something that worked for me (I also had trouble getting bi’s sore) is to take a long rope attachment on cable curls and start with your wrists fully pronated, and as you curl, fully supinate your hands (or try), wrapping the rope around your hands as you go up.
Also, after you get to the point where you can’t do a full rep (this goes for any bi exercise) do at least 8-10 more as partials until your arms can barely move the weight at all.
best rapid arm growth I’ve ever experienced was from 2 consecutive training days
day 1 “Heavy-ass” heavy (as I recall worked up to 275X5 straight bar curls, perfect form of course!
now I’m talkin’ prison pissed off type heavy, total set range around 20 +/-
day 2 Very light with extreme peak contractions, stretching & massaging between sets, total sets again in
the 20 range
worked for me, tickled 23" by following this strategy
[quote]LikeWater wrote:
best rapid arm growth I’ve ever experienced was from 2 consecutive training days
day 1 “Heavy-ass” heavy (as I recall worked up to 275X5 straight bar curls, perfect form of course!
now I’m talkin’ prison pissed off type heavy, total set range around 20 +/-
day 2 Very light with extreme peak contractions, stretching & massaging between sets, total sets again in
the 20 range
worked for me, tickled 23" by following this strategy[/quote]
Consecutive, eh? I’m following basically the same routine right now, only keeping the two days as far apart as possible. Did you do the same for triceps?
basically, although heavy triceps work came primarily from presses
So, two biceps workouts and just one triceps pump session. I might put this to work soon. I have wondered whether using a pump session the day after a heavy session would help recovery.
[quote]LikeWater wrote:
best rapid arm growth I’ve ever experienced was from 2 consecutive training days
day 1 “Heavy-ass” heavy (as I recall worked up to 275X5 straight bar curls, perfect form of course!
now I’m talkin’ prison pissed off type heavy, total set range around 20 +/-
day 2 Very light with extreme peak contractions, stretching & massaging between sets, total sets again in
the 20 range
worked for me, tickled 23" by following this strategy[/quote]
so basically, be able to curl 275 for 5 and your arms will be big!! haha, someday…
one that always kills me is to do a 20 rep set with your 8RM weight. Do it by loading up the weight onto a straight bar and then doing single reps with ~5-7 seconds between reps. Be sure to set the bar down between each rep. It will start off feeling real easy but by about the 16th rep it should be getting killer. End up doing good volume with good weight at a fairly short duration. Can also be done on a preacher curl, which is real painful the last few reps.
[quote]BONEZ217 wrote:
[quote]Cronus wrote:
[quote]BONEZ217 wrote:
The next time you train biceps do 25 sets. Vary the rep ranges. Throw in some super sets. Pick 4 exercises you think work for you and hammer out 5 sets of each. (Im not good at math)
If you dont feel that in your arms the next few days then give up.
If you arent getting a good workout you probably arent doing enough. Doesnt mean you need super high volume for the rest of your life but every now and then you need to make a drastic change to spark some new growth.[/quote]
This will be my next biceps routine, I’ve definitely never gone that high with the sets so I am sure this will give me some serious DOMS.
Usually if i experience any soreness in the arm at all it is either in the forearm itself or right on the crease of the arm along the tendon just below where the bicep inserts.
Appreciate it.[/quote]
That last bit of info is pretty valuable.
Im going to guess that you dont squeeze your arm hard enough when curling the weight.
Fix that by doing this: Do it now or later or tomrorow, just before the next time you train biceps. With no weight in your hand flex your bicep and hold it and squeeze as hard as you can for 30s-1min. Then relax and do it again. Keep doing this until you get a pump in your bicep. Then when you go to the gym do that for a minute or two. Then warm up your arms a bit. Then start the biceps workout. Use weight you can handle and focus on getting the same contraction you got without a weight in your hand.
This is one of the better ways (ive found) to improve mind muscle connection. You can still try the day of very high volume but the mind muscle connection is a more important thing to fix. [/quote]
I saw this tip before, over a month ago from Bonez. It’s great, bicep gets really sore if you squeeze just right, i didn’t even have to change anything.
