The biggest mistake beginners make when training arms is believing they need a dozen different curl variations to confuse muscle growth. Forget the muscle illusion. Your biceps aren’t sore – they’re underworked. Growth comes from progressively challenging the muscles, not from inventing new ways to bend dumbbells.
In my previous installment I talked about how biceps grow. I covered the growth equation, the importance of time under tension, why intensity always outweighs volume, and why the often overlooked brachialis muscle deserves just as much attention as the biceps. Now it’s time to put all that knowledge to work.
Remember, your biceps are relatively small muscles. They also assist during almost every heavy back exercise you do. Pull-ups, chin-ups, pulldowns, and rows all recruit the biceps secondarily. By the time the day comes to a close, they have done their part. This means that quality is more important than quantity. These four exercises are more than enough to strengthen your biceps by the time you’re finished.
4 Bicep Exercise Workout for Big Arms
Standing Barbell Curl:
4 sets, 12, 10, 8, 8 reps
Start your workout with standing barbell curls. nothing fancy. Just you, a barbell, and strict form. Forget adding weight, shaking backs or turning exercise into a full-body Olympic event. When working your biceps your elbows should remain close to your sides. If you have an Arm Blaster, now is the time to use it. Perform four progressively heavier sets of 12, 10, 8 and 8 repetitions. The first set is just a warmup. The weight of each set should then increase until the last two repetitions become a real battle.
Seated Alternative Dumbbell Curl:
4 sets, 8-10 reps
Once you’re done with the barbell, move on to alternating seated dumbbell curls. Since the muscles are already warm, there’s no reason to waste energy working back through several light sets. Choose a challenging weight and perform four sets of eight to ten repetitions, focusing on pressing the biceps hard at the top of each repetition before slowly returning the dumbbells under control. Resist the temptation to let gravity do the work. Remember, losing weight is still part of exercise.
Standing Hammer Curl:
1 warmup set, then 4 sets, 8-10 reps
Now it’s time to show the brachialis some respect. Standing hammer curls are one of the fastest ways to add thickness to the upper arm because they emphasize the brachialis located beneath the biceps. As that muscle develops, it literally pushes the biceps upward, making the entire arm appear larger. Perform a light warm-up set followed by four challenging sets of eight to ten repetitions. By now your arms will be questioning every decision you’ve made since walking through the gym doors.
Straight or EZ Bar 21S
If you really want to know what your pain tolerance looks like, it’s time to finish the workout with one of bodybuilding’s oldest and most brutal arm finishers – the 21.
If you were born in the 90’s, you probably think a 21 is an aftermarket wheel. But if you trained in a hardcore gym before health clubs became social clubs, you know exactly what’s going on.
There are no twenty-one primary mass producers. He is a finisher. By the time you reach them, your biceps will already be completely exhausted. Now the goal is to increase the time under tension, deliver as much blood as possible to the muscles and push yourself to the brink of failure.
Load a straight bar or EZ-Curl bar with a weight you can normally curl for about twenty strict repetitions, then remove a little of the weight. You’re supposed to perform twenty-one continuous repetitions divided into three seven-repetition phases.
Start with seven bottom-half repetitions, moving the bar from full extension to about halfway up. Pause briefly at the midpoint before lowering the weight under full control. Without setting the bar down, immediately perform seven top-half repetitions, starting at the midpoint and curling to full contraction, pressing hard into the biceps before lowering to just halfway. Finally, perform seven full-range repetitions from bottom to top, flexing the biceps as hard as possible on each repetition.
If you’ve chosen the weight correctly, your biceps should feel like they’re filled with wet concrete by the time the set is over. If you’re feeling particularly ambitious, rest for about ninety seconds and repeat for three or four more rounds.
21 One of my favorite ways to perform is with a training partner. Stand face to face. When you complete your set, do not rack the bar. Hand it directly to your partner and immediately begin identifying him/her through repetition. As soon as he’s done, he hands the bar back to you. Don’t sit down. Your phone is not being checked. One should not wander around the gym pretending to be fine. Keep working continuously until both of your jobs are completed.
If done correctly, you’ll be hard-pressed to find another biceps exercise that is as mentally exhausting as it is physically. By the last three repetitions of your final set, it should feel as if someone is cutting your arm with a dull chainsaw.
This is a feeling that you will never experience while standing on a BOSU ball.
pick up, retrieve, repeat
Of course, none of this will amount to much if you don’t nourish the muscle you just destroyed. Remember the second part of the growth equation. Training creates motivation. Recovery builds muscle. This means plenty of lean protein, quality complex carbohydrates, healthy fats, hydration and adequate sleep. A quality multivitamin/mineral supplement, add enough protein to aid recovery and, if you enjoy the extra energy and focus, a well-formulated pre-workout can help fuel a productive session.
Most importantly, be patient.
Nobody builds championship-caliber weapons in a month. Building impressive biceps is no different from building an impressive physique. It requires consistency, progressive overload, intelligent nutrition, and enough intensity to convince your body that bigger, stronger arms are no longer optional.
Keep showing.
Keep increasing weight.
Keep chasing one more rep.
Do this long enough, and those biceps will start popping!
