If you're a guy new to lifting, doing bicep curls with your arms in front of you or behind you gives your brachialis muscle (a hidden arm muscle) about the same growth — around 8–10% after 10 weeks. It doesn’t matter much where your shoulders are, as long as the resistance feels the same.

47

Pro

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Against

Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

47

Community contributions welcome

47

Comparison Between Shoulder Flexed and Extended Positions in Elbow Flexion Resistance Training on Regional Hypertrophy and Maximum Strength: Preacher versus Bayesian Cable Curls

Randomized Controlled Trial

Human

2025 Apr

The study found that curling with the shoulder bent or straight led to similar gains in the brachialis muscle, just like the claim says.

Contradicting (0)

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

Comparison Between Shoulder Flexed and Extended Positions in Elbow Flexion Resistance Training on Regional Hypertrophy and Maximum Strength: Preacher versus Bayesian Cable Curls

Score: 47

DOI: 10.1002/ejsc.12279

Similar Assertions

Doing bicep curls with your arm in front of your body or behind your body gives you the same muscle growth and strength gains if you're using the same amount of weight and doing the same number of reps.

54

0

90%

The muscle underneath your bicep gets just as strong and big whether you curl with your arm in front or behind you.

54

0

89%

If you're a guy new to lifting, doing bicep curls with your arms in front of you or behind you doesn’t really make a difference in how much your biceps grow — both ways work about the same.

47

0

87%

For guys new to lifting, doing bicep curls with your arms in front of your body works just as well for building arm muscle as doing them with your arms behind you — both give about the same 6% to 9% growth in 10 weeks.

47

0

87%

If you're new to lifting and do cable curls the same way each time, it doesn't really matter whether your arms are stretched far back or in a neutral position — your biceps will grow about the same amount after 10 weeks.

60

0

83%