The 6 Best Bicep Workouts for Increased Bicep Size!
Bicep workouts are the most rewarding part of going to the gym. Seeing those highly coveted muscles bulge does wonders for your ego and tight-ness of that new shirt. Though some have suggested that a back routine does enough to stimulate these muscles, a truly BIG biceps require incorporating a bicep-targeted workout into your gym schedule. We’ll show you two great bicep workouts that will have your arms pumped and growing immediately.
Week A
Barbell Curls – 3 Sets of 12 Repetitions (with 1 light warm up set of 12 Repetitions to begin)
Preacher Curls – 3 Sets of 12 Repetitions
Standing Cable Curls – 2 Sets of 15 Repetitions, and 1 Set of 20 Repetitions
Week B
Standing Reverse Barbell Curls – 4 Sets of 6 Repetitions (with 1 light warm-up Set of 12 Repetitions to begin)
Seated Dumbbell Curls – 4 Sets of 6 Repetitions
Pull-down Bicep Curls – 3 Sets of 8 Repetitions, and 1 Set 20 Repetitions
These bicep workouts should be done once a week on top of your regular training and alternated each week. For example, I would do Week A’s bicep workout this week, Week B’s next week, Week A’s the week after that, ect. If you don’t know how to do any of the bicep exercises just click on their names above, you will be directed to explanatory video of the exercise.
To keep your biceps growing make sure that you are doing a complete exercise routine and eating a large amount of protein. We typically try to eat 30 – 50 grams of protein within half an hour of completing our workouts. (Protein Powder of the Year -5 years in a row)
Bicep Pump
Want the biggest bicep pump possible from your workout? This is usually the strategy if you are planning on going out the night of your workout. Getting the biggest bicep pump possible is easy – stick to these tips:
- Start with standing barbell curls and at the top of your rep (when the barbell is closest to your chest) Squeeze and flex your biceps as hard as you can for a full 3 seconds
- The negative (the action of lowering the weight) is absolutely key for pump – lower the weight very slowly, take 5 seconds (note: towards the end of your bicep set you might have to jerk the weight to get it back up – although normally that is considered bad form, that is OK when your goal is high quality negatives)
- Move on to single arm, seated dumbbell curls – same goes for this bicep workout – you want to squeeze and flex at the top for three seconds and lower for about 5 seconds (do not focus to much on the timing or form of raining the weight – especially in reps toward the end of you set when you are getting very tired. You want to squeeze every last bit of energy out of the bicep – jerking the weight up quickly, squeezing (HARD) and lowering very slowly is the best way to do this
- Sit with your legs open, and the lower part of the back of your tricep against the inside of your knee
- If you are doing these bicep workouts properly, then by your last rep of each set, you will not be able to hold the weight at 90 degrees – no matter how much force you use it will just fall slowly
- Aim for around 12 reps – with 3 to 4 sets of barbell curls and 3 to 4 sets of seated dumbbell curls (per arm)
- If you did these bicep workouts properly, your biceps should be incredibly tired and you should have a hard time reaching your shoulders with your fingers
Workouts for Bicep Growth
The big secret to bigger biceps consists of just 2 things:
- Make sure to tear your biceps sufficiently every time you work them out
- Make sure to give them what they need to rebuild themselves (high quality protein or amino acids)
The second task is pretty easy, do your best to eat 40 to 50 grams of high quality protein (whey protein isolate blend) within half an hour of finishing your workout.
The first task is a little more challenging. In order to make your bicep workouts effective enough to tear your biceps, you will need to change up your workouts regularly. Our favorite way to do this is to start by getting into a routine of doing 12 reps for 3 to 4 sets. On your first week you will definitely be sore the next day (sometimes 2 days later) – Your second week should be pretty similar, but by your 3rd week you probably won’t get nearly as sore. For your fourth week you need to change it up. The best way to shock your muscles back into tearing is increase the weight dramatically. For this 4th week workout (or whenever you want to sock your muscles with a big change to your bicep workouts) increase the weight by 20%. If you don’t feel like getting out the calculator, start by increasing the weight by 10 15 lbs per hand for individual arm workouts (i.e. dumbbell curls) or 20 – 30 lbs for 2 arm workouts (i.e. barbell curls, preacher curls, cable curls). Do as many reps as you can for 3 or 4 sets with this new weight. For your first set aim for 10 reps, but be satisfied with 8 or more. By your last set you should only be able to do 4 to 6 reps.
Check back this week for more bicep workouts and a great schedule for you to sustain maximum bicep growth over the next 3 months.