Overhead Cable Curl — Variations, Benefits, Form, and Techniques.

If you feel like you lack width and thickness in your arms, then overhead cable curl is the exercise you should be paying a lot of attention to. 

Overhead cable curls are also known as ‘high cable curls’. It is an excellent exercise that helps you isolate the arm muscles to develop fullness. Now, the biceps are composed of two heads (Long and short), so utilizing exercises that target both effectively is ideal.

Overhead cable curls can be performed with one-arm or two-arms. The biomechanics of the overhead cable curl allows you to specifically target the short head biceps, resulting in epic guns. 

One thing to note here: cable crossover machines are usually narrow, which makes it difficult to enjoy the full range of motion with a two-arm variation. On the other hand, dual cable pulley stations are usually wide enough to perform the two-arms version.  

Before we get into the nut and bolts of the overhead cable curls, it’s worth spending time understanding the proper biomechanics of arms development. Understanding the biomechanics will help you target arms more efficiently.

In This Exercise:

• Target Muscle Group: Biceps Brachii
• Type: Strength
• Mechanics: Isolation
• Equipment: Cable machine, single grip attachment
• Difficulty: Beginner

Anatomy and Function of Biceps

Biceps brachii is composed of two muscle fibers — a long head and a short head. As a beginner, simple dumbbell curls or cable curls are just enough to initiate growth, but as you advance as a more mature lifter, it gets necessary to include exercise that targets both the bicep heads individually.

The primary function of the biceps brachii is to flex the arm at the elbow joint, and the supination of the forearms (rotation of forearms so that palms face upwards). Furthermore, the biceps also plays a vital role in shoulder stabilization.

While you don’t need extensive knowledge of muscle anatomy, you still need some understanding of muscle function if you want to develop absolutely jacked arms. Understanding basic biomechanics can help you train the muscle more efficiently.

A long head helps you develop that sleeve-splitting bicep peak, and short head muscle adds volume to the biceps. It’s almost impossible to completely isolate one head at a time. However, you can always emphasize more on a particular muscle by varying the elbow positioning, grip, and range of motion.

Train for Bicep Peak

The long head bicep is the muscle that casts your bicep peak. It is located laterally (outside) on the arm.

• Exercise selection: Performing exercises where the elbow is positioned behind the torso has been proven effective in emphasizing the long head. Exercises like an incline dumbbell curl, and drag curls, can do wonders to develop a towering peak.
• Grip selection: Choosing a narrow grip will emphasize the long head more. That slight internal rotation of arms while holding the bar with a narrow grip increases the long head bicep activation.

Train For Thickness

The short head is the muscle that develops thickness and fullness for the front-double bicep pose. It is located medially (inside) on the arm. 

• Exercise selection: Performing an exercise where the elbows are positioned in front of the torso will help you emphasize the short head. This is the reason preacher curl helps you develop fullness to the arms.
• Grip selection: Choose a wide grip to emphasize the short head. A wide grip requires a slight external rotation of the arms, focusing more on the short head biceps. When you do the overhead curl — you externally rotate your arms to engage the short head bicep muscle — resulting in broader and thicker arms.
• Range of motion: A study by J M Brown and colleagues stated: Short head appears to be more active in the latter part of the curl, and the long head bicep is more active in the early phase. Meaning: focusing on muscle contraction without fully extending the arms can help with short head development. Exercises like wide-grip seated barbell curl can prove to be quite effective for short head growth. [1] 

How To Do Overhead Cable Curl

Here is how to do the single-arm overhead cable curls.

1. Attach a single grip attachment to the top of the cable pulley.
2. Then, face your left side to the machine and grip the handle.
3. Take a few steps to the right until you can comfortably extend your left arm.
4. Now, perform a curl and squeeze your biceps for a couple of seconds while exhaling.
5. Slowly extend your arm back toward the machine but do not lock out your elbows. Inhale during this portion of the exercise.
6. Repeat the exercise for the ideal number of reps.
7. Then, switch arms to complete the set for your right side.

Form Check

• Train with light to moderate weight to establish a mind-muscle connection and feel the bicep muscles working effectively.
• Do not lock out your elbows during the negative portion of the exercise to keep the biceps under constant tension.

