curls simply cannot match.

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Muscles worked

Primary
Biceps
Secondary
BrachialisForearms

Step-by-step

  1. Sit tall on a bench with a dumbbell in each hand, arms fully extended and palms facing your thighs in a neutral grip throughout the entire movement.
  2. Brace your core, pin your elbows tight to your sides, and curl both dumbbells upward toward your shoulders without letting your wrists rotate.
  3. Squeeze hard at the top for a full count, ensuring the dumbbells reach shoulder height without your elbows drifting forward.
  4. Lower the weights slowly over three counts back to full elbow extension, maintaining tension in the muscle at the bottom.

Common mistakes

  • Swinging the torso back to help the weight up, which shifts load off the biceps onto the spine — keep your back flat against the bench or brace your elbows on your thighs to eliminate all body English.
  • Letting the elbows flare forward at the top of the rep, which internally rotates the shoulder and reduces brachialis recruitment — keep elbows pinned at your sides from start to finish.
  • Dropping the weight too fast on the way down and losing tension at the bottom — control the eccentric for a full three seconds to maximize muscle stimulus and protect the elbow joint.

Pro tip — At the very top of each rep, actively tilt the pinky-side of the dumbbell slightly higher than the thumb side while maintaining the neutral grip — this small supination cue maximally contracts the brachialis and short head of the biceps without breaking hammer position.

Sets & reps by goal

Build muscle3–4 sets × 10–15 reps
Get stronger3–4 sets × 6–8 reps
Lose fat / tone3 sets × 12–20 reps

Rest: 60–90 sec between sets.

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