Invented by George Zottman at the end of the 19th century, the Zottman curl is a little-known strength training exercise. This variation of the classic curl involves rotating the wrists at the top of the movement in order to target both the biceps and the forearms.
How do you do the exercise?
To perform the Zottman curl, you will need to use dumbbells.
Stand up, one dumbbell in each hand in a supinated grip (palms facing forward). Your knees should be very slightly bent and your back straight. This initial position is identical to the traditional biceps curl.
Keeping your elbows at your side, contract your biceps and bend your elbows to bring the dumbbells up to your shoulders.
This is where the Zottman curl differs from the dumbbell curl. Rotate your wrists 180 degrees into a pronated grip. Keeping this grip, lower the dumbbells back to the starting position.
Once in the down position, rotate again to return to supine grip, and repeat the movement in a slow, controlled manner.
Perform 4 sets of 10-15 reps for results.
Muscles worked
The Zottman curl uses several muscles in the arm:
- the biceps,
- the anterior brachial,
- the brachioradialis muscle (or long supinator of the forearm).
Discover the program to get huge arms.
Tips
- To optimize the muscle congestion and increase the burning sensation, the Zottman curl should be performed extremely slowly.
- Throughout the movement, be sure to keep your back straight and not to help yourself with an impulse movement.
- Keep your elbows at your side to limit shoulder involvement.
- Choose light weights to start this exercise and learn the technique of execution, you can increase the weights as you progress.
- Remember to breathe well to increase the effectiveness of this exercise (breathe out as you come up and breathe in as you go down).
- Instead, perform this exercise at the end of your workout.
Variants
- The barbell or dumbbell biceps curl is one of the main variations of the Zottman curl.
- You can also do the Zottman curl on a desk to minimize back intervention.
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