Beyond Body Part Of The Week: Biceps

[hockeybronx]

Okay guys heres week 3: Biceps.

Everybody wants them, most people struggle with the whole overworking/underworking shinanigans.

Post up your top exercises, the amount you work them, tips that have given you improvements, and mistakes that you wouldn't recommend.

The last two weekly threads have gone quite well I think... I've learned something from both of them... lets keep it up this week.

[hockeybronx]

My favorite exercise for biceps:

Combination curls:

Standing upright, using dumbells of appropriate weight, hold one arm in the 90 degree flexed position while doing regular curls with the other arm. Do 6-10 curls and then switch arms.

You work both arms at once, and it uses muscles in your back that have to stabilize your torso.

Good move

[1badPT]

My bicep routine, works all 3 types of muscle fibres

Warmup set - 30% of your starting weight of the next exercise for 20 reps.

Barbell curls (shoulder wide grip) 3 sets 6 reps - failure on 6th rep, explode the weight up, pause for a second or two and lower it slowly, heavy weight, 5 min rests between sets

Dumbbell curls (seated) 2 sets 10 reps - failure on 10th rep, normal pace, medium weight, 3 min rests between sets

EZ-barbell curls (narrow grip) 1 set 20 reps - failure on 20th rep, constant tension (don't stop at top or bottom), light weight.

[Wildcat]

my bicep routine is a little extensive, i dont recommend doing the whole thing, just try out a few of the exercises to change up your routine to what you prefer;

-standing barbell curls 3x11
-sitting alternating dumbell curls (3x6)x2 (each arm)
-two arm preacher curls 3x11
-two arm cable overhead curls 3x11
-seated hammer dumbell curls 3x11

*i never pyramid my weight, i always do the most i can every time, maybe increasing the weight incrementally if it feels to easy at the time. I also do a forearm exercise afterwards.

[civic_rida]

Who thinks biceps shouldnt be trained directly.

I think it they get hit enough workin your back.

[davidI]

Originally posted by civic_rida
Who thinks biceps shouldnt be trained directly.

I think it they get hit enough workin your back.

I've often heard that until you have 16's (or was it 18's....) that you don't need to train them directly.

[gggunit]

21's.. anyone who has done can understand the burn.

7 from bottom 1/2way up
7from 1/2 up
7 all the way.

I finish on 21 after my arm workout. I also find single arm cable curls give an awesome pump.

[tsi_neal]

Originally posted by civic_rida
Who thinks biceps shouldnt be trained directly.

I think it they get hit enough workin your back.

personally i wouldnt believe that for a second... while maybe for gym newbies. but for those of us who have been regulars for a long time your bicepts are going to need their own workout. Personally on my back/shoulder/bi's day the bis are usually the first muscle to recover. But then again it all depends on the individual.

On a given day ill pick 2

over hand curls with an EZ bar 3x8
hammer curls 4x6
curls on an incline bench 4x6 or 3x8

[~Leah~]

Originally posted by civic_rida
Who thinks biceps shouldnt be trained directly.

I think it they get hit enough workin your back.

I'm gonna have to disagree with you there... thats like saying you shouldn't work your triceps cuz they get hit hard enough when you're working your chest.

You're not directly training the muscle, so you won't see very good results.

[DUBBED]

Here's what I do.

Barbell Curl - 4x8
Alternate DB Curls - 3x8-12
Preacher Curl - 3x8
Concentration Curl - 3x10
Crazy 8's - One set.


Crazy 8's are pimp shit to finish a workout. You take a very light BB, say 20 lbs. Do eight reps, then grab the next highest BB and do 8 reps. Continue that until you are doing the most weight you can do without any unnecessary movement. Take a two minute break then start at the weight you finished with, and go back down. I usually do this on cables as it's hard to do this whole set without losing a BB to someone else.

[civic_rida]

This isnt comin from me i read that on another forum n it lots of people on www.bodybuilding.com believe in that.

Think about it if some guy is doin 12 sets each workout on jus biceps and then he does that 3 times a week thats 36 sets . Then he goes n worksout his back and shoulders thats hitting ur biceps too.

overtraining .

