Training guide
A spider curl is a curl done lying chest-down on an incline bench, with your arms hanging straight down. With your chest on the pad, your body can't help, so every rep is strict. Because your upper arms hang straight down, the weight should be hardest about halfway up and light at the bottom, the opposite of a barbell preacher curl; that comes from mechanics and studies of other curls, as nobody has studied the spider curl itself. Set the bench to about 45 degrees and do 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 12.
Spider curls are said to target the short head of the biceps and build the "peak". Nobody has tested either claim. What trials do show is that curls with the arm in front, at the side or behind build similar muscle.
This guide shows the dumbbell and EZ-bar versions step by step on the 3D figure, the bench angle, what the arm position changes, the head and peak claims, spider curls without a bench, and how many to do.
Lie chest-down on an incline bench set to about 45 degrees, let your arms hang straight down, curl the weights up towards your shoulders, and lower them all the way to straight arms, as our move pages show. The EZ-bar version leans over the steep side of a preacher bench. ExRx, a long-running exercise library, calls the barbell version a prone incline curl.
With your upper arm hanging straight down, gravity makes the weight hardest to hold when your forearm is level, at about 90 degrees of elbow bend, and light at the bottom. That's the opposite of a barbell preacher curl, where biceps activity peaked near straight arms in 22 trained men. This comes from mechanics and studies of other curls: nobody has studied the spider curl itself.
Your chest on the bench stops your body helping, which keeps every rep honest (coaching practice). In one trial, though, curls with some swing built as much muscle as strict ones.
Source 5
Curls with the arm in front, at the side or behind built similar total arm muscle in three trials, of 15, 24 and 21 people.
We found no study that measured the biceps' two heads separately in curls at different shoulder angles, and coaching sources disagree about which head the spider curl favours. Nor has any study measured or changed a "peak": arms respond to the same training very differently, from a 2% loss to a 59% gain in 585 adults.
2 to 3 sets of 8 to 12, stopping 2 or 3 reps short (the move pages' dose); the last set can go to 0 to 2 short, as our plans allow for small moves. Lower to straight arms: training only the top part of a curl with the arm in front grew the arm less, 3.4% against 8.9% in 5 weeks. No bench? A standing concentration curl does the same job.
A curl done lying chest-down on an incline bench, your upper arms hanging straight down from your shoulders, so neither your trunk nor your shoulders can help. Our dumbbell demo sets the bench to about 45 degrees with your shoulders near the top; our EZ-bar demo leans over the steep side of a preacher bench. ExRx says the spider curl was popularised by the old-time trainer Vince Gironda.
Gravity pulls straight down, so the weight is hardest to hold when your forearm is level with the floor, and almost nothing at the straight-arm bottom. A barbell preacher curl is the opposite: with your arm sloping down the pad, it's hardest near the start. A cable preacher curl, like a spider curl, is hardest higher up. No study has measured this in a spider curl itself.
Your upper arm sits in front of your trunk, as in a preacher curl. Both heads of the biceps cross the shoulder, so with the shoulder bent the biceps works a little shorter than in a standing or incline curl.
The biceps, the brachialis underneath it and the brachioradialis in your forearm, as in any curl. ExRx names the brachialis the target. No study has separated the biceps' two heads in curls at different shoulder angles.
A controlled standing curl (the move pages' prerequisite) and a bench that adjusts to about 45 degrees.
Height and arm length change where your chest sits on the bench: set it so your arms hang straight with your armpits near the top edge (editorial). About 1 in 10 arms has an extra biceps head, and the same training changes arms very differently.
Curl comparisons often use EMG (electromyography: electrodes measuring how hard a muscle works over a few reps), which isn't a validated predictor of growth. The trials below measured the muscle itself.
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No study of the spider curl. The nearest trials had 15 to 63 people, mostly untrained young adults.
The bench angle and chest position follow our prone incline dumbbell curl move page; the breathing, the count of 2 and the stopping rule follow our curl guides.
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The movement on the figure: Prone incline dumbbell curl
Our spider curl move page's steps and cues: keep your chest on the pad, and only your forearms move.
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The movement on the figure: Spider curl
About 45 degrees, as our move page sets it, puts your arms straight down with your chest supported. Whatever the angle, your upper arms should hang straight down (editorial): too flat and they angle forward, too steep and they angle back towards you.
