Band hammer curl
A band curl with palms facing each other. Builds the forearm and the muscle beside the biceps, hardest at the top of the curl.
TrainsBiceps
NeedsResistance band
The movement
2 stages
Arms straight
01 Arms straight
Stand on the middle of the band with the elbows pinned and the palms facing your thighs.
02 Squeeze at the top
Curl to the shoulders with the palms still facing each other. The grip never rotates.
How to do it
Setup
- Stand on the middle of a band with your feet hip-width apart, an end in each hand, palms facing your thighs.
- Pin your elbows to your sides and keep your palms facing each other for every rep.
Execution
- Curl your hands toward your shoulders, keeping your palms facing each other the whole way.
- Squeeze hard at the top, where the band pulls hardest.
- Lower slowly to fully straight arms, resisting the band on the way down.
BreathingExhale as you curl, inhale on the way down.
Getting it right
Form cues
- Palms face each other the whole rep, with no rotation.
- Elbows stay pinned to your ribs; only your forearms move.
Common mistakes
- Letting your elbows travel forward at the top, which parks the band over your shoulder and removes the load.
- Letting the band snap your arms back down instead of lowering under control.
- Standing on too little band, so the tension runs out before the top.
Worth knowing
- Check the band for nicks and stand on it squarely. A band that slips out from under your foot travels straight upward.
General guidance, not medical advice. See how Setkit works.
Notes
A neutral grip, palms facing each other, moves curl work onto the muscle sitting underneath the biceps and onto the forearm. On a dumbbell that grip also lets you handle more weight. On a band there is no weight to add, so the grip change shows up as an easier hold on the wrist and elbow rather than as extra load.
The band still does what it always does on a curl. The resistance grows through the rep instead of falling away, so your hands are barely working at the bottom and hardest right at the top. That is the opposite of a dumbbell, and it is exactly the point in the range where a hammer curl’s forearm work matters most.
Lowering slowly is where the set is actually won. A band pulls your hands back down on its own, so a fast, uncontrolled descent trains almost nothing even though the rep still counts. Take three or four seconds on the way down and keep the neutral grip locked the entire time.
If your wrists or elbows ache on a standard band curl, this grip is usually the fix. The forearm never twists under tension, which removes the strain a palms-up grip puts on the inside of the elbow.