Reverse Cable Curl
Also works: Forearms
A palms-down curl from a low pulley, done with a straight bar attachment. Turning the hands over strips the biceps of its supination leverage and hands the lifting to the brachioradialis and brachialis. The cable is the reason to bother: it still pulls at the bottom of the rep, where a barbell hangs almost straight through the elbow and gives you nothing to fight.
Own the movement
Set up first, then execute. Every cue below is something you can check on your next set.
Before the first rep
- Set the pulley at its lowest position and clip on a straight or slightly cambered bar.
- Take a pronated grip at shoulder width, thumbs wrapped over the bar rather than alongside it.
- Stand about half a step back from the pulley so the cable already has tension with your arms hanging.
- Pin your upper arms against your ribs and leave them there for the whole set.
- Set your wrists straight — knuckles in line with your forearm, not cocked down.
Every rep
Breathing & tempo — Exhale as you curl up, inhale on the way down. One second up, one second squeezed at the top, three seconds down — the slow lower is where the forearm work happens.
Sets, reps & load
Where to start, and what to change when it stops being hard.
Start around 10-15 kg on the stack, or roughly 60% of what you reverse-curl with a barbell. Good looks like a flat wrist for every rep and a three-second lower on the last one. Add weight only once you can do 15 strict reps with no torso movement; before that, add a rep.
What goes wrong
The errors that show up most often, and the cue that fixes each one.
Cut the load by a third of what you use for supinated cable curls. A reverse grip is mechanically weaker, and the number on the stack is not a status you get to keep.
Squeeze the bar hard and drive your knuckles at the ceiling through the whole rep. If you still cannot hold a flat wrist, drop a plate.
Stand with your feet staggered and your ribs down. If your torso moves at all, the set is over — log the reps you got strictly.
Move back until the cable is taut with arms hanging straight. Constant tension at full extension is the entire reason you chose the cable.
Why bother
A pronated grip takes the biceps out of its best position — the muscle also supinates the forearm, and you have already spent that function before the rep starts. What is left doing the lifting is the brachioradialis on the thumb side of your forearm and the brachialis underneath the biceps. Both add visible thickness to the upper arm that no amount of supinated curling produces.
The cable is the reason to pick this over a reverse barbell curl. With a bar, the bottom 20 degrees of elbow flexion carries almost no load because the resistance line runs nearly through the joint. A low pulley pulls at an angle instead, so there is still something to resist with your arms hanging straight — you get loaded across the lengthened part of the range rather than starting the useful portion of the rep halfway up.
Where it fits
Late in an arm or pull session, after your heavy rows and your supinated curls. Two sets is usually enough; it is an accessory to an accessory. Pair it with hammer curls only if you enjoy the forearm work — they overlap heavily on the brachioradialis, and doing both in the same session mostly buys you a pump.
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 my reverse curl so much weaker than my normal curl?
Because it should be. Pronating the forearm shortens the biceps' leverage and hands the job to the brachioradialis and brachialis, which are smaller. Expect to use somewhere between half and two thirds of your supinated curl weight, permanently. That gap does not close with training.
Cable or barbell for reverse curls?
Cable, if you have one free. The barbell version loses almost all tension in the bottom third of the range, which is where the brachioradialis does its best work. The barbell wins only on convenience and on how heavy you can go at the mid-range sticking point.
Will this make my forearms bigger?
It will build the brachioradialis, which is the muscle that gives the forearm its width just below the elbow. It does little for the flexor mass on the underside — that comes from grip work and heavy pulling. Reverse curls plus heavy holds cover the forearm properly.
My wrists hurt on a straight bar. What now?
Switch to an EZ bar attachment or a rope, which let the wrists sit in a slightly angled position instead of forcing full pronation. If it still bites, the load is too high — reverse curls punish an ambitious stack more than almost any other arm movement.