 Arnold Biceps |
Biceps. The ultimate show muscle. From age 10 on, every boy, teenager, and man want to have bulging biceps. This is, apparently, a true sign of manliness and strength.
Biceps are among the most famous muscles in the body. When somebody asks you to “make a muscle” or “flex”, they aren’t asking you to flex your hamstrings. They want to see your biceps!
This whole notion of flexing the biceps as a measure of anything, is completely ludicrous to me, but it is a reality. When someone asks me to flex, I ask them if they’d much rather discuss max effort PRs, perhaps dynamic powerlifting strategies, or better yet how to put together the most effective HIIT complexes. Most folks walk away thus. But I digress…
How to Get Big Ass Arms
Of course, to have big arms one must work the triceps twice as hard as the biceps. For this, you may refer to my post on the top 5 best triceps exercises.
The next thing you should know, is that compound back exercises build biceps mass best. Sure, you can perform isolated curls until the cows come home, but chances are if you are just curling, your biceps aren’t growing. For this, you may refer to my post on the top 5 best back exercises.
Now we must examine how the biceps work so that we can better target them for growth.
Anatomy of the Bicep
The biceps brachii is attached to a forearm bone called the radius and originates at the scapula in two places. In fact the bicep gets its name from this two headed structure; we refer to it as the long head and the short head of the biceps.
The biceps brachii runs down the front, or anterior, side of the humerus and makes up approximately 1/3 of the muscle mass of the upper arm. As I mentioned before, the 3 standards heads of the tricep make up the other 2/3 of your upper arm mass.
Two additional parts of the bicep are called brachialis and brachioradialis. These are a little muscles on the outside of the bicep that contribute to elbow flexion. Typically there is no need to train these specifically, unless you are a bodybuilder.
 Biceps Anatomy |
Functions of the Bicep
The primary function of the bicep muscle is to flex the elbow, which moves the forearm towards the shoulder. The explains the standard bicep “curl”.
The secondary function of the bicep is supination of the forearm, which means turning the hand from a palms-down position to a palms-up position. This is why a a rotational type of curl is always good to add to your bicep training arsenal.
The Top 5 Best Biceps Exercises
I thought about avoiding all compound exercises that exist in the top 5 best exercises for any other muscle group. But I can’t. The reality is that the top 5 best biceps exercises include a form of rowing and a form of chin-up/pull-down. Therefore I will present the top 3 best direct biceps exercises and the top 2 compound exercises that you should use if you want big biceps.
Never should your workout program contain an ‘arm day’ where you focus only on biceps. There’s no need to do more than two biceps exercises in any given workout, and those two exercises better be two totally different movements.
- Standing barbell curl
If there was ever a ‘compound biceps exercise’, this would be it. This is the only direct bicep exercise that you can just pile weight on and use all the muscle of the biceps and forearms to get the weight up. Standing barbell curls are the only must-use exercise if you want tank arms.To set up: load a standard 45 lb barbell with some weights, and pick it up. Your hands should be supinated (palms up), about shoulder width apart. Arms should hang down beside/in front of your body, the bar in front of your hips. Tuck your elbows into your sides and DON’T move them throughout the exercise.
To curl: keeping your elbows tucked in place at your sides, curl the bar up to your chin, but not so far that your forearms are perpendicular to the floor. Always keep tension on the biceps throughout the motion. Do not let the biceps relax at the bottom of the rep, but also don’t bounce the bar off your hips or quads in order to start the next rep. Keep tension on the biceps.
Variations: wide grip, medium grip, narrow grip; standing ez curls with a 20-25 lb ez curl bar. Do reverse curl to work your forearms.
I don’t know what kind of a bar this girl is using, but does it really matter?
- Alternating rotating dumbbell curl
This is a simple exercise, that feels natural in its plane of motion. By alternating, you can focus maximal intensity on each arm separately.To set up: grab two dumbbells and hold them down at your sides, arms straight, palms facing your body. Again, keep your elbows tucked into your sides as soon as you start curling.
To curl: start the movement with a hammer curl, then as the dumbbell clears your body, begin to rotate it so that at the end of the movement, your palms are facing your head. Once you lower the dumbbell back to the starting position, start curling with the next arm.
