PREACHER CURL

Feel as if some praying might help you get through your workout? Then this is the perfect exercise for you, because it already puts you in a prayer position-erhaps the reason the exercise is named after a preacher. The benefit of this curl is that having the arms rest on the preacher curl apparatus takes out any extra momentum or body movement and removes most shoulder flexion from the lift. This exercise especially benefits the long head of the biceps brachii.

1. Sit on a preacher bench, placing the back of the upper arms on the pad. Adjust the seat if necessary so that the armpits rest near the top of the pad.
2. Grasp a straight or curled bar with a shoulder-width underhand grip, or dumbbells with an underhand grip.
3. Inhale and curl the barbell or dumbbells up toward the shoulders until the elbows are completely bent.
4. Keep the back of the arms in contact with the bench during the lift.
5. Pause for 1 second, then exhale and lower the barbell or dumbbells back down to the starting position.

Preacher Curl (a,b)