Shoulders near the top edge, with your armpits close to it, so your arms clear the pad. Rest your knees on the seat or straddle the bench with your feet on the floor, whichever keeps you steadier.
Palms facing forward with dumbbells; underhand at shoulder width or a little closer on an EZ bar. With your thumbs up it becomes a prone incline hammer curl, which has no demo of its own.
Nothing can help, so start lighter than your standing curl (editorial).
Lower all the way to straight arms under control, without bouncing. The bottom is light here, but the biceps tendon at the elbow tears when the elbow is forced straight against a load.
With the upper arm hanging straight down, a curl is hardest at about 90 degrees of elbow bend and light at the bottom. In 22 trained men curling at 40% of their maximum, with one electrode on the long head, biceps activity rose towards the top of standing and incline curls, to 95% of maximum, but peaked at the start of the preacher curl, at 80%. Nobody has measured a spider curl.
35 young adults did cable preacher curls (hardest higher up, like a spider curl) or barbell preacher curls (hardest at the bottom), 3 sets of 8 to 12, 3 times a week for 10 weeks: the biceps grew 7% and 8%.
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With the resistance matched, 15 young men grew equivalent muscle with cable curls with the arm in front or behind, and in 24 men cable curls with the arm behind or at the side grew the arm 7 to 9% either way. With light loads and blood flow restriction, 21 trained men grew alike with the arm in front or behind.
In 21 untrained adults, incline curls grew the biceps a little more (22.1% against 18.9%) and preacher curls grew the brachialis and brachioradialis more, with the same total, measured by MRI (magnetic resonance imaging). We could read only the trial's abstract, so treat the details with care.
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In 63 young women, preacher curls grew the lower arm more and incline curls the upper arm. In 38 trained women, only the preacher group's lower site grew, but the groups didn't differ significantly.
Training only the top part of a preacher curl grew the arm less than the bottom part, 3.4% against 8.9% in 32 untrained adults over 5 weeks, and grew the lower biceps less in 19 women.
Across trials and reviews, full-range training grew muscle at least as well as partial reps and built more strength. Half reps at long muscle lengths matched full reps in two recent trials.
Training at longer or shorter average muscle lengths gave similar growth overall in a meta-analysis. The triceps' long head grew far more with overhead work, a clear long-length effect, but that hasn't been shown for the biceps.
In 25 untrained adults over 8 weeks, curls with some swing built as much muscle as strict curls. The chest support makes a set easier to judge, not proven better for growth.
Source 5
In a study of 16 young adults sponsored by the American Council on Exercise (ACE), which wasn't peer reviewed, the concentration curl, with the upper arm braced, drew more biceps and less front-of-shoulder activity than other curls.
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In 10 men, lowering at long elbow-muscle lengths caused more muscle damage than the same work at short lengths. A spider curl's light bottom may mean less soreness than a preacher curl, but that's our inference, not a finding.
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Adding curls to rows or pulldowns added no arm growth in three trials, but curls grew the arm more than rows in 10 men. Count rows and pulldowns as half a biceps set.
Different exercises for the same muscle may spread growth along it, in studies of young men. A spider curl alongside an incline or standing curl is a reasonable mix.
In 585 adults who trained one arm the same way for 12 weeks, biceps size changed by anything from a 2% loss to a 59% gain.
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We found no study that separated the biceps' two heads by shoulder angle, and coaching sources contradict each other: ExRx says the long head works significantly more in a prone incline curl, while other coaching pages say the short head. Both heads cross the shoulder, so neither can be switched off. Small studies show parts of the biceps working differently in different tasks, but none tested this.
No study has measured or changed a "peak". Where the biceps grows along its length varied between studies, about 1 in 10 arms has an extra head, and the same training changed arms from a 2% loss to a 59% gain. How your biceps bunches when you flex is mostly your anatomy; our concentration curl guide gives the same answer.
Choose spider curls for a strict set with the hardest point in the middle of the range, not to shape one head. Build the whole muscle with curls in two or three arm positions.
Both put your arm in front of you, but a barbell preacher curl is hardest near straight arms, while a spider curl should be hardest about halfway and light at the bottom. They haven't been compared; related trials found similar total growth with the hardest point high or low, and with the arm in front or behind. Our preacher curl guide says the same from its side.