Cheat Principles
Here is an example, but this guy is definitely swaying and cheating. I couldn’t really find a good video for standing alternating bicep curls. Basically take this principle and instead of swaying, keep your elbows locked at your sides and just stand still while you curl.
When you get to the last rep, you may feel free to apply a cheat principle by either swaying a bit or by raising the elbows away from the body, but this should only be on the last rep of the set.
- Hammer curl
The hammer curl is great for developing the forearms, brachialis, and brachioradialis. I’m not sure about you, but I can hammer curl more than I can traditional curl, and lifting more with good form is always better than lifting less.To set up: grab two dumbbells and hold them down at your sides, arms straight, palms facing your body. Keep your elbows tucked into your sides as soon as you start curling.
To hammer curl: you are basically curling the dumbbell up as high as it can go without moving the elbows. Ideally, the flat side of the dumbbell, at the top of the rep, should come close to touching the shoulder of the lifting arm. We call this a hammer curl because it looks like you are swinging a hammer. This means the palms face towards your body throughout the whole exercise.This guy here is doing his hammer curls close to his body. This is one way you can alter the plane of motion in order to lift a bit more weight. Notice how he still keeps his elbows stationary though? That is the point you should away from this vid.
- Supinated bent over rows
OK, now we get into the real biceps mass gainers. When you curl you can use maybe 50-70 lbs dumbbells, or 120-150 lbs on a straight bar, but when you are rowing, you can load the bar up to well over 200 lbs. I personally remember bent over straight bar rows with 265+ lbs back in college.To set up: you will be grabbing the bar with a supinated grip (palms up/away) with your hands about shoulder width apart. You will need to either unrack the bar from a rack or stand, or deadlift the weight into a standing position.
It is important to bent over so that your upper body is close to parallel to the floor, but not so much that your lower back rounds over. By pushing your butt back, you will be able to maintain a stronger core while getting lower to the floor.
To row: the row itself is simply bringing the bar up to touch your abdomen, and lowering it down so that your arms are just short of fully extended. As always, keep your elbows in, as opposed to flared out to the side.
- Close grip chin ups
YES! Biceps mass will be well on its way once you master this exercise. By keeping your hands close together and focusing on your biceps to lift your body, you will be essentially doing bodyweight curls. How much do you weigh? 150? 180? 220? Can you straight bar curl that much? I didn’t think so.There is a big difference between pull ups and chin ups though. While pull ups are good for your arms and back, close grip chin ups bring that whole movement to a whole new bicep-mass-building-level.
To set up: find a straight bar that you can comfortably reach from a standing position. Grip the bar with an underhand/supinated grip (your palms should be facing you). Keep the hands about 4-6 inches apart; they should be right outside your chin on either side.
If you are strong enough to do weighted pull ups or chin ups, add some weight either by crossing your feet and placing a dumbbell between your ankles, or hanging a couple plates from a weighted belt. A weighted belt should have a chain on one end and a loop on the other end, to which you should hook the chain. Put the chain through the hole in the middle of the plates and clasp the chain to the loop. Good stuff.
To chin up: an important aspect of chin ups, is getting your chin up over the bar. While this isn’t a dire necessity, if you don’t at least get your chin up to touch the bar, you can’t call the rep complete.
The girl in the following video has better form than most of the male pull up videos I found on YouTube.
Honorable mentions: pull ups, deadlifts, concentration curls, seated incline curls
To integrate these exercises into a full body workout program, you should choose either #4 or #5 as your main back exercise, and follow it up with any one of the first 3 exercises. This will allow you to lift maximal weight on the compound movement, and burn the biceps out with a direct biceps movement. Even consider breaking up the back and biceps exercise with something else entirely (legs or chest perhaps) in order to give the biceps some additional recovery time.
To integrate these exercises into a training program that splits the body amongest different days, you can do exercise #4 and #5 on back day, and follow it up with any one of the first 3 exercises. I still recommend not using a dedicated bicep day, or an arms day that focuses on the bis.
