What you'll gain
Holds the biceps under load at a long muscle length where free weight curls go slack.
Constant cable tension across the whole range, including the bottom of the rep.
Unilateral loading exposes and evens out side to side differences.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- 1
Set a single handle on the lowest pulley and select a light weight.
- 2
Face away from the stack and take the handle with your palm forward.
- 3
Step forward until the cable is taut and your working elbow sits behind your ribs.
- 4
Brace your abs and lean slightly forward in a split stance.
- 5
Bend the elbow to curl the handle toward your shoulder without letting the elbow move forward.
- 6
Lower under control back into the stretch, finish the set, then swap arms.
Common Mistakes
Not stepping far enough from the stack, so the arm never gets behind the body and the stretch is lost.
Letting the elbow drift forward, which turns the lift into an ordinary cable curl.
Loading too heavy, so the shoulder and torso swing the handle up instead of the biceps.
Standing square to the cable, which drags the wire across the wrist and cuts the range short.
About This Exercise
The Bayesian curl turns your back to a low pulley and keeps the working elbow just behind your ribs for the whole set. With the shoulder in extension the biceps sits at a long muscle length while the cable pulls from behind, so tension never disappears at the bottom the way it does with a dumbbell. You step forward, lean slightly, and bend the elbow without letting it travel forward. A ten week trial that trained one arm this way and the other with preacher curls found similar biceps and brachialis growth, so treat it as a stretch biased option rather than a superior one. As an asset this covers the lengthened position cable curl most libraries lack. It suits arm specialization blocks, cable-only program tracks, and educational content comparing shoulder position across curl variations.
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Bayesian Curl
Single arm cable curl performed with the elbow held behind the torso so the biceps stay loaded in the stretch.
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Choose a focused 104-exercise pack or unlock all 412, with commercial licensing included.
Specifications
Built for
- Stretch-position biceps slot in an arm specialization block.
- Cable-only program tracks for machine equipped gyms.
- Educational content comparing curl positions and shoulder angle.
- Biceps filtered library entries in an exercise browser.
Muscles Worked
Details
License Includes
Cable Bar Curl
$4.99A two-handed cable curl using a straight bar attachment that hammers the biceps with constant tension from bottom to top.
Cable Rope Hammer Curl
$4.99Standing cable curl on a rope with a neutral grip that loads the biceps, brachialis and forearms together.
Band Curl
$4.99A standing biceps curl using a resistance band — same movement pattern as a dumbbell curl, with progressive tension through the rep.
Barbell Curl
$4.99The original biceps builder — a standing two-handed curl that loads both arms heavy and trains pure elbow flexion strength.
Barbell Drag Curl
$4.99A barbell curl variation that drags the bar up the torso, pulling the elbows back to bias the long head of the biceps.
Close-Grip Barbell Curl
$4.99Standing barbell curl with the hands set inside shoulder width, shifting emphasis toward the outer biceps.