[quote]LikeWater wrote:
275X5 straight bar curls, perfect form of course![/quote]
what!?! 275x5 on barbell curl? Can that be real?
[quote]gregron wrote:
[quote]LikeWater wrote:
275X5 straight bar curls, perfect form of course![/quote]
what!?! 275x5 on barbell curl? Can that be real?[/quote]
LOLWUT? 275 for 5 no cheating?
I had to do some googling just for kicks, this is the heaviest I came up with:
edit: checked your hub photo likewater, you’re a beast - i’ll shut up now…
Train biceps after back. You need to get your barbell curl numbers up, do a strength rep scheme like 10x3 for your first exercise.
[quote]gregron wrote:
[quote]LikeWater wrote:
275X5 straight bar curls, perfect form of course![/quote]
what!?! 275x5 on barbell curl? Can that be real?[/quote]
Kaz is reputed to have done 440 and would regularly cheat curl 315 for 15!!
304x4:
[quote]Cprimero wrote:
Train biceps after back. You need to get your barbell curl numbers up, do a strength rep scheme like 10x3 for your first exercise.[/quote]
I trained biceps after back for almost the entirety of my training. About a week before I started this thread I started training bi’s on chest day and tri’s on back day, and I have to admit that I feel both muscles MUCH better. It will be interesting to see the results.
Curls for the girls!
I recently switched from BB Curl to Lying Cable Curl.
Amazing tension throughout rom.
Debilitating, delicious soreness for days after!
Iron Dwarf - Fuck I forgot about these!
Pre-activation with bands has worked pretty well for me. Just do some quick band curls (focusing on contracting the biceps as much as possible) immediately before beginning each work set. This even works nicely for bringing in more biceps recruitment on non-isolation movements like chins and rows.
As others have mentioned, focusing on the stretch at the bottom of curling movements also helps, and this is especially noticeable with DB preacher curls.
Thanks Duro. The pre-activation is similar to what someone else was saying about focusing on curling the arm with no weight, and flexing/squeezing it until you get a pump (Bonez i think). I will definitely give it a try.
Retracting the scapula(e) to minimize front delt involvement (unless you’re doing a scott curl variation). Odds are you’re going to have to lower your loads for this, since most people actually use a lot of front delt when doing heavy curls.
Also, when doing db curls, I usually very (!) slightly externally rotate my arm, retract my scapula and curl away. The only way to better stimulate/isolate my biceps is using a scott curl machine.
As an aside:
I see too many people using way too much body english and bad form using classic bb curls. IMHO, it’s harder to isolate the biceps with bb curls than with db curl variations. I regard bb curls more as some sort of forearm and elbow flexor ‘compound’ exercise.
[quote]FattyFat wrote:
Retracting the scapula(e) to minimize front delt involvement (unless you’re doing a scott curl variation). Odds are you’re going to have to lower your loads for this, since most people actually use a lot of front delt when doing heavy curls.
Also, when doing db curls, I usually very (!) slightly externally rotate my arm, retract my scapula and curl away. The only way to better stimulate/isolate my biceps is using a scott curl machine.
As an aside:
I see too many people using way too much body english and bad form using classic bb curls. IMHO, it’s harder to isolate the biceps with bb curls than with db curl variations. I regard bb curls more as some sort of forearm and elbow flexor ‘compound’ exercise.
[/quote]
I follow this exact line of thinking on my biceps ‘pump day’. For my heavy day, it’s all about the heaviest weight I can move, body english and front delt galore, while controlling the negative. I know I’m on the right track when my arms are shaking so bad on the way down that I can hear the plates rattling.
I’m really posting this as more of a question than professing it to be the right way. Anybody have any feedback on doing it this way? Did you find it to be a waste of effort? Or did you see good results?
EDIT: I know LikeWater already posted about going really heavy, but he didn’t really mention body english or anything on the heavy day.