If you do preacher curls with a barbell — where it’s hardest when your arm is almost straight — you’ll get stronger specifically at that position better than if you use a cable machine where it’s...

Pro

Against

Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

Community contributions welcome

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

Randomized Controlled Trial

Human

2020 Aug 13

Contradicting (0)

Community contributions welcome

No contradicting evidence found

Gold Standard Evidence Needed

According to GRADE and EBM methodology, here is what ideal scientific evidence would look like to definitively prove or disprove this specific claim, ordered from strongest to weakest evidence.

Source 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

Score: 47

DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17165859

Similar Assertions

If you do preacher curls with a barbell (harder when your arm is straight), you get stronger at keeping your arm slightly bent than if you use a cable machine (harder when your arm is fully bent).

96%

Barbell curls make you slightly stronger when your arm is almost straight, but not enough to matter much in real life — the difference is tiny.

93%

When you do preacher curls for 10 weeks, your strength in the middle and fully bent positions gets better no matter if you use a cable or barbell — the resistance pattern doesn’t make a difference there.

91%

Whether your preacher curls are hardest at the start or end, you still get just as strong in the middle and fully bent positions after 10 weeks.

90%

Whether you do preacher curls with a cable machine (harder when your arm is bent) or a barbell (harder when your arm is straight), your biceps grow about the same amount after 10 weeks of training.

87%