[davidI]

civic_rida is right. Lots of pro's suggest not bothering with working biceps directly until you have already gained a lot of mass.

[Wildcat]

Originally posted by civic_rida
This isnt comin from me i read that on another forum n it lots of people on www.bodybuilding.com believe in that.

Think about it if some guy is doin 12 sets each workout on jus biceps and then he does that 3 times a week thats 36 sets . Then he goes n worksout his back and shoulders thats hitting ur biceps too.

overtraining .

try thinking about the movements used as opposed to the muscles being trained. its a kinda hard concept to get your head around but it makes sense. your muscles are composed of thousands of individual muscle fibers that are grouped together to form your bi's, tri's, quads, etc, right?.

anyways, for example in this case; doing isolating bicep movements will exert more pressure on certain muscles fibers that compose the bicep, and isolating back movements will exert more pressure on OTHER fibers that also compose your bicep. same thing applies with delts+traps+back, hams+calves, tris+lats, etc etc.

its not overtraining, if your doing it right your training the complete muscle and getting the best results. i am a firm beleiver in doing isolating movements once a week.

[Marsh]

Originally posted by civic_rida
This isnt comin from me i read that on another forum n it lots of people on www.bodybuilding.com believe in that.

Think about it if some guy is doin 12 sets each workout on jus biceps and then he does that 3 times a week thats 36 sets . Then he goes n worksout his back and shoulders thats hitting ur biceps too.

overtraining .

Yeah that makes sense but nobody does that. its recomended you don't work out your biceps as much as you do your back, Ie your back gets 12 sets, just do like 4-5 sets for your biceps since they did get worked out partially with your back....you don't have to train them as intensely as the larger muscles

[badseed]

I am currently performing these bicep exercises:

-Preacher Curls with EZ curl bar 4 sets 8 reps (4X8)

-Standing alternating DB Hammer curls 4X8

-Concentration Curls - 4 drop sets (ex. 35lbs,30lbs,25lbs,20lbs) with no rest between sets for this exercise.

Usually incorporate some variations every 1.5 - 2 months to avoid plateus.

[pinoyhero]

I switch up my exercises regularly but this was my lasr routine.

EZ bar curls (heavy) 8-7-6
Incline bench curls (massive stretch) 10-8-6
Machine preacher culrs 10-9-8

[1-Bar]

Originally posted by gggunit
21's.. anyone who has done can understand the burn.

7 from bottom 1/2way up
7from 1/2 up
7 all the way.

very good exercise to end off with...

[Wildcat]

crazy 8's sound fun, i might give it a try today

[hockeybronx]

Originally posted by gggunit
21's.. anyone who has done can understand the burn.

7 from bottom 1/2way up
7from 1/2 up
7 all the way.

I finish on 21 after my arm workout. I also find single arm cable curls give an awesome pump.

Originally posted by 1-Bar


very good exercise to end off with...

I'm definetely going to have to give these 21's a try. They seem like something I am always looking for: a little variation to the exercises that I know work.

Thanks guys

[Tyler883]

Here's some ways that I mix up my bicep routines:

I vary the grip: regular grip or thumb beside the pointing finger. try it and you'll notice that it changes the squeeze that you get with your biceps.

I vary my wrist position: straight or curled, I find the curled wrist balls up my biceps more than the straight wrist.

Cable work: Find a cable machine where the pulley height can be changed. Do a set, then raise the pully 6 inches, keep raising until it gets to the top. Then you can even add a few more angles by crouching, sitting or kneeling.

Lower pully: instead of facing it with a 2 handed bar, try turning sideways and using a one handed bar.

Seated on an inclined bench: good stretch for biceps, feels good on the chest when they are feeling tight, too.

tons more, too. Its more a question of variety, than right or wrong.

However, if a good old fashioned standing dumbell curl works for you, then I don't see anything wrong with doing an entire routine with just one exercise( many sets, ofcourse). I sometimes will do 10-12 sets of standing arm curls while on a lunch break at work. and if I get the intensity right, it still hurts the next day.