1. Bodybuilding magazines are really “drug programs.” They tell you to “train hard” but make “hard training” impossible by prescribing 12-24 sets per body part. You can only build muscle with this kind of volume if you’re using drugs to speed up your recovery.

2. Supplements are only necessary if you have hit a 90% threshold in your training, nutrition and lifestyle. Even if you do introduce supplements at that point, don’t expect any miracles – they will only make a 1-2% difference in gaining lean muscle mass and getting stronger.

3. Your body can only manufacture 1-2 pounds of “dry muscle” each month which results in extra storage space for glycogen and water. Hence you can only gain 3-4 pounds of “lean muscle mass” on a monthly basis. It’s physiologically impossible (without drugs) to build more than 12-24 pounds of rock hard muscle over the course of the year. A little different then what the magazines tell you eh?

4. Most skinny guys are taking advice from bodybuilders, magazines and websites that are promoted by guys with amazing genetics. You should not be taking advice from a guy who can not relate to your “muscle unfriendly genes,” or from a guy who does not have the same body structure or the same metabolism. Would you take money advice from a guy who inherited a fortune? Would you take money advice from a guy who won the lottery? No

! So why are you taking bodybuilding advice from guys with great genetics and who are using steroids?

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This 12 week program will teach you everything you need to know about the best bicep workouts, nutrition, setting goals, tracking results, lifting weights, and even choosing the right equipment and supplements for you. Best of all its free!

What is the Best Bicep Workouts for building impressive guns? Let’s face facts, having great bulging upper arms paints a picture of true strength, an air of being invincible and yes…it’s very, very sexy!

I’m sure you are fully aware that the bicep is a relatively small muscle and therefore can be prone to overtraining. I have witnessed countless gym goers who dedicate whole workouts, numerous times a week to this tiny muscle! I myself believe more in full body workouts and training the bicep both indirectly (via upper back exercises) and directly perhaps only once or twice a week. However, you are not here for a lecture on  the advantages and disadvantages of training the muscle that fascinates us most. So let’s jump in:-

Bicep Workouts 1

- This should be performed as a superset. A set of close grip pull-ups followed by one arm concentration curls. If pull-ups are too difficult, either use the assisted pull-up machine or take an underhand grip on the lat pull-down machine. One arm concentration curls – sit on a bench with a dumb-bell between your feet. Place your left hand on your left thigh for support and grasp the dumb-bell with your right hand with an underhand grip. Your right tricep muscle should be pushed against your right inner thigh. Curl up slowly and curl back down without allowing the dumb-bell to touch the floor throughout the entire set. Then complete on your left side. Perform 8-12 repetitions of each exercise and 4 supersets in total.

Best Bicep Workout 2 – i love this workout! Multi-grip tri-sets. That’s a mouthful! Grab an EZ curl bar and attach a weight that you believe you can perform somewhere between 20-25 reps of curls. First part is the overhand grip curl, so hold the bar with your knuckles facing the ceiling, ensure you keep your elbows in at your sides and complete 10 reps. Place the weight on the floor and immediately pick up with a standard underhand grip (palms facing the ceiling) and perform 10 more reps. Place the weight on the floor and again immediately pick up with an underhand grip, but this time your hands should only be 6-8 inches apart (i usually have my elbows dug into my waist!) and perform 10 reps. That is one set, rest 60-90 second between sets and look to perform 3 sets in total.

Best Bicep Workout 3 – You are going to need a training partner here (just grab the closest person to you that appears to be of the same muscular and strength level as yourself!). Here you are going to complete the standard barbell curl, but with a twist, to really exhaust those bicep muscles. The Barbell should be loaded with a weight that you would usually expect to complete 10 -12 reps with. Perform one rep and pass to your partner to perform a rep. When they pass the bar back to you perform two reps and pass back for your partner to complete two reps. Keep going until you have both consistently performed one rep more each time and finally reach 10 repetitions. This will mean you have each completed 55 reps in total. If you have no training partner, place the barbell on a bench after each part of the exercise and count your partner’s reps in your head.

As you can quite clearly see, none of these Best Bicep Workouts will keep you in the gym for hours on end and your session won’t last any longer than 15 minutes. If you perform two of these workouts a week, you will definitely be on your way to a great set of guns without overtraining the muscles.

Powerful Bicep Workout with barbell bicep curls

Nothing can be farther from truth than this fallacy. All those Doubting Thomases are informed that strong biceps is the result of disciplined bicep workouts that the bodybuilders follow for a very long time; and to prevent them from sagging, they have to consistently hit the gym and repeatedly do those curls.

