When looking to build bigger arms, people often think of getting massive biceps or triceps. While this is certainly the goal, it is also important to increase the size and strength of the forearm muscles. The Zottman curl is a great way to build bigger forearms and biceps, making it both effective and efficient. If you’ve ever wondered how to do this unique biceps exercise, or, perhaps, you may have found your way here while asking the Internet, “what is a Zottman curl?” Regardless, we’ve got you covered. Here’s how to do a Zottman curl with picture-perfect form.
How to Do the Zottman Curl
The Zottman curl is a dumbbell exercise that combines a twisting dumbbell curl with a reverse dumbbell curl. This makes it a great isolation exercise to increase biceps strength. It also is an effective move for isolating the forearm muscles and helping to develop a stronger grip. This particular exercise guide will describe the dumbbell Zottman curl.
Equipment Needed: To do Zottman curls, you’ll need a pair of dumbbells and some open space to work.
- Step 1 — Start by grabbing a pair of dumbbells, one in each hand, with the dumbbells to the sides of your body (you can do these seated, standing, or seated on an incline bench).
- Step 2 — With your hands by your sides, have your hands supinated so that your palms are facing forwards. Keep your chest up, your shoulders back, and your elbows fully extended.
- Step 3 — Curl the weights upwards to chest height, making sure to keep the weights in front of you. Your elbows should not move backwards as you lift the weights, but rather stay slightly in front of your torso.
- Step 4 — Once you get to the top of the lift, turn your palms downwards so that your hands are pronated. This will shift the tension at the top of your forearms and grip muscles.
- Step 5 — Lower the dumbbells slowly, making sure to keep your elbows in front of your body and your palms pointing toward the ceiling.
Coach’s Tip: Lower the weights slowly, and fully extend your elbows at the bottom. Doing this will help you maximize the eccentric phase and promote more muscle growth than letting the weights drop quickly.
Zottman Curl Variations
The Zottman curl is a unique dumbbell curl variation. However, if you’re looking to perform a variation of the Zottman curl, you don’t have to go further than the two moves below. Both of these exercises offer the same benefits as the dumbbell Zottman curl, while also offering some additional perks.
Cable Zottman Curl
Why Do It: The cable Zottman curl is a standing rope curl done with cables. The rope allows you to pull your hands wider apart at the top, or keep your hands narrow. This offers you different angles from which to attack the forearms.
Equipment Needed: You will need an adjustable cable station and a rope attachment for this one.
- To do these, set a cable pulley to the low position and attach a rope to the clip. Grab each end of the rope.
- Start with your arms fully extended downwards, with your palms facing each other or slightly turned upwards (supinated).
- At the top of the curl, turn your palms downwards towards the ground as best as possible. Lower slowly, like you would in the dumbbell Zottman variation.
Incline Zottman Curl
[Read More: Do the Incline Dumbbell Curl to Double Down on Your Arm Gains]
Why Do It: This is a more strict version of the standing Zottman curl, with the added bonus of increasing the range of motion.
Equipment Needed: You’ll need some dumbbells and an adjustable weight bench.
- Start by setting an incline bench to a high back position, one where you are slightly reclined (more upright than lying on your back).
- Perform the Zottman curl as usual, making sure to stay reclined. This will increase the range of motion and demand on your muscles while also not letting you use momentum to move the load.
Zottman Curl Alternatives
In the event you want to find an alternative to the Zottman curl, you can do these moves instead. These place emphasis on the same muscle groups used in the Zottman curl.
Reverse Curl
[Read More: Try This Biceps Workout With Dumbbells for Superior Muscle Growth]
Why Do It: The reverse curl is almost identical to the Zottman curl. The only difference is that you start with your palms down and keep them down during both the lifting phase and the lowering phase.
Equipment Needed: Reverse curls can be performed with barbells, cables, and dumbbells, but you may want to start out by using the barbell.
- Stand upright while holding the bar with a shoulder-width, pronated (as in, palms-down) grip.
- Keep your upper arms tucked snugly to your sides and bend your elbows to bring the bar up towards your chest.
- Reverse the motion and unfurl your arms to return to the starting position.
Hammer Curl
[Read More: Hammer Curls Vs. Biceps Curls — Which is Better for Building Bigger Arms?]
Why Do It: The hammer curl is a biceps and forearm exercise that has you perform a curl with your palms facing each other during the entire range of motion. You can generally lift heavier weights with the hammer curl, applying more tension to your arms overall.
Equipment Needed: All you’ll need for this one are a pair of dumbbells.
- Start by having your hands by your sides, with your palms facing the body (thumbs up towards the sky). Imagine holding a hammer.
- Perform a curl and bring the weights to about chest height. Pause, then descend under control.
Who Should Do the Zottman Curl
Zottman curls can help lifters of all levels grow and strengthen their arms, regardless of sport or training level. Whether you are looking to add serious size to your arms or to improve your grip strength, the Zottman curl can help you reach your arm and grip training goals.
Strength Athletes
The Zottman curl is a valuable accessory exercise to build strong arms and improve grip strength. Additionally, training the forearms can help decrease potential injury risk from strains and pulls on movements like stone lifting, deadlifts, carries, and even heavy Olympic lifts. Seeing that the forearm and biceps are often active in heavy pulling movements, it makes sense to increase their eccentric strength and abilities to improve performance and decrease injury risks.
