Bayesian Curl
Single arm cable curl performed with the elbow held behind the torso so the biceps stay loaded in the stretch.
How to do it
- Set a single handle on the lowest pulley and select a light weight.
- Face away from the stack and take the handle with your palm forward.
- Step forward until the cable is taut and your working elbow sits behind your ribs.
- Brace your abs and lean slightly forward in a split stance.
- Bend the elbow to curl the handle toward your shoulder without letting the elbow move forward.
- Lower under control back into the stretch, finish the set, then swap arms.
Key technique cue
Keep the elbow behind your torso — don't let it drift forward.
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.
Benefits
- ✓ 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.
Progression: from easier to harder
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Step 1 You are here - Bayesian Curl
- Dumbbell Incline Curl
About the 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.
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