Benefits of Overhead Cable Curl

The overhead cable curl is quite popular among serious bodybuilders because it enhances overall arm thickness and functional strength. Here are a few benefits of performing overhead cable curls:

• Bicep Isolation: Overhead cable curls are an excellent bicep isolation exercise that allows you to work on the short head bicep. Improving the front double-bicep pose.
  As we studied in the bicep anatomy, the short head bicep is more active when you bring your arms in front and with some degree of external rotation. Overhead cable curls perfectly fit the criteria.
• It’s beginner-friendly: No matter your experience with strength training, overhead curl allows you to easily target the short head muscle. Furthermore, training with a cable builds superior mind-muscle connection and better focus on muscle contraction.
• Better muscle pump: A muscle pump is the feeling of blood engorging the muscle, and a temporary increase in muscle size. For someone who loves to chase the muscle pump, overhead cable curl is a godsend exercise. Constant tension and strong mind-muscle connection are the recipes for an improved muscle pump.
• Corrects muscle imbalances: Muscle imbalance occurs when a certain muscle is stronger or weaker than the other muscles, resulting in an increased risk of injuries, misalignment, and poor posture. Overhead cable curl enables to work equally on each arm, thus correcting the imbalance issues.
• Greater mind-muscle connection: It is far easier to focus on the contraction of the bicep muscle — improving the mind-muscle connection and muscle activation.

Common Training Mistakes

There is nothing inherently wrong with any exercise; perhaps it’s just the common mistakes that reduce the efficiency of the exercise. Developing a strong bicep with a towering peak will be much easier if you avoid the following mistakes.

1. Trying to Lift Heavy

Training heavy is suitable for compound exercises and helps you gain strength and muscle mass, but not with pure isolation movements.

Overhead cable curl is an isolation exercise, making it an excellent exercise for muscle pump hunting. However, rookie lifters routinely try to set new PR with the isolation exercises, proving counterproductive to the training. 

2. Not Focusing on Tension

Many people spend too much time and energy tossing weights around. This is the reason they struggle with muscle gains despite gathering great strength. 

For muscle gains, establishing a proper mind-muscle connection is as essential as a good diet — visualize the contraction and lengthening of target muscle fibers. Make sure you focus on the tension around your target muscles, increase the time-under-tension and emphasize the slow eccentric.

3. Training at The Same Rep Range

What is the best rep range for muscle growth? Perhaps you’re mistaken if you are thinking about 8-12 reps.

The body and brain adapt to the stimulus when you train at the same intensity or rep-ranges for a long time, making it critical to shift the training intensity.

Undulate the training intensity between the low reps and high reps. Include drop sets, giant sets, rest-pause, and supersets, to stimulate the muscle fibers for new growth.  

Overhead Cable Curl Variations

Overhead cable curl is great, but that doesn’t mean you always need to do them the same way. Let’s look at the few variations that might come in handy in a time of need.

Before we delve into the variations, it’s important to understand the primary criteria to pass as a legit overhead cable curl variation. Here are a few:

• It should be an isolation exercise.
• Primarily targets the short head of the biceps.

Let’s discuss some amazing variations.

1. Two-Hand Overhead Cable Curl: Kneeling variation

It’s a great variation when you want to train both arms simultaneously. Kneeling variation allows you to target the biceps from a different angle.

Kneeling variation brings the arm into further adduction and will help focus more on the short head muscle contraction. 

Benefits:

• Target the short head biceps.
• It’s helpful when the cable station is not wide enough.

How to do it:

1. Start by attaching a D-handle to the high pulley on either side of a cable station.
2. Stand in the middle of the cable crossover machine.
3. Grab the handles with a neutral grip (palms facing each other), and begin with your arms extended out to the sides.
4. Keep your core engaged and your back straight as you curl your arms towards the head.
5. Hold the contraction for a second before returning to starting position.
6. Repeat for the desired number of reps.

2. Wide Grip Preacher Curl

The preacher curl is a popular arm exercise that has acquired a special spot in almost every arm training program. The preacher curl is a barbell curl variation performed by resting the elbows on an angled bench. It allows you to fix the elbows in one position and prevents cheating.

Preacher curls are available in a wide range of variations, including:

• Dumbbell preacher curls
• Barbell preacher curls
• EZ bar preacher curls
• Reverse preacher curls

But we choose the wide-grip preacher curl because it helps you target the short head.

Benefits:

• Excellent bicep isolation exercise.
• Prevents cheat reps.
• Commonly available in almost every gym.

How to do it:

1. Lean towards the angled pad of the preacher curl bench.
2. Rest your armpits on the upper edge of the pad. Ensure the back of your arms is placed flat on the pad.
3. Extend your arms to grab the loaded bar with a supinated grip, hands wider than shoulder width.
4. Curl the weight up until your forearms get straight to the floor.
5. Make sure your elbows are pointing forward, and your arms are parallel to each other.
6. Slowly bring the barbell back to starting position.
7. Repeat for the desired reps.

3. Lat Pulldown Overhead Curls

What if you don’t have a cable station available? No worries, you can still isolate the biceps using a lat pulldown machine.

Lat pulldown overhead curl is an excellent isolation exercise that helps you develop thickness while improving the quality of peak contraction. Make sure you don’t lean back, keep the torso upright and curl the weight down behind your head.

Benefits

• It allows you to hit the biceps at a unique angle, promoting further muscle engagement.

