Bomb your Biceps - Big Guns for Summer!

The Biceps has always been the classic show-piece of strength and power. Ever since we were little kids, “Flex your muscles” meant a front biceps pose. Every one of us is looking to have the type of upper arm that attracts attention and stretches out your t-shirt sleeve. Nothing will draw attention as quickly as a big well developed bicep.

Even with all this attention to the upper-arm, a lot of people don’t train their biceps for maximum results. Sometimes it’s too much weight (which leads to cheating and LESS stress on the muscle) or it could be concentration on too small a range of motion. If you want big biceps, you have to train them correctly, and differently that a large muscle (like the legs or chest).

Here are some tips to build some big guns:

Train biceps on the right day, and give them plenty of rest.
If your workout split is push/pull/legs, you will be training your biceps on back day (good!). If you do some other type of split, make sure you give your biceps plenty of rest after back day (at least 48 hours), and at least a couple of days rest before you train your back again. The biceps are a huge contributor in lat pull-downs and barbell rows so make sure you don’t over-train them.

Back to basics.
If you have been doing mostly preacher bench curls, concentration curls or cable work, it is time to stop. Go back to the big 2 basic exercises to renew your bicep growth. 8-10 sets total.

1. BARBELL CURLS
For the bulk of your sets, you want your hands and arms to be at a natural position - elbows a couple of inches from your sides and your hands just about shoulder width apart. Make sure the weight you choose allows you to perform 8-10 full repetitions (not cheating) with continuous motion, never locking the elbows at the bottom and never resting at the top. You can vary your hand grip for one or 2 sets (I like to do a couple of sets with a very close grip at the end of my workout for a great burn).

2. DUMBELL CURLS.
These can be done seated or standing. In the bottom position your palms should be facing your sides, rotate your wrists slowly as you raise the dumbbell so that at the top position your pinkie finger is slightly higher than your thumb. Some people prefer to do dumbbell curls alternating arms, but I prefer to not let one arm rest while the other works. As one arm comes down, the other comes up. You might find this reduces the amount of weight you can handle, but this is about work, not weight.

Over-coming pain and going past failure
To really blast your biceps into growth you have to get over the pain of the burn and work beyond failure. With barbell curls, have a spotter assist you in the positive (up) portion of the repetition, and then execute a slow, controlled negative (down). With dumbbells, you can “run the rack” – once you reach failure with your current weight, move to a lighter dumbbell and get a few more reps (if you are feeling brave, try to “drop” 4 or 5 times – this is guaranteed to burn).

Don’t forget your Triceps!
Big biceps (and big upper arms in general) requires that you have big strong triceps. The triceps make up about 2/3 of the upper arm bulk, and is the bicep antagonist. When you overwork one muscle in an agonist/antagonist pair, you create an imbalance which can lead to injury. Tendon injuries in the elbow can limit your ability to train for months.

Lose some weight
Being ripped makes your arms look bigger. The bicep muscle is relatively small, so having fatty deposits around it make it look even smaller. Plus a veiny ripped bicep tied into the elbow with thick visible ropey tendons is the look that made Arnold famous …

So try following these guidelines for a few months. I am sure you will experience renewed arm growth and a great pump!