What you'll gain
Trains elbow flexion with a fixed grip width that is easy to repeat session to session.
The narrow grip shifts emphasis toward the outer part of the biceps.
A bar allows small load jumps, so progression is simple to track.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- 1
Load a straight barbell and stand with your feet about hip width apart.
- 2
Take an underhand grip with your hands inside shoulder width.
- 3
Stand tall with the bar at arms length and your elbows at your sides.
- 4
Brace your abs and curl the bar toward your shoulders.
- 5
Squeeze the biceps at the top without letting the elbows travel forward.
- 6
Lower under control, stopping just short of a locked elbow, then repeat.
Common Mistakes
Swinging the hips to start the bar moving, which takes load off the biceps.
Letting the elbows drift back behind the torso, which shortens the working range.
Gripping so narrow that the wrists ache, which limits load before the biceps are trained.
Dropping the bar quickly, which skips the eccentric where much of the stimulus sits.
About This Exercise
The close-grip barbell curl loads a straight bar with the hands narrower than shoulder width and the palms facing up. Narrowing the grip rotates the upper arms slightly outward, and the standard coaching claim is that it biases the outer or long head of the biceps compared with a wide grip. Both heads still work, so treat the difference as a shift in emphasis rather than a separate exercise. Keep the elbows pinned at your sides, stop the chest and hips helping, and hold a small bend at the bottom so tension never fully leaves the arm. As an asset this covers the grip width variation of the barbell curl that libraries usually reduce to a single clip. It fits arm day templates, progressive overload tracks built around a bar, and side by side content on how grip width changes a curl.
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Close-Grip Barbell Curl
Standing barbell curl with the hands set inside shoulder width, shifting emphasis toward the outer biceps.
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Choose a focused 104-exercise pack or unlock all 412, with commercial licensing included.
Specifications
Built for
- Arm day templates in a strength training app.
- Barbell-only program tracks for home gyms.
- Grip width comparison content for coaches.
- Barbell filtered library entries in an exercise browser.
Muscles Worked
Details
License Includes
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.
EZ Bar Preacher Curl
$4.99A strict biceps curl performed on a preacher bench with an EZ bar — pure isolation for the lower half of the bicep.
EZ Bar Reverse Preacher Curl
$4.99A palms-down preacher curl that hits the brachialis, forearms, and bicep together — an underused arm-day finisher.
Wide-Grip Barbell Curl
$4.99A standing barbell curl with the hands set wider than the shoulders, shifting emphasis toward the inner biceps.
Band Curl
$4.99A standing biceps curl using a resistance band — same movement pattern as a dumbbell curl, with progressive tension through the rep.