The Zottman curl is a dumbbell curl with a different grip in each direction. You lift with the palms up, turn them over at the top, and lower with the palms down. That turn is the definition: with one grip throughout, it is a different curl.
It is named after George Zottman, a Philadelphia strongman who performed in the late 1800s. Alan Calvert, who knew him, credited him with inventing it in Super Strength (1924) and called it the very best forearm exercise. Brolic lists it as Zottman Curl (Dumbbell).
Muscles worked
Brolic tags the biceps as primary and the forearms as secondary. The lift is an ordinary curl: the biceps brachii bends the elbow and turns the palm up, and the brachialis and brachioradialis bend the elbow with it.
The usual explanation for the palms-down lowering is that it puts the biceps at a mechanical disadvantage, so the brachioradialis and the back of the forearm take more of the work. Measurements support that only in part. One study of slow elbow bends found the brachioradialis contributing more with the palm down. Another, of bodybuilders curling with one grip throughout, found the biceps more active palms-up on the way up but no difference on the way down. No study we could find has measured the Zottman curl itself.
Set it up
- Stand upright with a dumbbell in each hand, arms straight and elbows close to your sides.
- Pick a starting grip and keep it. Some coaches start with the palms facing forward; others start with the palms facing the thighs and turn them up as the curl begins.
- Go lighter than your normal curl. The palms-down lowering limits the load. Men’s Health suggests dumbbells 10 to 15 lb (about 4.5 to 7 kg) lighter than your normal curl, for eight to ten reps; Jeff Cavaliere’s rule of thumb is about 60 to 70% of your usual curl.
Both are starting points for learning the movement. If you cannot control the lowering on every rep, go lighter.
Perform the curl
Curl with the palms up. Bring the dumbbells to about shoulder height, upper arms still and elbows by your sides.
Turn the palms down at the top. Pause for a moment, then rotate the forearms until the palms face the floor. Only the forearms move. If the elbows flare outward as you turn, turn the hands a little less.
Lower slowly with the palms down. The coaches cited here ask for two to five seconds. Keep the wrists straight, lower until the arms are straight, then turn the hands back to your starting grip.
Keep the torso upright; do not lean back to start the curl.
How it differs from a hammer curl and a reverse curl
| Exercise | Grip on the way up | Grip on the way down |
|---|---|---|
| Standard dumbbell curl | Palms up | Palms up |
| Hammer curl | Palms facing each other | Palms facing each other |
| Reverse curl | Palms down | Palms down |
| Zottman curl | Palms up | Palms down |
A Zottman curl is a standard curl on the way up and a reverse curl on the way down. Coaches from Calvert onward have observed that you can curl more palms-up than palms-down, so the forearms lower a weight they might not lift in a reverse curl. The NSCA’s technique column calls this eccentric overload of the forearm muscles and says it may help forearm and grip strength.
Logging
Brolic logs the Zottman curl as a two-arm exercise in reps. Record the weight of one dumbbell, and note what changes the meaning of a rep: standing or seated, both arms together or alternating, and the lowering count. Ten slow reps and ten dropped reps are not the same set. The free workout log has room for those notes, and the weekly set tally will show what your biceps are already getting before you add more.
Common questions
Seated or standing? Standing is how Calvert described it and how most tutorials cited here teach it. Sitting makes the weight harder to swing: the Men’s Health demonstration suggests it if you start cheating, and Cavaliere suggests it while you learn the rotation. Nothing establishes that either builds more muscle.
Both arms together or alternating? Calvert described the arms alternating, one dumbbell rising as the other lowered. Current written instructions usually move both together. Either works; log which.
Should it replace my curls and reverse curls? Nothing establishes that it builds more muscle than doing them separately; we found no trial comparing them. The palms-down half caps the load, so the palms-up half is lighter than your normal curl. Cavaliere’s guide points to a strict dumbbell curl when the goal is more weight on the biceps.
My wrists or elbows hurt with the palms down. Turn the hands less, shorten the range or use lighter dumbbells. If it still hurts, stop; pain is not a cue to work through.
Sources and method
- Alan Calvert, Super Strength (1924), chapter 17 — credits Zottman with inventing the exercise and describes the original alternating version; a transcription.
- Alan Calvert, “Zottman—Giant of Strength at 57”, Strength (1924) — Zottman’s Philadelphia background and stage career; a Stark Center scan.
- Don Melrose, “Exercise Technique: The Zottman Curl”, Strength & Conditioning Journal (2014) — the NSCA column; abstract only.
- Men’s Health (2025), with Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S. — neutral start, lowering count and load suggestion.
- Jeff Cavaliere, MSPT, CSCS (ATHLEAN-X, 2025) — palms-forward start, the 60 to 70% rule of thumb and the seated option.
- BarBend (2024) — the hammer curl and reverse curl definitions.
- Buff Dudes Workouts and Men’s Health — the demonstrations above and their elbow-flare, upright-torso and seated cues.
- Coratella et al. (2023) and Kleiber et al. (2015) — muscle activity with fixed grips, not in the Zottman curl.
- Brolic catalog version 2026-09-22.1 — name, logging mode and muscle tags.
Load and tempo figures are coaching starting points, not optima established by a trial, and no comparative growth claim is made against other curls.
