Cross-Body Hammer Curl

Execution

1. Brace your belly and keep the right elbow fixed at your side.
2. Exhale and curl the right dumbbell up and across toward your left shoulder, palm staying turned inward the whole way.
3. Tap the top of the dumbbell lightly on the shoulder and squeeze the biceps for one beat.
4. Inhale and lower back along the same diagonal path over 2-3 seconds to the start.
5. Switch to the left arm curling across to the right shoulder, alternating evenly between sides.

Quick cues

• Curl diagonally to the far shoulder.
• Elbow never leaves your side.
• Tap the shoulder, do not slam it.
• Return along the same diagonal.
• The far shoulder is your target.

Common faults

• Fault: The elbow popping away from the ribs on the diagonal path

  Fix: Pin a towel between the upper arm and ribs and keep it there for the whole set.

• Fault: Rotating the whole shoulder to bring the weight up instead of the forearm

  Fix: Stand next to a mirror and keep the shoulder still, letting only the forearm change direction.

• Fault: Banging the dumbbell hard into the shoulder at the top

  Fix: Slow down through the last third and just set the edge of the dumbbell against the shoulder; if you hear it land, the weight is too heavy.

• Fault: Dropping the weight straight down instead of retracing the diagonal

  Fix: Count three beats on the way down and deliberately trace the weight back to its starting point.