Are hammer curls good for biceps and forearms training?
Yes, hammer curls are an excellent exercise to develop the forearms, biceps, and brachialis. In particular they place emphasis on the brachioradialis (forearm muscle), which are harder to target directly than the biceps. And hammer curls help increase strength in other exercises such as rows and pull-ups by increasing grip, wrist, and forearm strength.
There are four unique benefits to this exercise you need to know about. But, before that, let’s go over proper technique.
How to do Hammer Curls Properly
Watch this short, two minute video showing you exactly how to do hammer curls:
Hammer curls are ridiculously simple to learn.
If you know how to do a standard dumbbell biceps curl, you know how to do a hammer curl. The only difference is you will be using a neutral grip position instead of a supinated (palms up) grip:
Just to make sure you’ve got it, here are the step-by-step instructions for doing hammer curls:
- Grab a pair of dumbbells and stand with legs shoulder width apart
- Holding the dumbbells with a neutral grip, curl the weight up
- Keep elbows locked in; there should be little to no movement in the elbows
- Squeeze forearms/biceps at the top, pause for a split second, and slowly lower to starting position
You can do hammer curls with both arms at the same time or one arm at a time. Personally, I like doing them with both arms at the same time.
But, you should try both and see which works best for you.
Hammer Curls: Muscles Worked
Although the movement of hammer curls is similar to regular biceps curls, the target muscle group is somewhat different.
Standard biceps curls primarily target the biceps brachii, while the brachialis and brachioradialis are just afterthoughts. What makes hammer curls unique is they place a greater emphasis on these two muscle groups as opposed to the biceps.
Hammer curls are known forearm builders. In fact, they’re often considered to be a pure forearm exercise, despite the similarity to standard biceps curls.
4 Benefits of Hammer Curls for Muscle Growth
They Build the Forearms Better than Biceps Curls
Like I mentioned already, hammer curls shift the focus of the exercise from the biceps to the brachialis and brachioradialis.
Developing these muscles can be difficult because there aren’t many exercises which target them directly, especially the brachioradialis (forearm). With standard biceps curls, you can do them with dumbbells, barbells, cables, or even machines. But, with hammer curls, you pretty much can only do them with dumbbells (unless you have a Swiss bar).
Because of the limited exercises available, hammer curls become almost a necessity for complete forearm development.
So, if you’re serious about getting Popeye-sized forearms, hammer curls are a must-do exercise.
Improved Grip and Wrist Strength
Hammer curls a little awkward. Depending on where you grip the dumbbell, your grip and wrist will get more or less work.
For example, gripping the dumbbell with your hand as high on the dumbbell as possible will minimize the grip and wrist strength required to curl it. But, if you grip in the middle, or (to make it even more difficult) grip the dumbbell at the bottom, you will involve your grip and wrists more.
Gripping at the bottom will really cause your wrists and grip to take over and work to stabilize the weight.
So, I recommend playing around with all three grip positions. But, if you want to maximize grip and wrist strength, try the middle grip or bottom grip position.
Note: the grip positions I’m referring to were covered in the instructional video above.
You Will Be Stronger at Rows and Pull-ups
If you’re only doing standard biceps curls, you may be missing out on carryover to exercises like rows and pull-ups.
Although the target of these exercises is the lats and back muscles, forearm and biceps strength is critical for progress. Many row variations (dumbbell rows, cable rows, band rows, etc.) are done with a neutral grip. So hammer curls will carryover directly in these cases.
But, improving your forearm strength with hammer curls will help any exercise which involves elbow flexion or forearm strength.
And the more weight you can use with rows and pull-ups, the more you can overload your back muscles and promote growth.
Bigger Biceps
I want to make clear, although I’ve droned on for a bit about the benefits of hammer curls for forearms, this exercise still is ultimately a biceps exercise.
And it works incredibly well in that regard.
Any movement who’s primary mode of action is elbow flexion will (despite the grip used) be primarily focused on building the biceps. And all biceps exercises (even standard curls) will involve the forearms. What makes hammer curls unique is they shift the percentage of biceps involvement to be a little lower than with standard curls. And therefore they increase the percentage of involvement with your forearms.
The bottom line is you don’t have to sacrifice biceps training for forearm training here. With hammer curls, you can get the best of both worlds.
Looking for Other Forearm/Biceps Exercises?
In this article, I go over 9 effective hammer curl alternatives and how to perform them (step-by-step) with video instruction.
Alternate Variation: Cross Body Hammer Curl (Pinwheel Curl)
I actually prefer the cross body hammer curl to the standard hammer curl. There are two advantages to the cross body variation:
- You can use heavier weight
- It’s a bit easier on the wrists
That being said, you have to watch out for cheating. It’s easy to get the traps involved. Always remember every curl exercise is an elbow flexor movement. Which means only your lower arm should be moving during the movement.
Watch this short, two minute video to learn how to do the cross body hammer curl properly:
FAQ
Q: Are hammer curls necessary?
A: No, hammer curls are not strictly necessary for either forearms or biceps. You can still build big arms with standard curls, rows, and pull-ups. BUT, if you really want your forearms to pop, hammer curls are one of the best exercises to get the job done.
Q: Should you go heavy on hammer curls?
A: You definitely can go heavy, but generally I think it’s best to keep the reps in the 8-12 range. This allows you to really exhaust your forearms and biceps. When doing higher reps like this, you tend to be able to feel the muscle working better (possibly due to lactic acid build-up). And developing this “mind-muscle connection” is key to growth in any exercise.
Plus, going heavy on hammer curls may put a little too much stress on your wrists.
However, I do like to go heavier with cross body hammer curls. For some reason, this exercise just “feels” built to lift heavier weight with. This is probably due to the fact it’s a bit easier on your wrists. I like to keep the reps in the 6-10 range.
Q: Are hammer curls harder than biceps curls?
A: Generally speaking, you will be able to lift about the same weight with standard biceps curls and hammer curls. Some people might be able to lift a little more with biceps curls, although this will vary from person to person.
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