Opposite arm positions: in an incline curl your arm hangs behind you, in a spider curl in front. Incline curls grew the biceps a little more than preacher curls in one trial, with the same total, and matched cable curls with the arm in front or behind grew equally.
Both take your trunk out of the lift; the concentration curl braces one arm against your thigh. Neither has been tested against the other, and our concentration curl guide covers it.
A hammer curl changes your grip, not your arm position. A thumbs-up spider curl, the prone incline hammer curl, combines the two; our hammer curl guide compares grips.
A Bayesian curl is a cable curl with your arm behind you. It grew the arm about as much as cable curls with the arm in front.
Source 6
Bent well forward with the working arm hanging (the standing concentration curl), or one arm over the back of an incline bench, a preacher-style curl: 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 12 with each arm, stopping 2 or 3 reps short (their move pages' editorial starting point).
Our standing concentration curl move page. Like a spider curl, the arm hangs straight down; your trunk is held by your hip hinge instead of a bench, so don't swing.
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The movement on the figure: Standing concentration curl
Learn the standing curl first, 2 or 3 sets of 10 to 15 (our bicep curl guide). The dumbbell and EZ-bar spider curls, 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 12, stopping 2 or 3 reps short (their move pages' editorial starting point). The incline hammer curl lies back, not chest-down: 2 or 3 sets of 10 to 15 (our editorial starting point). The curl and incline hammer curl move pages give no dose.
No 3D demo for these.
The dumbbell spider curl with your thumbs pointing up. Teach it with the dumbbell demo.
Chest on an incline bench facing a low pulley, curling a bar or rope. The cable keeps some load at the bottom.
The same lift with one dumbbell, your free hand steadying you on the bench.
A controlled standing curl, then the dumbbell spider curl, then the EZ-bar version (editorial).
2 to 3 sets of 8 to 12, stopping 2 or 3 reps short: the move pages' dose, their editorial starting point. The last set can go to 0 to 2 reps short, as our plans allow for small moves; training to failure gave a trivial growth advantage at most across 15 studies.
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2 sets with 3 or 4 reps to spare, lighter than your standing curl. People misjudge the reps they have left by about one.
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60 to 90 seconds, as our plans give for curls.
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Once or twice a week, counted towards about 10 or more hard biceps sets a week, with each set of rows or pulldowns as half a set. A coaching library's sets of 6 to 15 reps fit the same range.
Add reps until you reach 12 on every set, then take the next dumbbell. Adding reps and adding load both worked as progression, and light, moderate and heavy loads built similar muscle when sets were hard.
For comparison, not as starting points: 5 sets of 10 at 70% of maximum twice a week; 3 to 5 sets of 8 to 12 twice a week; 3 sets of 8 to 12 three times a week.
A few minutes of easy movement, then a light set of curls, as the NHS and our plans advise.
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That's a swing. Go lighter and keep your chest down, as the move pages cue.
Keep your upper arms hanging still; stop when your forearms near upright.
Lower all the way: training only the top part grew the arm less.
Source 11
Pause for a moment at straight arms instead.
Reset it so your upper arms hang straight down.
Start lighter: nothing can help you here.
Incline curls, arm behind you, 3 sets of 10 to 15 (our bicep and pull day B workouts); preacher curls, arm in front and hardest at the bottom, 2 to 3 sets of 10 to 15 (our bicep workout); hammer curls, thumbs up, 2 sets of 10 to 15 (our bicep workout); seated concentration curls, 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 12 with each arm, stopping 2 or 3 reps short (its move page); chin-ups, 3 to 8 reps, a pull that also trains the biceps (our arm workout without weights). Only the concentration curl has a dose on its move page.
Discomfort up to about 3 to 4 out of 10 is fine if it settles within an hour and your elbow is no worse the next morning; otherwise go lighter, not to nothing, as our elbow guides say.
Your shoulder is bent and supported, and the bottom of the curl is light. People with front-of-shoulder pain from incline curls often find arm-in-front curls more comfortable, as our preacher and bicep curl guides say.
Our elbow guides start with curls in the middle of the range before curls from straight arms; see our front-of-elbow pain guide.
Stop the set if your ring and little fingers tingle during curls: at the top of a curl the elbow bends most, which stretches the ulnar nerve. Shorten the top of the range, and see our ulnar nerve guide if it keeps coming back.
