The Claim

In young, untrained adults, resistance training with cable or barbell preacher curls improves elbow flexion strength across joint angles of 20°, 60°, and 100°, demonstrating that full-range resistance training produces broad strength adaptations irrespective of torque distribution.

Source: Placing Greater Torque at Shorter or Longer Muscle Lengths? Effects of Cable vs. Barbell Preacher Curl Training on Muscular Strength and Hypertrophy in Young Adults

What the research says

Supports is higher

Support is ahead, but a single strong opposing study can change this.

Supports
60score
Challenges
0score

These are independent scores, not a percentage. Higher-grade studies count more, so a single strong opposing study can outweigh several weaker ones.

Cause and effect
1 study reviewed
In plain English

Young adults who have not trained before will gain more strength in their elbow flexors across all tested joint angles after performing preacher curls with either cables or barbells, showing that full-range resistance training builds strength uniformly.

See the scientific wording

In young, untrained adults, training with either cable or barbell preacher curls improves elbow flexion strength across all tested joint angles (20°, 60°, and 100°), indicating that resistance training with a full range of motion produces broad strength adaptations regardless of torque distribution.

Why this might work

When you move your elbow through its full range while lifting weights, the muscle stretches and contracts fully, which sends strong signals to the brain about how hard to contract at each position. This trains the nervous system to recruit more muscle fibers at every angle, making you stronger everywhere, not just where the weight feels heaviest.

Verified mechanismbased on 1 study

What the research says

1 study
  1. Study: Placing Greater Torque at Shorter or Longer Muscle Lengths? Effects of Cable vs. Barbell Preacher Curl Training on Muscular Strength and Hypertrophy in Young Adults

    Whether you use a cable machine or a barbell for preacher curls, both ways made people stronger at every elbow position—fully straight, halfway bent, and fully bent—because moving through the full range of motion trains the muscle everywhere it can stretch and contract.

Score breakdown, mechanism chain, raw evidence, ideal studies needed & 1 supporting studies

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