What are Muscle-Building Workouts?
In a world that is constantly changing, there are not many things that are universally true. There are three things that are definitely true: the sky is blue, the water is wet, and gym-going guys want to build big arms. No matter what your training goals are, you have probably added an extra set of curls to your workout at some point to try and get a biceps pump. Focusing your bicep training with a solid nutrition plan is the best way to achieve the big guns you want.
One of the most prominent muscles on your whole body are the biceps. Thanks to both their function and their position, they are one of the simplest to train. The biceps muscle is a two-headed muscle located on the arm. It is a large muscle group that extends from the shoulder to the elbow. your triceps technically take up more space on your arm, but the biceps are located in a way that makes them get more attention in the weight room
If you take a look at your arm, you will see the biceps in the front. This is because the biceps is positioned in the front of your arm (anteriorly positioned). The biceps are often given a lot of training focus because people like seeing them pump up in the mirror. If you're looking to build bigger arms, you need to focus on your biceps.
The biceps are a muscle that is often seen as a social marker of overall health and strength. Most people flex their arm to communicate their physical prowess. This makes their biceps muscle pop.
One of the first exercises people usually do when they start working out at the gym is the dumbbell curl, which helps them practice using their flexor muscles more. Although some people may think that gym mirror selfies are vain, the truth is that the pose captured in those selfies is actually the key to biceps training.
What You Need to Know About Your Biceps Muscles
It is beneficial to understand more about the muscles you are targeting before beginning training for them. The biceps is made up of two heads, a long head and a short head.
What Your Biceps Do
The biceps muscle is most important for flexing the elbow. This means that whenever you bend your arms, like when a bodybuilder does a pose, the biceps are working to make the move happen. If you want to be able to lift any type of load, you'll need healthy flexion. Your biceps also help to turn the forearm so that it faces upwards.
You also need to train the brachialis muscle which is beneath the biceps and provides additional flexing power. Your muscles will not only get stronger, but they will also look bigger.
How to Train Your Biceps
Working your biceps will require mostly exercises that target the muscle specifically and force it to contract and move upward under load. Working on just one muscle might not be as effective as working on multiple muscles at once, but isolation exercises let you track your progress and development more closely. Increasing the strength of your biceps will help you to become stronger overall as all exercises that involve pulling motions will be easier to do.
We put together this list of exercises to help you work on your biceps. Some of these are classics; some are new. Some are a grind; some are fun. Some people exercise the long head of their muscle, while others focus on the short head. We'll keep your muscles guessing by mixing up the tempo, adding pauses with isometrics, and even changing up the arm angle.
Must-Try Unconventional Bicep Exercises For Arm Day
Choose the ones you want (including some that you may not want), and use them to increase the size of your arms—and make your sleeves fuller.
Triple Paused Chinups
You can always be strong at chin-ups. After a person has become strong enough, it is time to change the routine. As a coach, I’ll make changes to the volume, frequency, range of motion, or tempo.
Perform a chin-up but pause at the 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 marks, and also at the top.
TRX Bicep Curls
If you don't know, the TRX was created by a Navy Seal who wanted to find a way to stay in shape while he was deployed. If you have the opportunity to use a bodyweight trainer, it would be best to do so.
Setup holding the handles with a neutral grip and lean away from the machine. Dig your heels in and pull your toes up. Starting from here, curl your hands up towards your head. As you bring your hands closer to your face, allow them to rotate naturally.
Banded Hammer Curls
Bands are an efficient way to change the strength curve and help improve maximal peak contraction. If you have never used them to curl your hair, you have been missing out.
To execute, stand on a medium-width band with your hands in a neutral grip (palms facing). Start with your hands flat on the ground and palms facing down. Curl your hands towards your shoulders, keeping your palms facing one another, and then slowly return to the starting position.
Elevator Chinups (1.5 reps)
Chinups are easy, eh? Would you like to try doubling the amount of time you spend tensing your muscles? You need to be in the right frame of mind before you try these.
To execute this exercise, perform a normal chin-up with either a neutral or supinated grip. Once you reach the halfway mark, return to the starting position and then perform a full repetition.
Good work, that’s one rep; now keep going.
Descending Isometric Yields (aka “24s”)
Doing multiple methods of curl work, like 21s, partials, drop sets, and isometrics, can give you better results than just doing one. To do this method, you will pause at specific angles during the movement and then lower the range of motion once you reach a certain number of repetitions.
Do six reps of the move, moving through a full range of motion and pausing at the top. Do six more repetitions, but pause three-quarters of the way up before returning to your starting position. Do 6 more repetitions, but pause for half a second before returning to the starting position. Do six repetitions, pausing a quarter of the way up on each one, and then return to your starting position.
