Cross Body Curl

Purpose of Cross Body Curls

The purpose of the (alternating dumbbell) cross body curl is to strengthen, and develop the outermost (away from midline) part of the bicep.

Equipment Needed To Perform Cross-Body Curls

All that is required to perform cross body curls is a pair of matching dumbbells – no bench is required, as it’s not all that practical to try to perform this exercise seated, as your legs would interfere with the cross body motion.

Difficulty of Cross Body Curls

On a scale of 1 to 5, the (alternating dumbbell) cross body curl would rank at a 1. It is a very simple, and basic movement, and because you can only really use one arm at a time, it doesn’t require much extra stability from other areas of the body (at least not by comparison to other exercises which challenge stability to a greater degree).

How to Do Cross-Body Curls

Cross body curls are performed the same way you would perform traditional alternating dumbbell curls, or alternating hammer curls, and are performed standing due to the cross body nature of the lift.

The exercise begins with a dumbbell in each hand, shoulder width stance (or whatever is best for you to remain most stable) with a slight bend in the knee, hands at the side.

For whichever arm you choose to start with, you’ll rotate your thumb towards the midline on the body, and bend your elbow to bring the dumbbell towards the opposite side of the body (the dumbbell should end up in front of your sternum, or opposite pec muscle).

Hold the contraction hard at the end of the range of motion before slowly lowering back to the starting position, and repeating the exact sequence with the other arm. Repeat until reaching the desired number of repetitions.

Key Points When Performing Cross Body Curls

Begin with hands at sides, shoulder width stance, knees slightly bent.
Rotate the thumb of the desired arm towards the midline of the body to facilitate the path in which you wish the dumbbell to travel BEFORE initiating the movement.
Bend arm until dumbbell reaches sternum, or is in front of opposite pec.
Squeeze at the top before slowly lowering to the start position and repeat for the other arm.

How Many Reps When Performing Cross Body Curls

The cross body curl is not an exercise that would be classified as much of a strength builder, as much as it would be a size builder, which is why lighter loads that allow for a greater number of reps to be performed, is ideal.

Generally a good starting point would be to select a weight that allows for 8-12 reps to be performed for each arm – you can scale it up, or down, from there if you choose to.

Try not to stray too far away from the recommended starting point, as it could result in suboptimal results (if the weight is too light, you may not be imposing enough of a demand on the desired musculature, and if too heavy, the desired musculature may not receive the stimulation required because you’ll have to use larger muscles to help “cheat”).

Common Mistakes When Performing Cross-Body Curls

Some of the more common mistakes when performing cross body curls are:

Using too much weight – this is one of the most common mistakes when performing cross body curls, as well as the shoulders (ex. lateral raise), because one can very easily use their lower back and hips to generate momentum through the upper body to help propel the weight up.
Incorrect trajectory – this is not the end of the world, but often times what happens is people fail to actually bring their arm across their body as they curl – the arm remains in the same plane (which is fine, it’s just not a “cross body” curl anymore at that point. Once again, not the end of the world).
Lifting with momentum – many people perform this exercise incorrectly by lifting with momentum which removes the tension from the brachialis and biceps and places it on the anterior deltoids.

Modifications to Cross-Body Curls

The only real modification to the cross-body curl would be to perform a curl in the exact same manner without reaching across the body as you curl. So basically, just a traditional alternating hammer curl.

When to do Cross Body Curls

Depending on your specific goals, the cross-body curl can be used anywhere in a session in which the arms are being trained.

This is more of a goal specific exercise in that, if the outer biceps are an area of priority, you can start with cross-body curls, and if they’re not much of a priority, but you still wish to target that area in an effort to neglect nothing, then you can throw them in at the end.

Alternatives to Cross Body Curls

The alternative that is most consistent with the cross-body action is the low-pulley cable curl with a rope attachment. This allows you to mimic the cross body action by rotating your arms inward, and you can choose to use one arm at a time, or both simultaneously.

Cross Body Curls vs. Low-Pulley Cable Curls with Rope Attachment with Arms Internally Rotated

Both the cross-body curl, and low-pulley cable curl with rope attachment with arms internally rotated come with their specific pro’s and con’s. The cross-body curl is more practical in that all you need are a pair of dumbbells, which are generally easier to come across, as not all facilities may have a low-cable pulley, or rope attachment.

The primary benefit to the low-pulley cable curl with rope attachment and arms internally rotated is that you can use one arm at a time, or both if you wish to.

You can also position your body differently to increase the demand on the biceps at various ranges of motions (which is the primary benefit to any cable based exercise).

Cross Body Curls vs. Alternating Hammer Curls

Cross body curls target primarily the brachialis whereas alternating hammer curls, target primarily the brachioradialis.

If your goal is to target the outer (medial) portion of the upper arm them cross body curls are the exercise of choice, but if your goal is to target the upper forearm (brachioradialis) then alternating hammer curls are ideal.