If you focus too much directly on biceps, you will just be spinning your wheels. They are more of a secondary muscle group, and for them to really grow and get stronger, all the large muscle around them (shoulders, triceps, back, and chest) need to get stronger first.
Related posts:
- How to Get Bigger Biceps
- The Top 5 Best Shoulder Exercises
- The Top 10 Best Abdominal Exercises Part 2
- The Top 10 Best Abdominal Exercises Part 3
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Tags: arms, biceps, weight lifting, weightlifting
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Don’t forget that to have nice biceps, you also need a good back routine. Without a solid back, strong biceps will do no good.
OMG, I am jealous of that girl in the first video! Now I want to be like her!
Till then,
Jean
This is a really great informative post. I really liked the bar the girl was using in the first video. My favorit exercise is the row with about 210lbs.
So true about everybody obsessed with biceps haha. It always amazes me working in a gym to see people spend one whole day on biceps. They don’t listen either!
Good stuff
Altug – Great post Gerry,
Working in a gym environment you are constantly asked to show people ab exercises. 9 times out of 10 when I ask them what there goal is, it’s to lose weight around the stomach.
It’s a shame all of these commercials for ab belts and stuff make people believe that to lose fat they have to work the stomach!
Keep up the good work
Altug – Build Muscle Fast
[...] be done by either sitting on a chair or standing. However, you need a pair of dumb bells to perform bicep exercises at [...]
great site – very helpful.
Not too much needless info like other sites.
Im working out hard and long now (3-4hr sessions) – too long.
Need more quality work..
Thanks!
Thanks for the comments Jadon. Cut those workouts down to 60 minutes tops. For 99% of people, exercising after the 45 minute mark results in a significant decrease in your return on effort.
You don’t know what kind of bar she’s using?? LMAO
She’s also swinging too bad which will result in damaged muscle. It doesn’t matter what kind of bicep exercise you do. Do anything for a given period of time and your muscle will grow. I’ve seen dozens of big muscular guys doing different workouts that result in the same. Big muscles.
That is one wacky bar. It’s an ez curl bar with some kind of rotational doohickies hanging off of it, blah blah blah… Just curl heavy weight and train your back to make your biceps grow. ’nuff said
Lewallen is right. The girl in the first video needs help. She’s throwing the weight up. This is going to hurt her back. She looks like she is in shape but apparently she has not been trained properly. What’s sad is that unqualified people like this are gym trainers all over America.
I knew all of this stuff. Nothing new…
Souf, you should be proud of your vast intelligence.
that girl is hot with great jugs though!
As a fitness professional, I was alarmed by the horrible form displayed in many of these exercises. Especially the hammer curl, the goal of the exercise is to isolate the muscle, if you are using you back as much as he is then that weight is too heavy. Make sure the people doing the exercises are doing them properly.
JT: You are right, some people use far too much body movement to complete their reps. There is a time and place for cheating, at the end of the last set of an exercise, otherwise form should be of top importance.
thanks this was a great help
When I first started working out I was always about how many reps and how much weight should I tackle. After the first year I got to into a routine. I found myself more comfortable with certain exercises and neglecting a lot of the smaller ideal exercises that in the end are the best result for further building the original muscles you set out for. sorry for the long sentence.
We all search the internet to find out what and how to build but if you really want to build it you have to listen to your body.
Great comment Chris, thanks. I totally agree with you.
Just reading the previous post before me I noticed the reply on the body movement and how Steve replied there is a time for that. My own opinion there never is a time for improper body movement. If the individual wants to max out the weight I think they should be stationary.I am sure Steve meant that would be the proper way.
It’s a supra curl bar with revolving handles.
And a double pair of E cups.
how to increase lower biceps (just above the joint or forearm).
RKS: That all depends on your genetic makeup, and where the bicep ties into the radius. There’s no way to target the end of the bicep brachii, as it is all one muscle. I recommend maybe some concentration curls and hammer curls to help fill out your biceps, but that’s the best I can do.
