Building bigger arms takes more than picking up the heaviest dumbbells you can find. Beginners need exercises they can perform with control, repeat consistently, and gradually make more challenging. A few well-chosen curl variations can train the elbow flexors from different positions and help make your arm training more complete.
These three options are a good starting point: the standing dumbbell curl, the incline dumbbell curl, and the hammer curl. Each has a practical advantage. The standing curl is easy to learn, the incline curl puts your upper arm behind your body, and the hammer curl trains the elbow flexors with a neutral grip.
No curl can promise massive arms quickly. Muscle growth takes consistent training over time, and your results depend on your overall program, effort, recovery, and individual response. The good news is that beginners do not need a complicated routine to start making progress.
What beginners should know about biceps training
The biceps brachii helps bend the elbow and turn the palm upward. It is one part of the elbow flexor group, which also includes muscles such as the brachialis and brachioradialis. That means a useful arm routine can include curls with different hand positions and upper arm positions instead of repeating the same movement every set.
Research also suggests that curl variations can produce different patterns of muscle activity. That does not mean one exercise is automatically best for everyone, or that an exercise with higher activity in a single study will always build more muscle. Electromyography measures electrical activity during a task, not long term muscle growth. Training studies that measure changes over several weeks can help answer the growth question more directly.
For beginners, the most useful priorities are straightforward: choose manageable weights, use a controlled range of motion, and add repetitions or weight gradually while maintaining good form. More weekly training sets may lead to greater muscle growth, although more is not always better if it affects your recovery or makes it hard to train consistently.
1. Standing dumbbell curl
The standing dumbbell curl is a simple place to start. It lets you train one arm at a time or both arms together, and the dumbbells allow your hands to move naturally as you curl. Because it is easy to set up and adjust, you can focus on learning the movement instead of wrestling with equipment.
How to do it
Stand tall with a dumbbell in each hand and your arms relaxed by your sides. Keep your shoulders comfortable and your elbows close to your torso. Begin with your palms facing inward, then curl the dumbbells upward while turning your palms toward your shoulders. Pause briefly near the top without lifting your elbows forward, then lower the weights under control.
The movement should come mostly from bending your elbows. If you have to swing your torso, shrug your shoulders, or throw your elbows forward to move the weights, choose lighter dumbbells. The lowering portion matters too. Let the arms extend naturally at the bottom rather than stopping each repetition halfway down.
You can curl both dumbbells together or alternate sides. Alternating gives you a moment to focus on each arm and can make it easier to keep your torso still. Either option works as long as you can control the weight.
Why it belongs in a beginner routine
A standard dumbbell curl trains elbow flexion while allowing you to use a supinated grip, which means your palms face upward or turn upward as you lift. In a study comparing dumbbell curls with straight barbell and EZ bar curls, the bar variations produced higher measured activity in the biceps brachii and brachioradialis than dumbbell curls under the study conditions. That finding does not make dumbbell curls ineffective. It shows that the equipment and grip can influence muscle activity during a set, while comfort and good execution still matter when choosing an exercise.
For a beginner, the standing dumbbell curl is useful because it is easy to learn, easy to load progressively, and easy to adjust if one arm feels less coordinated. Start with a weight that lets you complete each repetition without swinging. When you can perform the top of your target repetition range with control, increase the weight slightly and build back up.
2. Incline dumbbell curl
The incline dumbbell curl changes your shoulder position. When you sit back against an incline bench, your arms hang slightly behind your torso. This gives you a different starting position from a standing curl and can make the bottom portion of the movement feel more demanding.
How to do it
Set an adjustable bench to a moderate incline and sit back with your head and upper back supported. Let the dumbbells hang beside you with your palms facing forward or turned slightly inward. Keep your upper arms still as you bend your elbows and curl the dumbbells toward your shoulders. Lower the weights slowly until your arms are extended comfortably again.
Do not force your arms into an extreme stretch at the bottom. Let the shoulders remain relaxed and stop if you feel sharp pain or uncomfortable pulling. The goal is to use a controlled range of motion, not to chase the deepest possible position.
Choose lighter weights than you use for standing curls at first. The bench limits how much you can use your body to help lift the dumbbells, so a weight that seems easy while standing may be difficult on an incline.
Why it belongs in a beginner routine
The incline curl is a practical way to train the elbow flexors with the upper arm behind the body. A 2025 training study compared incline curls with preacher curls in young women who trained twice weekly for eight weeks. Both groups increased elbow flexor muscle thickness and curl strength, while some results differed by measurement location and by which curl strength test was used. Because the study involved a specific group and training period, it does not prove that incline curls are best for every beginner. It does show that curl selection and shoulder position can affect the pattern of muscle and strength changes.
Research reviews on range of motion also suggest that training at longer muscle lengths may benefit growth in some muscles, including the biceps. That is a reason to use a comfortable, controlled stretch at the bottom of an incline curl. It is not a reason to force your shoulder into a painful position or to assume that a deeper stretch guarantees faster growth.
