How many people here train back and biceps on the same day?
I am interested in trying this, but am concerned that by the time i am done with my back work my bis will be shot and i wont be able to do much for the isolation work.
Just wondering if those of you who train bis after back have experienced better gains in doing it that way instead of doing bis on a separate day.
While staying about the same body weight, my biceps have gotten larger in the past year or so since I've been doing biceps after back routinely. After a back workout your biceps are very warmed up, but still do one acclimation set before you hit them hard just to get them warmed up through a full range of motion.
I think the trick is to do low volume, high intensity stuff. I usually work back/biceps twice per week but as far as total volume for biceps, I do about 5-6 exercises a week for them. Sometimes as low as 4-5 total sets per week. Technique is extremely important here. Your biceps undergo a lot of positive stress from heavy back work, but where you get that quality biceps training is all in the technique. Form is way more important than poundage, especially with biceps. I'm not saying don't train heavy, but never trade form for more weight.
Here are some of my favorite biceps exercises -
Barbell biceps curls: Pick a weight that will allow you to do at least 6-8 full, quality reps. Grip the bar a little wider than shoulder width so that when you curl the bar, your forearms should be perpindicular to the floor or maybe a bit wider. Keep your wrists straight when you start the curl so that the biceps do as much work as possible; When you curl the wrist at the beginning of a barbell curl, the extra forearms work will be taking away from the biceps.. Curl the bar through a wide arc while keeping the elbow movement to a minimum. At the top of the curl, sqeeze your biceps just so you never let up on that tension in the muscle. Then lower the weight slowly and under control. At the end of my regular set I may do a couple reps of cheat curls where I use a little extra umph to get the bar up (just enough, not a lot), then lower the weight slowly. By doing this, you're using extra muscle to get the bar up but your biceps are still having to work as hard as they can (so even though it's "cheating," you're making the exercise harder for the biceps). That's how you get the most bang for your buck with barbell curls!
Any curl with dumbbells: Start with the wrists facing forward and as you curl the weight up, rotate the wrists so that at the top of the movement you're pinky is trying to go higher than your thumb. With DBs, it's all in that wrist supination. Still keep a wide arc to the curl, squeeze at the top and lower slowly and under control. I espeically like incline DB curls and seated alternating DB curls (with DBs, keep it strict.. Good biceps "isolation.").
Preacher curls: This is a good exercise where you can't really cheat and your biceps are doing a lot of work. But what I really like is one-arm DB preacher curls. This way you work each arm in complete isolation so you can give your full concentration. Also at the end when you can't do any more reps, you can use your free hand to give just a little help to get 1 or 2 more reps. Lower the weight very slowly.
Occassionally throw in some hammer curls, reverse curls or concentration curls as a biceps exercises or maybe some extra forearm work (behind the back barbell wrist curls and DB wrist exentions mostly).
After a biceps (short, intense) biceps workout, supinate/pronate your wrist back and forth until you get a crazy pump in the biceps, then flex them for a little bit. Then stretch them out really well. If you're lean enough, you'll be able to tell a difference in definition from doing this. Flexing some between sets helps as well.
Doing this, I've added about 1/2 inches to my arm in a year while keeping about the same bodyweight (+/- 2-3lbs). And my goal really isn't to bulk up either.
Before this I thought poundage mattered more than it did (for biceps anyway). The only biceps exercise where I really think about poundage is heavy barbell curls.
Anyway, that's what I've been doing and it really works.