Hi there Steve, great website. I just wanted to ask a question because above you said to some guy to cut down his 3-4 hour workout to 60 mins. The thing is, I do the same, I usually workout 3 to 4 hours and I love it, I’m addicted to the gym, and I dont really want to reduce my workout time, surely I’m not wasting my time? I could be at home sat on the sofa eating a takaway, but instead I’m working out in the gym 4 times a week 3-4 hours a time. I’ve lost around 6 stone over past 2 and a bit years and I’ve gained muscle, I’m in the best shape of my life. Usually when I go to gym I do 45-60 mins cardio and then the remaining 2-3 hours I do weights, but also in that last 2-3 hours I fit in 30 mins for just situps. I have a day of inbetween each workout day, and I usually do triseps & back mondays, legs & shoulders wednesday, chest & biseps friday, and I love my routine, I’ve adapted it over time and modified it and added to it, and when I look at your website, even before I found your website, I was already doing 99% of the things you tell us to do, and I learnt all of this for myself over the years, I’ve never had a trainer or looked at a website for advice untill I found yours a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been working out in the gym since september 2007. So I just want to know what you think about what I do, and if its ok, I’m trying to do the right thing, and I dont really want to cut down my hours in the gym, coz I enjoy it, and I’m serious about what I do, I’m one of the biggest guys in my gym, theres prob 500 members and I’m prob in the top 3, I’m 6 foot 4 and 18 stone, I used to be 24 stone back in september 2007 but I lost the 6 stone with all the cardio I been doing. And even today I still do cardio 4 days a week and weights 4 days a week, I do my cardio before I do the weights on the same 4 workout days I do each week, some people tell me not to, but I feel I workout better on the weights when I do cardio first, I know others do cardio after weights but this is what I prefer. Sorry for typing so much, but I had a lot to say as this is my first post lol. Thanks agin Steve. xxx
SkScotchegg: I’m not quite sure what to tell you. Maybe you are genetically blessed to handle that much volume, but 99.9% of people could not handle it. I’m not going to tell you how to train, but it has been scientifically proven time and again that high intensity training for more than 45 minutes at a time will deliver diminishing returns past that 45 minute limit. That is not do say that most people couldn’t push it to 60-75 minutes with great success, but the law of diminishing returns states that you are better off stopping your workout at 60 minutes in a single session.
Perhaps you would get even better results if your broke your training up into 2-a-days. Workout your upper body in the morning and lower body at night. Or do cardio in the morning and a full body training session at night. This way you can still train for 2 hours a day but your body will be more apt to recover properly from each workout.
I predict that you will eventually plateau from training so much, or that you will end up sick or injured. You should listen to your body and do what it tells you to do, but training for 4 hours a day is going to take a toll on you eventually, even if you are juiced to the gills (using steroids).
A double pair of E cups indeed.
hey steve…my biceps is nt growing up..what i feel it just stuck…. 6 month before it was 16inch and nw its like same…wht shd i do for making them big even i m taking protein powders…
sameer: Increase your chin ups and bent over supinated (palms up) barbell rows to target your biceps directly. Increase your triceps work to balance out the opposite muscle group. Just adding more curls is not the answer.
Thanks for your advice steve, I really appretiate it and I’ll try to take onboard what you’ve said, but I just have one question to ask you so I fully understand what your trying to say…you know when you say about a diminishing return, well are you saying that the time if I spend an hour doing cardio before my weights and then do 2 and a half hours weights that the hour’s cardio makes the time I spend doing the weights pointless?
Coz even thought I say I do 4 hour workouts, only 2 and a half hours of that is on weights, coz I do an hours cardio and 30 mins situps inbetween these days.
Thanks again for your advice and I’ll keep checking to see if you’ve replied.
I hope you dont take anything I’ve said the wrong way, believe me mate, I dont have an attitude and I trust that you know more then I do…..I’m just asking these questions because I really want to understand….
It’s just when I’m in gym I really love my workouts, and I have loads of energy from start to finish, and I’ve seen great progress in my body recently, my legs, back, shoulders, arms and chest all seem to be getting toned up more then ever before and I’ve been losing weight too so I feel like it’s all been working for me, I feel like I’m in the best shape of my life. Seriously a few years ago I was heading for a heart attack and now I’ve turned it all around.
