Drag Curl
Also works: Forearms
The drag curl keeps the bar in contact with your torso the whole way up by pulling the elbows backwards instead of holding them at your sides. Removing the forward swing of the shoulder cuts the range short and strips the front delt out of the movement, leaving a short, brutally strict biceps rep.
Own the movement
Set up first, then execute. Every cue below is something you can check on your next set.
Before the first rep
- Load a straight or EZ bar with roughly two-thirds of your usual standing curl weight.
- Take a shoulder-width supinated grip and stand with the bar resting against the front of your thighs.
- Stand upright with your ribs down and abs braced — the torso is the track the bar runs on, so it must not move.
- Set your shoulder blades down and back; the traps must stay quiet all set.
- Start with elbows already slightly behind the midline of your body rather than pinned at your sides.
Every rep
Breathing & tempo — Exhale as the elbows travel back, inhale on the way down. Two seconds up, one second held at the lower chest, three seconds down. There is no bottom rest position, so the set gets ugly early — that is the point.
Sets, reps & load
Where to start, and what to change when it stops being hard.
Start with the empty 20 kg bar or an EZ bar plus 5 kg per side. As a rule, use about 60-70% of what you curl standing. Good looks like unbroken bar-to-torso contact for every rep. Add weight only once you can drag all reps of three sets without the bar leaving your body.
What goes wrong
The errors that show up most often, and the cue that fixes each one.
Cue "elbows to the back wall" on every rep and watch the bar in a mirror. The moment contact breaks, end the rep — that is your working range today.
Set your heels 5 cm from a wall and let your glutes touch it. Any rep that pushes you off the wall is too heavy; strip 5 kg.
Take a third off. Drag curls have no shoulder assistance and no arc, so a weight that feels light in a normal curl is honest here.
Depress the shoulder blades before the first rep and keep your collarbone level. If the traps still fire, lighten the load and cut the top range by a few centimetres.
Why bother
In a normal barbell curl the shoulder flexes at the top: the elbows drift forward and the bar arcs away from the body. That last third is where the front delt quietly helps. Dragging the bar up your shirt forces the elbows behind the torso instead, so the shoulder extends rather than flexes and the biceps has to finish the rep alone.
The trade is range. The bar stops around the lower chest, so you are training the middle of the curve with no top-end arc and no bottom-end rest. Expect roughly 60-70% of your normal barbell curl weight, and expect it to feel harder there than a full curl ever does.
Where it fits
Second biceps movement in an arm or pull session, after a full-range curl. Three sets of 8-12 is plenty. It works particularly well as a back-off exercise: run your heavy barbell curls, then drop the weight by a third and drag for two sets to finish the arms without adding more shoulder-driven swing.
If this one isn't it
No kit, too hard, or too easy — here's where to go instead.
Same job, different kit
Start here instead
When this gets easy
Asked and answered
Why is the range of motion so short?
Because the elbows go backwards rather than forwards, the bar physically cannot travel past your lower chest without leaving your body. That short arc is the exercise, not a flaw in your technique. If you want the top end, do preacher or incline curls, which cover a different part of the curve.
Does the drag curl hit the long head of the biceps more?
The claim gets repeated a lot and the evidence is thin. What is definitely true is that shoulder extension puts the long head in a lengthened position under load and removes front-delt help. Treat it as a strict curl variation with a specific top-end feel, not a targeted long-head builder.
Straight bar or EZ bar?
EZ bar if your wrists or inner elbows complain on a straight bar, straight bar if they do not. The bar shape does not change the drag mechanics — both stay in contact with the torso. Comfort decides it.
Can I do this with dumbbells?
You can, and the elbows-back cue works the same, but the dumbbells run past your sides rather than up the front of your body, so you lose the physical contact that keeps you honest. If you only have dumbbells, the incline or prone curl is a better strict option.