The Altar of Arm Worship: Machine Preacher Piston Curls

Pressure Cascade · Mechanism

Welcome to the Altar of Arm Worship, where we kneel before the preacher bench and offer our biceps to the iron gods. The Machine Preacher Curl is a beginner bicep exercise that isolates your arms with the kind of religious devotion that would make a monk jealous. The preacher bench — named after a preacher's podium, because nothing says "sermon" like the face you make at the bottom of a heavy curl — pins your upper arms at an angle, eliminating any possibility of cheating.

You sit at the machine with your upper arms draped over the angled pad and your hands gripping the bar or handles. You curl the weight up toward your face, squeezing your biceps at the top like you're trying to bend the bar with sheer arm willpower. Then you lower the weight slowly, fighting the resistance all the way down, because the eccentric portion is where the real growth happens — and also where the real suffering happens, but those two things are the same in fitness. The preacher position provides a unique stretch at the bottom of the curl that targets the long head of the bicep, building that peak that makes your arm look like it has a small mountain on top.

This exercise is beginner-friendly because the machine handles all the stabilization, but the burn is anything but beginner-level. After three sets, your biceps will be so pumped that you'll have trouble bending your arms, which makes washing your hair an adventure but flexing in the mirror extremely satisfying. Kneel at the altar, curl with devotion, and worship at the church of iron arms. Amen.