A torn biceps tendon at the elbow is rare and usually happens when a sudden load forces a bent elbow straight. A pop with bruising, a gap at the front of the elbow or the biceps bunching up in the upper arm needs an urgent treatment centre or A&E the same day: it's best repaired within the first 2 to 3 weeks.
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After a recent shoulder dislocation, or shoulder or elbow surgery, follow your surgical team's limits first.
No workout uses the spider curl yet. Our bicep workout trains curls with the arm behind, in front and thumbs up: a spider curl can fill its arm-in-front slot instead of the preacher curl, at 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 12 (our suggestion). Pull day B uses the incline curl, the back and biceps and arm workouts have a curl to swap, and the home arm workout has the standing concentration curl, the no-bench relative.
A 30-minute biceps session: an EZ-bar curl, an incline curl, a preacher curl and hammer curls, about 10 hard sets, in the gym or with dumbbells.
30 minIntermediate6 movesA dumbbell, EZ curl barBiceps, triceps and forearms: curls, hammer curls, skull crushers, pushdowns, concentration curls and dips.
35 minBeginner7 movesA dumbbell, A bench or boxPull day B: cable rows, lat pulldowns, one-arm dumbbell rows, reverse flyes, incline curls and back extensions, with sets, reps and rest.
50 minIntermediate10 movesPull-up bar, A cable machineA 55-minute gym session for a split: a pulldown, the T-bar row, a seated cable row and a reverse fly for your back, then two curls for your biceps.
55 minIntermediate11 movesPull-up bar, A bandA 30-minute arm workout at home with dumbbells: curls, hammer curls and concentration curls paired with overhead extensions, close-grip push-ups and kickbacks.
30 minBeginner8 movesA dumbbellEach of these plans has a curl once or twice a week that a spider curl can fill.
A 6-day push/pull/legs plan for experienced lifters: two push, two pull and two leg days, with sets, reps, rest and lighter weeks.
6 training days55 minAdvanced6 days a weekA 6-day Arnold split: chest and back, shoulders and arms, then legs, each twice a week, with paired sets, weekly set counts and shorter 3 and 4-day versions.
6 training days55 minAdvanced5 days a weekThe classic chest, back, legs, shoulders and arms week, built from our gym workouts, with what research says about training each muscle once.
5 training days45 minIntermediateIf you get chest pain or pressure, feel faint or dizzy, are unusually breathless, or your heart races or beats irregularly during exercise, as our plans advise. The American Heart Association says these need immediate medical evaluation.
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For chest pain that comes on suddenly and doesn't go away, feels tight or like squeezing, spreads to your arms, neck, jaw, stomach or back, or comes with sweating, feeling sick, light-headedness or breathlessness; arm pain that comes on suddenly with pressure, heaviness or squeezing across your chest; severe difficulty breathing, or a chest that feels tight or heavy; someone who faints while exercising; palpitations that don't go away, or come with chest pain, shortness of breath or feeling faint; or a headache that starts suddenly and is extremely painful, especially while lifting or straining. The NHS says a bleed on the brain may be more likely when lifting something heavy. Don't drive yourself to A&E.
Ask for an urgent GP appointment or get help from NHS 111 for a headache that's triggered or made worse by coughing, sneezing, bending down or exercising.
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For a pop or snap at the front of the elbow during a lift, with bruising, a gap at the front of the elbow, weakness turning your palm up, or the biceps bunching up in your upper arm: don't wait for it to settle, because a torn biceps tendon is best repaired within the first 2 to 3 weeks. Also for severe arm pain that makes it hard to move your arm, a snap with your arm changing shape, or an arm that tingles or feels numb after an injury. In the US, go to urgent care or the emergency department.
If your arm hurts when you exercise but the pain goes away when you rest; if it's swollen and you have a very high temperature or feel hot, cold or shivery; or if you think you've torn a tendon. In the US, contact your doctor or urgent care.
If elbow or arm pain hasn't gone after a few weeks. For tingling in your ring and little fingers that keeps coming back, see our ulnar nerve guide.
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Very sore, swollen, tight muscles and dark urine after an unusually hard or high-rep session need medical help the same day: it could be rhabdomyolysis, as our elbow pain from pull-ups guide explains. Normal soreness peaks a day or two after a new exercise and fades.
