The biceps has two distinct heads, and each one responds best to slightly different exercises. The long head sits on the outer part of your arm and contributes to the “peak” you see when flexing, while the short head runs along the inner side and adds width. Training both requires varying your shoulder position, grip, and exercise selection rather than simply doing more curls.
Why the Two Heads Respond Differently
Both heads merge into a single tendon at the elbow, but they attach to different parts of the shoulder blade at the top. The long head originates from the top of the shoulder socket via a distinct tendon, while the short head attaches directly to a bony projection on the front of the shoulder blade called the coracoid process. Because they cross the shoulder joint at different angles, changing your arm position relative to your torso shifts which head is stretched more, and a more stretched muscle typically does more of the work during a curl.
This is the core principle: exercises that put your arms behind your body stretch the long head more, while exercises that position your arms in front of your body shift emphasis to the short head. Grip width and wrist rotation add a secondary layer of influence on top of that.
Best Exercises for the Long Head
The long head gets its strongest stimulus when your arms start in a position behind or beside your torso, which lengthens it across the shoulder joint before the curl even begins.
Incline dumbbell curls are the go-to choice. Lying back on a bench set to about 45 degrees lets your arms hang slightly behind you, creating a deep stretch on the long head at the bottom of every rep. The angle also limits your ability to swing the weight, which keeps tension where it belongs. EMG data groups incline curls among the highest activators of the long head.
Wide-grip barbell or cable curls also favor the long head. Taking a grip outside shoulder width externally rotates the shoulder slightly, which places more stretch on the outer head. A straight barbell with a supinated (palms-up) grip produced about 1.8% higher biceps activity during the lifting phase compared to an EZ-bar, though the difference is small enough that either works well.
Drag curls offer another angle. By pulling the bar up along your body with your elbows driving back, you keep the long head under tension throughout the range. These pair well with incline curls because they load the long head at different points in the movement.
Best Exercises for the Short Head
The short head takes over more of the workload when your arm is positioned in front of your body, which shortens the long head and reduces its contribution.
Preacher curls are the clearest short-head biased exercise. Because your upper arm rests on a pad angled in front of you, the shoulder is in a flexed position that slackens the long head. EMG research shows preacher curls result in less long head activation, forcing the short head to pick up more of the load. You can do these with a dumbbell, EZ-bar, or cable attachment.
Concentration curls work on a similar principle. Sitting with your elbow braced against your inner thigh places your arm well in front of your torso. The isolation also removes momentum, which keeps the short head working through the full range.
Cable curls with a narrow or shoulder-width grip from a low pulley hit the short head effectively too. Standing close to the cable stack with your arms slightly in front of your body maintains tension on the inner head, especially at the top of the movement where free weights typically lose resistance.
How Grip and Wrist Position Matter
Your wrist rotation changes which elbow flexors do the most work. A fully supinated grip (palms facing up) produces the highest biceps activation overall, followed by a neutral grip (palms facing each other), then a pronated grip (palms down). This pattern holds during the lifting phase of the curl, though the differences largely disappear during the lowering phase.
Pronated and neutral grips shift work toward the brachioradialis, the thick forearm muscle on the thumb side. EZ-bar curls, which place the wrist in a semi-pronated position, actually produced higher overall activation of both the biceps and brachioradialis compared to straight dumbbell curls in one study. The slight angle may allow people to use better form or generate more force. So while a straight bar with full supination is technically optimal for pure biceps recruitment, an EZ-bar is a close second and often more comfortable on the wrists.
One popular cue is to actively twist the dumbbell outward (supinate harder) at the top of a curl to “squeeze” the biceps more. Research doesn’t support this. Active supination during the curl does not appear to enhance biceps recruitment compared to simply holding a supinated position throughout the rep.
Don’t Forget the Muscle Underneath
The brachialis sits directly beneath the biceps and is actually the most powerful elbow flexor. It doesn’t rotate the forearm at all, so it works hardest during movements where the biceps is at a mechanical disadvantage. Hammer curls (neutral grip) and reverse curls (pronated grip) are the best options for targeting it. A well-developed brachialis pushes the biceps up from below, making the arm look thicker from the front and enhancing the appearance of the peak.
Programming for Both Heads
You don’t need a dozen curl variations to cover both heads. A practical approach is to pick one exercise that emphasizes each head and train them in the same workout or split them across the week. For example, pairing incline dumbbell curls (long head) with preacher curls (short head) covers both heads with just two exercises. Adding a hammer curl for the brachialis rounds things out.
For volume, most people build biceps effectively with 6 to 12 direct sets per week. If your program already includes pulling movements like rows and pulldowns, your biceps are getting indirect work on top of those direct sets, so you can stay toward the lower end. Spreading your direct work across two sessions per week, something like 3 to 6 sets per session, tends to work better than cramming everything into one day. Rep ranges of 6 to 30 all build muscle, but the 8 to 15 range is the most practical sweet spot for curls since very heavy or very light curls tend to feel awkward.
Getting More Out of the Stretched Position
Recent research has reinforced that emphasizing the stretched (lengthened) portion of an exercise matters for growth. A 2025 study on trained lifters compared lengthened partial reps to full range of motion reps for upper body exercises and found similar hypertrophy results for both, with the takeaway being that trainees should emphasize the stretched position either way.
For biceps, this means controlling the bottom of every curl rather than rushing through it. On incline curls, let your arms fully extend and pause briefly before curling. On preacher curls, lower the weight all the way down under control. The bottom of the rep is where the muscle is longest and where the growth stimulus is strongest. If you’re cutting reps short at the bottom to use heavier weight, you’re leaving gains on the table for both heads.