Pick up any dumbbell and you’ll probably grip it dead centre so the weight is evenly distributed. But if you’re looking to get more out of your bicep curls, professional bodybuilder and YouTuber Sam Sulek suggests making one small adjustment to your grip.
Instead of holding the handle in the middle of your palm, Sulek shifts his hand slightly so that his pinky finger sits closer to the lower dumbbell head. The cue, he says, helps him achieve a stronger biceps contraction by making it easier to finish each rep with a full rotation of the forearm.
‘Tip on dumbbell curls,’ Sulek says. ‘I hold the dumbbell with my palm touching the bottom. What that does is it just makes it easier for me to open my hand up and pull from my pinky, which helps me feel the bicep more.’
It’s a subtle tweak, but one that could help some lifters better connect with the target muscle. By thinking about leading with the pinky rather than simply lifting the weight, you’re more likely to fully supinate your forearm – one of the key actions of the biceps during a curl.
Conversely, gripping closer to the thumb side can make it easier to rely on your forearms and simply move the weight from A to B, rather than deliberately squeezing your biceps through the top of the rep.
‘When guys hold it from the top, it’s easy to get a lot more forearm [involvement],’ Sulek adds.
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