I dont use steroids, I take a protein shake though, I dont believe in steroids, I think they’re dangerous and I’d never touch them.
My friend takes 5 protein shakes a day and 5 meals a day where as I just take one protein shake a day and 2 meals. I was 24 stone, I’m now 18 stone, still trying to lose weight around the stomache but all other body parts are looking better then ever before.
You might think I’m extreem but it’s just the reasons I go to gym a lot is because I was probably heading for an early grave and I want a six pack for the girls lol, I know that sounds sad but the ladies like guys with six packs I think so thats what I’m aiming for.
Hope to hear from you soon mate.
It just seems like you are doing too much. I would never have someone do an hour of cardio then lift. If anything I would have someone lift, then do 30 minutes of cardio. Keep doing whatever works for you, but when progress slows down then you should cut back on volume. In the meantime I guarantee you are not making the most of your time if you are exercising for more than 60 minutes at a time. You’d be better off doing one hour in the morning and one hour at night, if anything.
Thanks for this…a very useful and informative site. I really like the accompanying video demonstrations and the straight to the point approach. Great job.
Dear, Steve Im 14 years old I take creatine and protein I just started working out a week ago and am seeing some results thank you for the straight forward information. Im going to use the bicep information at the gym ( I run 3 miles to the gym and 3 back) then work out for 1 1/2 hours doing bech press and biceps is there anything else i should do to get ripped i would like to have a toned chest and tricep in 1 month in time for my dads wedding i havnt seen my family in a couple years and i want them to think Im crazy strong when they see me thank you
P.S Im not far Im pretty skinny but i am thinking about taking fat burners so i can lose a lot of my fat and start over with muscle
Charles: Are you trolling for conflict or are you serious? If you are serious, I have to ask if you’ve read any of my other posts. Forget about chest and bicep training, and use full body workouts. If you just to chest and bis you are only asking for trouble. Trust me.
a very good website
i just joined gym after 2years of break.
Keep up the good work guys
I like the babe,
shez awesome…
After Reviewing a bunch of the workouts i was wondering if it would be better to do full body workouts rather then separated workouts. Cause i see a lot of exercises that look great that i haven’t tried before and would like to try out. In the past i had always done separated workouts like, chest, bis, shoulders and triceps on monday. Then Tuesday would consist of back, legs and some abs. I’ve always been pretty skinny so i never felt cardio was really a necessary thing in my workouts.
BACK&BICEPS- DAY1
LEGS-DAY2
CHEST,DELTS,TRI-DAY3
ONE OFF AND HIT IT AGAIN (HEAVY DUTY STYLE)
Cool, thank you. I’ll give that a go.
Hey steve
i ahve jus joined up a local gym…and the thing is there aint any proper trainer over here… and am made to do the same set of exercises everyday…and i read sumwhere tht each day diff sets of muscles need to be exercised :-s is it true? and if so wht exercises wud u recommend for a beginner?
cheers
Werewolf Training for Muscle Gains, Werewolf Training for Strength Gains, or Full Body Training for Fat Loss should be used depending on your goals.
thanks a lot!
Steve, i make 5 biceps exercise in 45 min twice a week. Is it good?
No, it’s too much. You need maybe 2 sets of 2 exercises or at most 3 sets of 3 exercises. If you are doing the compound lifts like pull ups, rows, deadlifts, etc… then using 5 exercises twice a week for biceps is over kill and your bis probably won’t grow that well.
Hey there steve I found your website very helpful at distinguishing the muscle exercises for building biceps. I am 16 and I wondered if you could recommend me a workout routine please. My gym is is very modern so I can use any equipment there. I use whey protein supplements and they are giving me the farts…eww. My friend said I must be doing the wrong muscle workouts as I have been foccusing on chest and arms. I can access my gym on week nights or any time during the weekend just not in the morning. My friend also said if I do cardio it would just burn my muscle. Also sorry but should I eat before I work out?. And what is the best timing to drink the protein supplement. I usually put the powder in a bottle and fill it with water during work out. sorry for demanding so much, but your feedback is excellent so