Strong biceps are a sign of hard work in the gym and tough muscle discipline.
In addition to giving, you an appearance of strength and harmony (if you have developed the rest of your body evenly) they look great on a muscular body. Here we offer you all the details so that your biceps session performs at its best.
We must remember that the biceps is a small muscle; This implies that it is not necessary to subject it to excessive loads to make it grow, but that the strict form and the correct combination of exercises will be more than enough to make your biceps stand out.
It is common to train your biceps one to two times a week. If you are already an advanced gym concurrent, you can train it twice, but taking precautions not to fall into overtraining.
It is usual to combine biceps training with triceps training on arm day at the gym, and also give it a little push combining it with either pectorals or adding them to the back day (if you have not decided to combine lats with trapezius).
BASIC Biceps Routine on Arm Day
- Dumbbell bicep curl: 3 sets of 10 reps each. Or more intense (10,8,8,6)
- EZ Bar Bicep Curl (Outside Bar Grip): 3 sets of 10 reps each. Or also (10,8,8)
- Concentrated curls: 3 sets of 10 repetitions each. Or also (10,8,8,6)
- Hammer curl: 3 sets of 10 reps each. Or also (10,8,8) (10,10,8)
Remember to moderate the weights, in addition to resting properly between exercises, since then you will have to perform your triceps session or another muscle, for which you should not feel too tired.
Biceps Muscle Composition
It is important to analyze that the biceps is composed, as its name implies, by two muscular heads: a long and a short one.
They are activated at the same time during exercises, but with a slight detail that you can use to your advantage: when the biceps exercise is performed with the palms of the hands slightly inclined towards you, the inner head is activated more than the outer one, and When the palms are parallel to the floor or perpendicular to it, the external head is activated to a greater degree than the internal one.
That detail can help you develop truly impressive biceps. Here is a list of exercises to activate the inner and outer heads:
Activation Exercises for The Inner Head of The Biceps
- Dumbbell curl.
- EZ Barbell Curl taking the innermost grip on the bar.
- Concentrated curls.
- One Arm Dumbbell Preacher Curl.
Exercises for Activating the External Head of The Biceps
- Straight bar curls.
- EZ Bar Curls taking the outermost grip on the bar.
- Low pulley short straight bar curls.
- Hammer curls.
- Incline Bench Curls
Routine for Biceps on A Different Muscle Group Day
If you want to combine your biceps training with a muscle group considered large (pectorals, back, shoulders), it is advisable that you do not perform more than two or three exercises per session, since you will be quite tired after subjecting another muscle group to an arduous effort.
It is best to combine external and internal head exercises (one and one, for example), and also vary between bars and dumbbells so that the stimulus is as diverse as possible.
Recommendations Before Starting
It is essential that we avoid extra help, and for this we will control movements to the maximum by concentrating on the muscle group to train.
To isolate the biceps, it is important to perform exercises in which the rest of the body does not act, an example is the training on the bicep bench.
It is important that we rest our entire arm on it and not just our elbows. In this way we will isolate as much as possible.
When it comes to lifting the weight, it is not advisable to go down completely to put the arm straight, but it is better to leave the elbow a little flexed to avoid unnecessary jerks that in the end can end in injury and slow down our development.
To this we must add the importance of performing the bicep bench exercise slowly, emphasizing the lifts, holding the weight for two seconds when we reach the top, and the slow descent to take advantage of the return phase.
Another point to keep in mind is not to bend your back. This is usually done when the weight is very strong and our arms do not give more of themselves.
Ideally, keep your back straight and let your biceps hold the push.
To do this we must stand up straight and with our legs parallel, slightly apart and our knees bent. It is important that our body remains anchored to the ground.
If we do the bicep exercises sitting we have to follow the same instructions as if we do them standing, although in this case we must try to keep our back against the back of the bench. In addition, we can increase the intensity of the exercise if we incline the bench backwards, since the route will be greater and therefore the biceps will have to overcome more resistance.