Regular Gymgoers
The Zottman curl can help anyone looking to increase the size and strength of their biceps and forearms. By adding this curl variation into your regular arm training, you can also increase grip strength and help improve wrist stability.
[Read More: Switch-Up Your Arm Day With These 10 Biceps Curl Variations]
Furthermore, regular gymgoers often have issues with grip strength during heavy deadlifts and carries. This makes the Zottman curl a great combination exercise to train the biceps, forearms, and grip in a time-efficient manner.
Zottman Curl Sets and Reps
If you are looking to add the Zottman curl into your workout program, you may want to add it later in the session to avoid pre-exhausting your grip. When programming the Zottman curl, it is important that you adjust your other days to account for the delayed onset muscle soreness and temporary lack of grip strength since the muscles of the arm and forearms may be fatigued following direct training. Below are the two primary sets, reps, and weight (intensity) recommendations for you to properly program the Zottman curl.
- To Build Muscle: Start by programming 3-5 sets of 10 to 15 repetitions with moderate to heavy loads OR 2-4 sets of 15 to 20 repetitions with moderate loads to near failure, keeping rest periods of 45 to 90 seconds.
- To Increase Strength: Start by programming 3-5 sets of 5-10 repetitions with heavy loading, resting as needed.
Benefits of the Zottman Curl
The Zottman curl is a great arm-building exercise for any level. If you are on the fence about adding it into your arm training routine, learning more about the Zottman curl’s unique benefits might convince you.
Builds Grip Strength
Gripping and grabbing objects is a great way to build general grip strength. However, sometimes that is not enough to build the serious grip strength you need to lift heavy weights. Zottman curls are a great accessory exercise to build stronger biceps and grip muscles to aid grip performance and injury prevention.
[Read More: 10 Commandments of Biceps Training]
This exercise allows you to load the biceps in the curl, and overload the forearm during the lowering phase (eccentric) of the movement.
Time-Efficient Way to Grow Your Forearms
Specifically training the smaller muscle groups — like your forearms and calves — can sometimes be neglected. While most heavy lifting programs will do a good job of training grip strength, adding in movements like the Zottman curl can help you train more muscles at the same time. So instead of doing dumbbell curls and then reverse curls, you can perform the Zottman curl and get the same benefits from one exercise (and in less time).
Targeted Muscle Growth
The forearm muscles are targeted during the lowering phase of the movement, also known as the eccentric phase. This is a key phase for muscle building, and can be a huge factor in overall size and strength development.
[Read More: 3 Reasons Why Bicep Curls Are Good for Your Shoulders]
Because the Zottman curl targets the forearms during the eccentric phase of the movement, you’ll also be able to lift heavier loads. This is because you can generally handle more load eccentrically than concentrically (the curl phase of the lift). And moving more weight will help fast track your grip strength and forearm size goals.
Muscles Worked by the Zottman Curl
The Zottman curl trains the biceps and forearms together, making it a great overall arm and grip builder. This exercise can be done with light weights for more grip endurance or with heavier loads to build overall strength and size.
[Read More: The 5 Best Long Head Biceps Exercises for Sculpting Your Arms]
Below are two of the primary muscle groups used when performing the Zottman curl. If you start to feel these in your shoulders, you may be swinging the weights around too much. In that case, slow down and focus on feeling the following muscle groups only.
Biceps Brachii
The biceps are targeted during the Zottman curl during the lifting portion of the lift (concentric), just like they are targeted during most curl variations. During the eccentric phase (lowering phase) the biceps are trained less since the palms are pronated, which shifts loading to the forearm muscles.
Brachialis and Briachioradialis
The brachialis and the brachioradialis muscles are muscles located in the forearms, and are the visible muscles on the top part of the forearm. Both of these muscles assist in elbow flexion and wrist extension, and are active when the palms are pronated in a curl. During the lowering phase of the Zottman curl, these muscles are eccentrically loaded, which in turn can promote muscle growth.
Common Zottman Curl Mistakes
You may know how to do a Zottman curl, but can you perform it with pristine technique? If you want to master your form, make sure you steer clear of these common errors.
Not Rotating Enough
The hallmark feature of the Zottman curl is having to rotate your forearms at the top. It’s a standard biceps curl in the first half, but when you lower it down, it’s technically a reverse biceps curl. Make sure you turn your palms over all the way at the top of each rep, and revert them to their original position at the bottom.
Using Momentum
The rotational aspect of the Zottman curl makes it particularly challenging. You may find yourself tempted to use momentum and swing the weights around — resist this urge and make sure you brace your core and remain locked-in while you perform your sets.
FAQs
Looking to learn even more about Zottman curls before you grab your dumbbells? These frequently asked questions have got your back (and your arm gains).
This exercise doesn’t require you to train with excessively heavy loads for low reps (less than five). The eccentric component of the movement can be damaging to your muscles at loads like that, since the forearm muscles are often not as strong as the biceps. You are better off sticking in the moderate rep range with moderate weights and slowing down the eccentric phase to get more muscle growth. Save the heavy arm and grip training for heavier compound lifts.
If you already have a strong grip and big forearms, then you may not need to spend much additional time training those muscles. That said, it can be helpful to throw direct forearm and arm training into workouts throughout the year to maintain your grip strength and forearm size. This could make the Zottman curl a viable option when looking to hit more muscles at once.
Featured Image: Jasminko Ibrakovic / Shutterstock