Whatever your target for the biceps is, it can’t be achieved unless you follow a disciplined routine as charted out by your trainer. Besides telling you different kind of curls, he may also advise you about the diet you should have while you are performing the prescribed bicep workouts

The first thing he’ll tell you is to maintain regularity in all your exercises. As far as possible, sticking to the strict exercise and diet schedule will not only help you achieve the desired results in shortest possible time, but also ensure that you have a healthy bicep development and not a cosmetic one (e.g., using drugs or other dangerous chemicals). In fact, the primary purpose of undergoing routine bicep workouts is to discount the possibility of the use of cosmetics to enhance your biceps.

Another thing you must keep in mind while trying to build your bicep muscles is to avoid overdoing it. Remember, Rome was not built in a day! Similarly, your biceps will take their own sweet time to build. All they want from you is to help them by doing correct and timely bicep workouts, and keep to the schedule as laid out by your trainer.

No pain no gain theory is fine, but your aim should be to minimize the pain and maximize the gain by adhering to correct well disciplined bicep workouts.

This muscle group is probably the only one on the human body which has earned itself scores of nicknames such as ‘Guns’, ‘Pythons’, ‘Thunder and Lightning’ and the ‘Rockweillers’ to name a few. Also, it doesn’t matter what kind of a guy you are – fat, skinny, health conscious or simply lazy, there is not one group of men who would turn down an opportunity to enhance these muscles and flaunt them! Especially to women who like feeling on them.

Gone are the days when bulging biceps were only for professional bodybuilders and weightlifters…these days almost anyone can read up stuff on the internet or join a local gym and start on a strict work out regime to pump their arms. It has now become an obsessive addiction and has guys even carrying their weights with them on business trips so that mere meetings and presentations do not break their workout regime!

However, long believed notions that, the longer you spend slogging it out with your weights the bigger your bicep is not really true. While that may work for a short-term solution, it’s not a sound long-term training strategy. Sooner or later, when the stress placed on the targeted muscle becomes more than the muscle can recover from, your body will start to suffer from overtraining. When that happens, muscle growth stops and injuries occur.

Another problem, which is common, is that, no matter how many exercises some people do, their arms stay about the same size. Why? Well, it’s generally from training the wrong way.
5 of the most common problems with bicep training are examined in the text below combined with step-by-step program to take your bicep peak to new heights.

Problem #1 – More is not always better

The first thing to remember always is not to overwork the muscles and this rules applies to your biceps as well. You only need to work out twice a week, incorporating 3 sets of 6 to 8 reps each, in order to see the results. When you ‘over train’ yourself, you’re not allowing your muscles the time they need to rest and build back and are therefore prone to injuries. Contrary to what you might think, working your biceps too many times a week will actually take away your results.
The way to build big powerful biceps is by lifting more weight. You can’t expect to do three sets of curls with a light amount of weight and see any growth. You’ll need to add on an extra pound or two and push yourself with heavier weights to get the results you’re looking for.

Problem #2 – Look at me! Am I looking good?

This problem goes hand in hand with problem # 1. Most men love to see themselves in the mirror while training and therefore are prone to be more interested in noticing how they look while training rather than training itself! This narcissist trait will not do any good at all. Though training for a considerable period of time at the gym will cause your biceps to peak up for sure, as well as get you admiring glances, the honest truth in all of this is that the longer you keep at the weights in this fashion, the higher the chances are that you will ‘over train’ and wear your muscles out. Also, if you try doing this with weights that do not overload your muscles and emphasize an increase in your strength, your biceps will deflate quickly and your “look” will vanish leaving you with no muscle growth at all and a whole lot of wasted time spent at the gym!

Problem #3 – All round increase in strength Vs Peaked biceps only

Another problem many guys are faced with is that whether to work on the biceps only or go in for chest, back and shoulder exercises too? All they know is the end result – have well built arms and look spanking good. Working more on your chest, back and shoulders will increase your strength overall and will also beef up your biceps. This all round work out will be more proportional and you will not have to worry about having strong well-built arms with a thinner body. Simply focusing on the biceps all by itself will have feeling tired and drained by the end of it and with a lesser developed chest and back.
It is advisable to gradually increase the weights on your rowing, pull-ups and chin-ups as well as other common back and shoulder exercises and your biceps will gradually develop along in a proportional manner.

