

Allowing the elbows to stray away from the side of the body – whether using too much weight, or trying to perform extra reps when fatigue sets in, one of the more common mistakes when performing straight-bar cable curls is having the elbows move out of position to make the exercise easier.

This does not go for everyone, but it’s more common for people to try to use weights that are too heavy for them when performing exercises that are easy to cheat by generating momentum with the lower back.

Squeeze your biceps hard at the end of the range of motion before slowly lowering the weight back down to the starting position. Initiate the exercise by bending at the elbow only, keeping your elbows locked in position slightly in front of your body. To perform a straight-bar cable curl, after attaching the straight-bar attachment to a low cable pulley, grab the handle with an underhand shoulder-width grip, and take a step back away from the pulley to prevent the weight from resting throughout the exercise (to maintain tension on the muscles). On a scale of 1 to 5, the straight-bar cable curl would rank around a 1, as it doesn’t require much stability, or coordination to perform effectively. Equipment required for straight-bar cable curlsĪs its name suggests, all that is needed to perform straight-bar cable curls is a straight-bar attachment, and a (low) cable pulley apparatus.
#Cable bicep curl full#
The straight-bar cable curl is an isolation exercise designed to target the biceps, and keep tension on them throughout the full range of motion (which is not as effectively offered from the free-weight barbell variation).