Mechanical Drop Sets for the Upper Back
While drop sets are a great way to increase volume for specific muscle groups, many people in the fitness industry don't talk about them. This is because they can be very difficult to do after you have already accumulated a lot of fatigue.
For example, even after you've reached complete failure on supine tricep extensions, you can still manage to do a few more repetitions if you use a pullover-to-press method. This exercise still uses the triceps muscle, but it is not the only muscle group used. Other muscles can help finish the movement.
We can use the same concept for the upper back, which will quickly show how taxing it is for the biceps.
To execute this move, do normal chin-ups until you can't do any more. Don't use kipping techniques; you shouldn't be using them anyway.
proceed to inverted rows with your body parallel to the floor until you reach failure. When you start to feel tired, move your feet back and make your body more upright. Continue until you reach volitional fatigue.
E-Z Curl Squat Set
Have you ever had to perform an isometric wall squat? I'm sure that, like me, you have felt awkward with nothing to do with your hands during a set. This next exercise is going to solve the problem.
To execute this move, stand with your back against a wall and your feet about 6-10 inches away from the wall. To perform a full range of motion curl with an E-Z bar, start by holding the barbell with an underhand grip. Next, curl the barbell up to shoulder level and then lower it back down to the starting position.Repeat this movement until you reach failure. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, then lower your body into a quarter squat. From there, continue curling the weight until you can't do any more reps.
Your squat depth is just right if it is similar to most middle-aged gym goers. As you squat lower, your knees should get slightly higher, which will restrict your range of motion for curling.
Do repetitions until you can't go on and then squat slightly lower before continuing. It's best to start with 2-4 “drops” as you lower yourself down the wall and limit your range of motion.
If you're still unsure of what I'm saying, the point of this is to use your position on the wall to help determine how much you can move once you reach muscular failure.
Isometric Chinup Pyramid
I like to use different techniques to make chin-ups more interesting. If you're looking to mix up your workout routine, you can try adding more repetitions, increasing the weight you're lifting, or changing the exercises you're doing. Here is a simple time under tension progression scheme that will quickly challenge even the most experienced lifters.
How to Execute:
- 5 reps/1 sec pause @ 90°
- 4 reps/2 sec pause @ 90°
- 3 reps/3 sec pause @ 90°
- 2 reps/4 sec pause @ 90°
- 1 rep/5 sec pause @ 90°
Overcoming Isometrics
Some of the exercises on this list use isometric components, but overcoming isometrics is a different challenge. The point of this activity is to try to move an object that is too heavy to be moved.
In this case, you will use a standard barbell curl while in a power rack. Set the safety pins a few inches above the bottom of your range of motion. Start curling your hair and hold it for a set amount of time.
I recommend starting with 25-30 seconds and gradually increasing to 50-60 seconds as you get more practice with this method.
Repeat the entire process at the 90° and 120° mark to ensure that you’re emphasizing both mid and end-range contraction. You should only do one set of isometrics for each angle, rather than trying to do a whole workout of them.
Standing Dumbbell Curl
A biceps-focused list would not be complete without the classic dumbbell curl. So we didn’t.
If you are having trouble lifting the weight because you are swaying back and forth, you should try using lighter dumbbells.
How to do it:
- Grab a pair of dumbbells and let them hang at arm’s length next to your sides.
- Turn your arms so your palms face forward. Without moving your upper arms, bend your elbows and curl the dumbbells as close to your shoulders as you can.
- Pause, then slowly lower the weight back to the starting position.
- Each time you return to the starting position, completely straighten your arms.
Standing Barbell Curl
This is as basic as it gets. You've probably heard complaint from serious lifters about oblivious meatheads taking up space in squat racks to do bicep curls, so be mindful when and where you load up a barbell—but that shouldn't be an excuse to skip out on the move entirely. Simultaneously working both arms with barbells and evenly distributing the workload is possible because of the position of your grip. This also allows you to focus on different parts of the muscle.
How to do it:
- Grab the barbell with an underhand grip, with your hands positioned about as wide as your hips. To emphasize the inner portion of the bicep, take a wider grip; to target the outer part of the muscle, bring your hands closer together.
- Start holding the bar at hip height, then squeeze your core and contract your biceps to curl the bar up to shoulder height.
- Squeeze your biceps at the top of the movement, then slowly lower the weight back to the starting position, controlling the weight through the eccentric movement.
- Make sure to keep your feet solidly planted throughout the exercise, and don't use your hips to lift the weight.