See a GP if you think you have a hernia, a bulge or lump that may get bigger when you strain and smaller when you lie down. Get help from NHS 111 if you have a hernia and pain in or around it, a bloated tummy, you feel or are sick, you're vomiting blood or your vomit looks like coffee grounds, you're constipated, you have a high temperature or feel hot, cold or shivery, or you've suddenly become confused. Call 999 or go to A&E for a femoral hernia (a small lump at the top of your thigh, in your groin) with very bad tummy pain, sickness, being unable to fart or poo, a high temperature or sudden confusion.
The NHS lists lifting heavy weights among the causes of a femoral hernia. After an inguinal hernia repair, avoid heavy lifting or strenuous activity for at least 4 to 6 weeks.
Speak to your GP first if you haven't exercised for some time or have medical conditions or concerns, as the NHS advises. Get advice before hard or straining work if your blood pressure is uncontrolled (140/90 or higher at a clinic, or 135/85 at home), or you have heart disease or chest pain when you're active, a pacemaker or defibrillator, diabetic eye disease, glaucoma, a hernia, recent eye or tummy surgery, or you're pregnant, as our breathing guide lists.
With controlled high blood pressure, the American Heart Association considers low- to moderate-intensity strength training with proper breathing safe: breathe out as you lift.
After a recent shoulder dislocation, or shoulder or elbow surgery, follow your surgical team's limits first.
The range is the same as any curl, and with your arm hanging the bottom is almost unloaded. From the mechanics, the tension is anything but constant.
With your arm in front, your shoulder is bent, which shortens the biceps at the shoulder end. It's the incline curl, arm behind you, that lengthens it there.
Never compared. Related trials found similar total growth with the arm in front or behind, and with the hardest point high or low. Pick by comfort and equipment.
Overstated for the biceps: shoulder angle didn't change growth when the resistance was matched, and longer or shorter average lengths grew muscle alike in a meta-analysis. Lowering all the way still matters.
Curls with some swing built as much muscle as strict ones in one trial. The chest support makes the set honest and easier to judge, not proven better.
Source 5
Lie face down on an incline bench set to about 45 degrees, chest supported and shoulders near the top, and let your arms hang straight down. Curl the dumbbells towards your shoulders without moving your upper arms, then lower slowly all the way to straight arms.
The biceps, the brachialis underneath it and the brachioradialis in your forearm, like any curl. The bench stops your back and shoulders helping.
Both. No study has measured the two heads separately in curls with the arm in different positions, and even coaching sources disagree about which one a spider curl favours. Both heads cross the shoulder, so neither can be switched off.
No study has measured or changed a "peak". How your biceps bunches when you flex depends mostly on your anatomy, and people's arms respond to the same training very differently. Build the whole muscle.
About 45 degrees, with your chest on the pad and your arms hanging straight down. If your arms angle forward or back, adjust the bench or where you lie.
Both put your arm in front of you, but a barbell preacher curl is hardest near straight arms, while a spider curl should be hardest about halfway up and light at the bottom; that's from mechanics, as nobody has measured a spider curl. They haven't been compared, and related curls built similar total muscle.
Opposite arm positions: in an incline curl your arm hangs behind you, in a spider curl in front. Incline curls grew the biceps a little more than preacher curls in one trial, with the same total, and matched cable curls with the arm in front or behind grew equally.
Stand, bend well forward from your hips with your free hand on your thigh, let your working arm hang and curl one dumbbell at a time; or curl one arm over the back of an incline bench. Both have 3D demos on this page.
Lighter than your standing curl, because nothing can help. Pick a weight you can curl 8 to 12 times with your chest on the pad, stopping 2 or 3 reps short.
2 to 3 sets of 8 to 12, the last set 0 to 2 reps short, with 60 to 90 seconds' rest, once or twice a week. Count them towards about 10 hard biceps sets a week, with rows and pulldowns as half sets.
The chest support keeps every rep strict, which makes the set easier to judge. But in one trial curls with some swing built as much muscle as strict ones, so that's not a proven growth advantage.
No more than any curl done with control. Lower to straight arms without bouncing, keep your chest on the bench, and stop for a pop at the front of your elbow, which needs urgent care the same day.
Exercise education, not a personal prescription, and clinical review of these guides is pending. Check with a GP before starting hard training if you have a heart condition, chest pain, dizziness or breathlessness when active, and stop for sharp or increasing pain. Health disclaimer.
