hitting the biceps better
- Thread starter hog928
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Ironloo
Guest
weighted close grip pull ups 6-12 reps, close grip ez curl bar curls heavy 12 reps, close grip body weight rows one handed also, and close grip cheat curls heavy and lower it slowly. hope these help little odd but all work.
Type O Hero
Banned
Do your biceps work after a good back workout. Here's my total back/biceps routine. Works wonders for me.
After warming up...
Pull-ups x 4-5 sets to positive failure, FULL RANGE OF MOTION (sometimes with weights)
Bent-over Underhanded Barbell Rows x 4 sets of 10-12, 8-10, 6-8, 4-6.. Pull the barbell straight up into your gut the same way you'd normally do rows.
Occasionally I do deadlifts. After warming up, I may do 3 x 8, 5, 3
For biceps... Do 1 set of warm ups
Barbell or Curl Bar Curls 1 set x 8-10 (slow negatives)
Incline DB Curls 1 set x 6-10.. Start with palms facing each other and as you curl the weight, rotate your wrist so that at the peak of the movement your pinky finger is trying to go higher than your thumb... Squeeze here, lower under control, repeat.
Lying Curls 1 set x 6-10.. Just lay flat on a bench with your head up, you get a really good stretch. Search images for this exercise if you need to.
Preacher Curls with bar or dumbbells 1 set x 8-10.. Full range of motion
So I'm doing four working sets for biceps, which is about the right number for me. I may start doing one less set actually. I swap up the exercises I do. The whole point is to do multiple exercises. I usually always include at least bar curls (for maximum poundage) or incline curls (great range of motion). Other good exercises to substitute are standing DB curls and chin-ups. Or instead of this I may do 2 sets of reverse bar curls, then 2 biceps-specific exercises.
Flex hard for 1 minute after you're done, then stretch them out really well.
The underhand bent rows have been doing a lot for me lately. Give those a try!
After warming up...
Pull-ups x 4-5 sets to positive failure, FULL RANGE OF MOTION (sometimes with weights)
Bent-over Underhanded Barbell Rows x 4 sets of 10-12, 8-10, 6-8, 4-6.. Pull the barbell straight up into your gut the same way you'd normally do rows.
Occasionally I do deadlifts. After warming up, I may do 3 x 8, 5, 3
For biceps... Do 1 set of warm ups
Barbell or Curl Bar Curls 1 set x 8-10 (slow negatives)
Incline DB Curls 1 set x 6-10.. Start with palms facing each other and as you curl the weight, rotate your wrist so that at the peak of the movement your pinky finger is trying to go higher than your thumb... Squeeze here, lower under control, repeat.
Lying Curls 1 set x 6-10.. Just lay flat on a bench with your head up, you get a really good stretch. Search images for this exercise if you need to.
Preacher Curls with bar or dumbbells 1 set x 8-10.. Full range of motion
So I'm doing four working sets for biceps, which is about the right number for me. I may start doing one less set actually. I swap up the exercises I do. The whole point is to do multiple exercises. I usually always include at least bar curls (for maximum poundage) or incline curls (great range of motion). Other good exercises to substitute are standing DB curls and chin-ups. Or instead of this I may do 2 sets of reverse bar curls, then 2 biceps-specific exercises.
Flex hard for 1 minute after you're done, then stretch them out really well.
The underhand bent rows have been doing a lot for me lately. Give those a try!
kingk0ng
Active member
Gaining weight is a top priority for adding inches to your biceps.
Focus on both arm flexions and extensions; I say this because flexions are needed to develop biceps and extensions are needed to create balance at the elbow joint.
Pullups, barbell rows, heavy deadlifts, and some curl variations.
I would not recommend supinated grip barbell rows. For one, they can lead to bicep tears and for two, they take out the scapular retraction from the lift that simulates the retractors and external rotators of the shoulder.
Alternate between your chinups and pullups. I'm a huge fan of ending each workout with chinups or pullups and alternating each session. A good routine for you would look like this:
Workout 1_
___Squat
___Bench
___BB Row
___Chins
___Core
Workout 2_
___Squat
___OHP
___Deadlift
___Shrugs
___Pullups
___Grip
Workout 3_
___Squat
___BB Row
___Chinup
___BB Curl
___Close Grip Bench Press
___Planks
brownstown89
Well-known member
dont you think that back workout should be opposite? heavy deads, moderate weight rows. and BW pullups?
broninoTX
New member
Try out everything and see what works for you. From experience I would say do NOT do biceps on the same day or the day after a back workout because you biceps are used in almost every back exercise i can imagine. I suggest you focus on what angles and exercises you use and figure out which movements work which muscles. (I would save any row movements for back days just because they fit in better that way)
Here are some tips:
-facing your palms up will work the insides and bottoms of your biceps and give you a hell of a pump. Facing your palms inside will work the outside of your biceps.
-squeeze and hold at the top of the rep, which I find should be when the dumbbell is at elbow height and your forearm is parallel to the ground (any higher than this takes pressure off the muscle your trying to hit)
-try DB curls sitting on an incline
-don't worry about using the heavy-ass weights for biceps, make sure you can keep your elbow stationary
-at the end of your workout it never hurts to pick up an empty bar or light dumbbells and just curl till you can't anymore to pump the **** out of your biceps
...Try this next time and I bet you won't be able to scratch your nose after.
Here are some tips:
-facing your palms up will work the insides and bottoms of your biceps and give you a hell of a pump. Facing your palms inside will work the outside of your biceps.
-squeeze and hold at the top of the rep, which I find should be when the dumbbell is at elbow height and your forearm is parallel to the ground (any higher than this takes pressure off the muscle your trying to hit)
-try DB curls sitting on an incline
-don't worry about using the heavy-ass weights for biceps, make sure you can keep your elbow stationary
-at the end of your workout it never hurts to pick up an empty bar or light dumbbells and just curl till you can't anymore to pump the **** out of your biceps
...Try this next time and I bet you won't be able to scratch your nose after.
kingk0ng
Active member
No. I agree with how he has it laid out.
Heavy deadlifts and then bodyweight pullups can be counterproductive. A person with a weak grip will cause his grip to fail on his pullups before his lats.
Weighted Pullups or Chinups
Barbell Rows
Deadlifts
That's exactly how I lay it out as well. The deadlifts being ramping sets. They are the most taxing exercise, so I do them last. The isometric posterior chain contraction during a row can act as a warm up set or stretch the glutes before your deadlifts and can be beneficial.
Type O Hero
Banned
I've tried doing deadlifts in the past at the beginning of my workout but have found that I get more out of them if I do them towards the end. After an initial warm up, a pulldown exercise and a rowing exercise (or vise versa), I'm thoroughly warmed up for deadlifts. After doing pull-ups and heavy rows, your CNS should be very much warmed up (also make sure to warm up your muscles and CNS before your workout). Still you want to really warm up the muscles you'd be using in the deadlift, followed by a couple warm up sets to get those muscles used to heavy work. The amount of weight I can use at the end of a workout isn't drastically lower than what it would be at the beginning and it doesn't hurt the intensity of my other lifts. If I did deadlifts first, the rest of my workout would suffer somewhat. That's how I work anyway...