This question is a little embarrassing as I have been training in the gym for a few years now, although I have never directly trained biceps.
Most of my bicep growth I attribute to deadlifts and pull-ups.
Anyway I was wondering if some one can guide me/introduce me in how to train biceps directly. Im planning to do 2-3 different bicep exercises at the end of one of my current gym days.
What exercises should I do? Any particular technique? Any tips? I do have some fat grips to use.
My goal is just to add some size over my summer break. Usually I train for strength, but Im just doing this in the off-season to add something different to my training.
I use Vince Gironda’s Body Drag Curls as my primary biceps exercise. They’re working for me, but I still have small arms (I’ve only been training them for 2-ish months). So take that for what it’s worth.
Basically, it’s a barbell bicep curl with the hands slightly wider than shoulder width, and you curl the weight from your quads to your collarbone. The key difference between a regular bicep curl is that you keep the bar in contact with the front of your body the whole time. You want to literally “drag” the bar up and down your body. No need to apply pressure or resistance, it’s the plane of motion that’s important.
While it may not be the “best” exercise, there’s two reasons why it works:
by “dragging” the bar, you prevent yourself from cheating. Regular barbell curls can be less effective by using momentum to swing the bar and/or by leaning in ways that take the pressure off the arms.
by using a barbell and keeping the hands slightly wider than shoulder width, you also train the brachialis and “lower bicep” because of the way your arm is rotated during the motion (this is one of the strengths of straight barbell curls over ez bar curls)
Other highly-recommended exercises (recommended by other people, but not ones that I use):
If you’re going to do those drag curls, try them on a smith machine. I personally like pinwheel curls alot, don’t have to use alot of weight to get the job done.
I use Vince Gironda’s Body Drag Curls as my primary biceps exercise. They’re working for me, but I still have small arms (I’ve only been training them for 2-ish months). So take that for what it’s worth.
Basically, it’s a barbell bicep curl with the hands slightly wider than shoulder width, and you curl the weight from your quads to your collarbone. The key difference between a regular bicep curl is that you keep the bar in contact with the front of your body the whole time. You want to literally “drag” the bar up and down your body. No need to apply pressure or resistance, it’s the plane of motion that’s important.
While it may not be the “best” exercise, there’s two reasons why it works:
by “dragging” the bar, you prevent yourself from cheating. Regular barbell curls can be less effective by using momentum to swing the bar and/or by leaning in ways that take the pressure off the arms.
by using a barbell and keeping the hands slightly wider than shoulder width, you also train the brachialis and “lower bicep” because of the way your arm is rotated during the motion (this is one of the strengths of straight barbell curls over ez bar curls)
Other highly-recommended exercises (recommended by other people, but not ones that I use):
Some tricks I have learned from various articles on this site:
Cock your wrists back on curl variations with supinated holds.
When doing DB curls, dont hold the DB by the center, offset the DB so that torque is put on your forearm to resist the external forearm rotation produced to maintain the supinated grip.
Do slow negatives, use light weights, drop sets, partials ect…
I dont like to train biceps cause I find them so boring. But it has to be done.
There are an absurd number of articles on this site about arm training, especially bicep training.
I use hammer DB curls as my primary bicep exercise. Makes sure to use strict form and those fatgripz will help greatly (so I hear, I have some ordered that should be here in a few days). Remember, you’re working your MUSCLES, not the WEIGHT. As Lorez referred to in a post my zraw.
Seated incline curls, so elbow is behind you
Seated decline curls, just place you chest where your back should go, straddling the incline bench, your elbows will be in front of you.
Seated incline alternating hammer curls, bringing up the brachialis to make the bi pop more.
4 sets of 10 each.
Do everything seated, it’s an isolation movement. I recently got my arms over 17" by doing these moves 2x a week for the last two months. My arms had stalled @ 16.5" until then. And I do no direct tri work, so they aren’t making up for the bi’s in size.
[quote]LoRez wrote:
Also, per zraw in the bb forum: “focus.on.squeezing hard as.fuck”[/quote]
This. Look into John Meadows arm training. For biceps it isn’t about the weight used but how hard you contract with the weight you’re using and how much you feel it in the biceps. meadows also talks about the importance of exercise sequence to avoid injury. That’s important too.
[quote]theBird wrote:
Thanks for all of the advice buddies.
By the looks of things, it looks like alot of you guys work the biceps twice a week. Do you think I can get decent results with just once a week?
tweet[/quote]
Probably not ;(
If they were of decent size you could of course maintain them with once a week, along with various other heavy pulling. But if you want to grow them you just need to put some time into it, prioritize.
[quote]theBird wrote:
Thanks for all of the advice buddies.
By the looks of things, it looks like alot of you guys work the biceps twice a week. Do you think I can get decent results with just once a week?
tweet[/quote]
I would say it depends. If you were planning to have a day where you focus solely on arms during the week instead of just adding a few sets onto your back session then you’d make gains, especially as you haven’t directly trained them before.
I’d suggest having an arm day AND adding 3-4 work sets for biceps after your back session just focusing on a pump.
[quote]theBird wrote:
Thanks for all of the advice buddies.
By the looks of things, it looks like alot of you guys work the biceps twice a week. Do you think I can get decent results with just once a week?
tweet[/quote]
Probably not ;(
If they were of decent size you could of course maintain them with once a week, along with various other heavy pulling. But if you want to grow them you just need to put some time into it, prioritize.
[/quote]
Why would he not be able to see gains through training biceps once a week? If the volume was there I see no issue.
Im only in the gym twice a week at the moment, and Im planning to increase to 3 times a week in the off-season.
I really dont have the time to be training biceps twice a week. Im thinking of adding some bicep work after my overhead pressing work. I suppose I can add a few sets in after my “bench and pull-up” day.
Biceps are most difficult for me so I can tell you what I’ve noticed over the years.
Everyone’s Bi’s are shaped and respond differently. — Mine I can do every day and they will start to grow soon as I go down to once a week they will shrink again. Twice a week they may still look nice.
Training for a pump can/will be immediate and last for 2-3 days. I say that to say I had to pretty much train them on that third day to keep it. Barbell Curl didn’t work much for me size or strength, but I like them. Preachers with a full stretch and hard top squeeze, I did that exercise and 80% incline hammer curls. Gave my Bi’s pretty good density.
The one time I did get decent results with the least time spent (once a week sometimes twice with 2 minutes spent training). I did something completely random. At the end of my workout I would go to the dumbell rack do sets of 5 non-stop from 5lbs - 70 hammer curls. I would go up then back down. I wouldn’t stop until I couldn’t do anymore take a minute break and finish. I gained about an inch btw june/july.
So when doing dB curls should I lift the 2 dBs together, or should I do one arm at a time? I did them together as I thought this would save me time in the gym.
[quote]theBird wrote:
So when doing dB curls should I lift the 2 dBs together, or should I do one arm at a time? I did them together as I thought this would save me time in the gym.
tweet[/quote]
If you hold both, but alternate you can use a little more weight and focus on the muscle a little better. Or at least I can. But I usually only do it for hammer curls, which are hard for me to “feel”.