Use the incline curl after your standing curl or as your main biceps movement for a training block. Since the position can feel unfamiliar, begin with two or three sets using a weight you can lower slowly.
3. Hammer curl
The hammer curl uses a neutral grip, with your palms facing each other throughout the movement. It is an easy variation to learn and gives you a different hand position from a traditional curl. You can perform it standing, seated, or with one arm at a time.
How to do it
Stand with a dumbbell in each hand and your palms facing inward. Keep your wrists straight and your elbows near your sides. Curl the weights toward your shoulders without turning your palms upward. Lower them with control until your arms are extended comfortably.
Keep the dumbbells close to your body and avoid letting your elbows drift far forward. If your shoulders begin to roll or your torso starts rocking, reduce the weight. You should feel that you are doing the work with your arms rather than using momentum to move the dumbbells.
Why it belongs in a beginner routine
The neutral grip changes how you perform the curl and can make the movement feel comfortable for people who find a fully supinated grip awkward. Research measuring muscle activity during curl variations has found differences between the biceps brachii and brachioradialis across exercises. Those results support including more than one grip if you want to train the elbow flexors in different ways, but they do not show that hammer curls alone produce more arm growth.
The hammer curl also gives you a straightforward way to train without rotating your wrists during the lift. That can help beginners concentrate on keeping the elbow movement controlled. Use it as your third exercise, or alternate it with standing curls between training sessions.
How to put the three curls into a beginner plan
You do not have to perform all three exercises every time you train arms. Start with two exercises per session, such as standing dumbbell curls and hammer curls. Another session could include standing curls and incline curls. If your weekly plan includes two arm focused sessions, try two or three sets of each exercise per session and adjust based on how well you recover.
A practical starting point is 8 to 15 repetitions per set. This range is a convenient way to practice the movements with a manageable load. It is not a special range that guarantees more growth than every other repetition range. Stop a set when you can no longer keep your form consistent, and aim to finish most sets with a small number of good repetitions still possible.
Record the weight and repetitions you complete. When you can reach the upper end of your chosen range on every set without swinging or shortening the movement, increase the weight by the smallest practical amount. Then work toward the upper end of the range again. This gradual progression makes it easier to see whether your training is moving forward.
Weekly training volume matters as well. A meta analysis found a relationship between more weekly resistance training sets and greater muscle growth across the studies it reviewed. Beginners do not need to jump straight to a very high number of sets. Begin with a modest amount, give yourself time to recover, and add sets only if your progress has slowed and your current workload feels manageable.
Common mistakes that slow progress
Using too much weight is one of the easiest ways to turn curls into a full body movement. Swinging might help you lift a heavier dumbbell, but it makes it harder to keep the exercise consistent from repetition to repetition. Choose a weight you can control, especially while lowering it.
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Another common mistake is rushing every repetition. A controlled lift and lowering phase gives you time to keep your elbows steady and notice when your technique starts to change. You do not need to count a precise number of seconds. Focus on a smooth repetition rather than dropping the weight quickly.
It is also easy to change exercises every week in search of a perfect curl. These three variations already give you several useful options. Keep your routine consistent long enough to practice the movements and track your progress. If an exercise causes discomfort that does not improve when you adjust your position or reduce the load, choose another variation.
References
- Kassiano, W., Costa, B.D.V., Kunevaliki, G., Lisboa, F., Stavinski, N., Prado, A., Tricoli, I., Francsuel, J., Lima, L., Nunes, J.P., Ribeiro, A.S. and Cyrino, E.S. (2025) ‘Distinct muscle growth and strength adaptations after preacher and incline biceps curls’, International Journal of Sports Medicine, 46(5), pp. 334–343.
- Kassiano, W., Costa, B., Nunes, J.P., Ribeiro, A.S., Schoenfeld, B.J. and Cyrino, E.S. (2023) ‘Which ROMs lead to Rome? A systematic review of the effects of range of motion on muscle hypertrophy’, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 37(5), pp. 1135–1144.
- Marcolin, G., Panizzolo, F.A., Petrone, N., Moro, T., Grigoletto, D., Piccolo, D. and Paoli, A. (2018) ‘Differences in electromyographic activity of biceps brachii and brachioradialis while performing three variants of curl’, PeerJ, 6, e5165.
- Schoenfeld, B.J., Ogborn, D. and Krieger, J.W. (2017) ‘Dose-response relationship between weekly resistance training volume and increases in muscle mass: A systematic review and meta-analysis’, Journal of Sports Sciences, 35(11), pp. 1073–1082.
Key Takeaways
| Topic | Takeaway |
|---|---|
| Standing dumbbell curl | A simple starting exercise that helps beginners practice controlled elbow flexion and gradual progression. |
| Incline dumbbell curl | Trains curls with the upper arm behind the body and uses a different shoulder position. |
| Hammer curl | Uses a neutral grip and provides another way to train the elbow flexors. |
| Training approach | Start with a manageable number of sets, use controlled repetitions, and gradually add reps or weight. |