How to do it:

1. Set the appropriate weight on the lat pulldown machine. Get into a seated position.
2. Grab the bar with an underhand grip, hands at shoulder-width apart.
3. Keep the torso tight and upright.
4. Curl the weight down behind the back.
5. Hold the contraction for a movement before returning to starting position.
6. Repeat for the desired reps.

4. Band High Curls

Don’t have a cable machine? No problem. Band high curls will help you harvest the same benefits as overhead cable curls.

Benefits:

• You don’t need expensive pieces of equipment.
• Perfect for home workouts.
• Bands are versatile pieces of equipment.

How to do it:

1. Anchor the band to the high point.
2. Face your left side to the anchor point and band with a neutral grip, palms facing upward.
3. Take a few steps to the right until you can comfortably extend your left arm.
4. Perform a curl and squeeze your biceps for a movement before returning to starting position.
5. Repeat for the desired reps before switching hands.

5. Inner Bicep Curls

Do inner bicep curls when you have nothing but just dumbbells. It’s an excellent variation that specifically targets the short head. 

Benefits:

• External arm rotation results in better short head engagement.

How to do it:

• Grab a pair of a dumbbell with a supinated grip.
• Retract your scapula, pin your elbows to your sides, and externally rotate your shoulders.
• While keeping the upper arms stationary, exhale and curl the dumbbells.
• Hold the contraction for a moment before slowly returning to starting position.
• Repeat for the desired reps.

6. Seated Barbell Curls

Seated barbell curl is an exercise when you do a barbell curl in a seated position. This variation blocks the full extension of the arm and is an excellent variation that allows you to go heavy.

As we have discussed in the early phase of this article, your short head is more active in the latter part of the curl. This variation allows you to focus better on the short head training.

Benefits:

• Eliminates the sticking point of the standard barbell curl.
• Helps you develop stronger-looking biceps.

How to do it:

1. Adjust your bench so that the backrest is close to vertical. Hold a barbell with a shoulder-width, underhand grip. Sit on the bench and rest the barbell on your thighs.
2. Keeping your back against the backrest, bend your arms and curl the bar to your shoulder level.
3. Lower the bar to the starting position.
4. Repeat for the desired reps.

7. Wide Grip Chin-Up

Chin-up is a compound movement but still one of the best bodyweight movements to work on your arm strength. Gripping the bar with a wide grip allows superior short head engagement. 

Benefits

• Improves the overall pulling strength.
• Boost biceps strength and size.
• Develop a more muscular back.
• It also improves grip and forearm strength.

How to do it:

1. Grab the pull-up bar with an underhand grip.
2. Your hands should be wider than shoulder width.
3. Retract your scapula and pull yourself towards the ceiling until your chin is over the bar.
4. Hold the contraction for a second before lowering yourself to the starting position.
5. Perform as many reps as possible.

How To Program

Overhead cable curl is an accessory movement and is generally included after the so-called ‘primary’ exercises.

Here is how to program it into your routine:

1. Standalone

Overhead cable curl can be used as a standalone exercise to add thickness to the guns. Let’s have a look at a simple bicep training program…

• Dumbbell curls: four sets x 8-12 reps
• Preacher curls: four sets x 10-12 reps
• Overhead cable curls: three sets x 12-15 reps
• Incline curls: three sets x 8-10 reps
• Hammer curls: three sets x 10-12 reps

Rest periods: 60 seconds between sets.

2. Superset

A superset is a training method in which two exercises are performed back-to-back without rest in between. Supersets are used to completely annihilate the muscle fibers by training them from different angles. It also acts as a timesaver. 

Let’s have a look at the bicep training program that includes superset.

• Dumbbell curls: four sets x 8-12 reps
• Hammer curls: three sets x 10-12 reps
• Superset: Incline curls – three sets of 8-12 reps followed by Overhead cable curls – three sets of 8-12 reps

Rest periods: 60-90 seconds between sets and supersets.

3. Workout Finisher

Overhead cable curl can be turned into an excellent workout finisher! Incorporating drop sets is a great way to completely destroy the muscle fibers for growth.

Basically, you train your arms like a regular arm day and finish your workout with the drop set of overhead cable curls. A drop set is a training technique where you perform an exercise till failure, then immediately reduce the weight and perform additional reps to failure again.

Wrapping Up

As a beginner, it’s always easy to gain decent size and definition to the biceps, but progress seems to hit a wall as you reach certain strength levels.

This is where you are required to bring variety to the training routine and target the biceps differently. Emphasizing the individual heads can help you achieve sleeve-ripping bicep gains — overhead cable curl is a perfect exercise to train the short head bicep. 

References:

1. Brown JM, Solomon C, Paton M. Further evidence of functional differentiation within biceps brachii. Electromyogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1993 Jul-Aug;33(5):301-9. PMID: 8404567.

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