Problem #4 – Using the same bicep exercises every time

The most common of all recommended exercises to building your biceps are barbell curls and dumbbell curls. 2 sets of 5 – 7 reps of barbell curls along with standing dumbbell curls – 1 set of 5 – 7 reps should start you off properly. These sets undertaken seriously and regularly will produce results in the short span of time. However, one should remember that if continuing with the same set of exercises, week after week, one should gradually increase the weights and reps to see effective results and actually growth of muscles.

One can try to build the barbell curls up to 110 pounds approximately, and undertake a few slow speed sets with these, and your dumbbell curls to up to 50 pounds or so, doing these in slow speed sets too. This will gradually tone your arms and will enhance muscle growth.

Once you reach this stage of barbell curls of 110 pounds, you would be ready to variate your exercises to involve the bar too. Initially you can start off by reducing the weights a little to get you accustomed to the rig, but then gradually you will have to build up the weights to the 110 pound level in order for the exercises to be effective.

Bicep Exercise 1: Place your elbows outwards, using a super-close grip, thereby stressing the outer portion of your biceps. Do this a couple of times.

Bicep Exercise 2: Next, you will “stress” the inner portion of your biceps by taking a super-wide grip on the bar and digging your elbows into your side without moving an inch.

Bicep Exercise 3: The brachialis and brachioradialis are the last in focus in this set of bar exercises. You are advised to stick to common hammer curls and reverse curls while doing this particular exercise.

Problem #5 on biceps – Being too easy on the muscle

For guys training to build their biceps, it is important to know and understand the concept of training a single group of muscles in isolation to the rest. Not understanding this simple, basic truth can lead to fatigue and over trained muscles. Biceps are a group of muscles which are highly responsive to strain / tension on them. Therefore, continuously concentrating your efforts on this little group without any sloppiness, or swinging motions whilst you are exercising will produce the results you are expecting in a short time and which will also lead to actually muscle growth of the biceps. Swinging while exercising or sloppy exercises will spread the tension around the muscle groups and therefore the biceps are “spared” from feeling the full force of the tension. Whilst exercising, the bar should be kept constantly moving, without pausing at the top or bottom, focusing on squeezing the bar and never stopping for regular rests in between until the set is over. The goal of sticking to such a rigorous manner of exercising is to not allow any oxygen into the muscle, which will then create a spike with your anabolic hormones to promote muscle growth. Trainers can also resort to a slower – 3-0-3 or 4-0-4 – tempo to achieve desired results in bicep muscle growth.

While everybody knows that weight training is the way to go if you want to build muscle mass. Very few people understand the basics of designing a growth stimulating workout. Listed below is the framework that I use to put together 90% of my weight lifting workouts.

Before we get into the workout structure, It’s important to talk about the muscle building process and how it works. Here’s a simplistic overview of how the muscle building process works:

In order to build muscle mass you must first stimulate muscle growth with intense weight lifting workouts. After you have given your body a reason to grow, you must then focus your attention on fueling muscle growth. Just like your car, your body will not function properly without the right fuel (nutrients). After you have put in the hard work to stimulate and fuel muscle growth, you must give your body a chance to actually grow. The fancy term for this process is rest and recovery.

That’s really all there is to the muscle building process. Armed with this knowledge, you should have a better than average idea of what it takes to build muscle.

Here’s the formula for growth stimulating weight lifting workouts

1.) Always perform a complete warm up prior to jumping into any weight lifting workout. If yo decide to skip the warm-up and jump right into your workout, you will get hurt!

2.) limit the duration of your weight lifting workouts to 60 minutes max. I personally like to design them to complete in under 45 minutes. There are two reasons that I strictly follow this methodology.

The first reason is that studies have shown that the muscle building hormones begin to spike withing 30 – 45 minutes. If you continue to train past the 60 minute threshold the muscle building effect of your workouts will not be as effective as an intense weight training session during your bodies peak hormonal period.

The second reason is that you’ll have a very hard time maintaining the proper muscle building intensity level for more than 60 minutes. Another way to say it is – If you are able to train for 2 – 3 hours, chances are your workouts are not intense enough to stimulate muscle growth.

Besides, who has the time to commit to 2 -3 hours a day in the gym anyway?

3.) Design the majority of your workouts around compound exercises like squats, bench press, dead lift, rows etc. If you really want to add an isolation exercise into the mix, make sure that you only perform it after you have completed at least 1 heavy compound movement.

4.) Train heavy to stimulate muscle growth. If you’re serious about building as much muscle mass as quickly as possible you need to train with heavy weights through a complete range of motion. I’ve found the 6 – 8 repetition range to be effective for most body parts.

5.) Incorporate stretching and flexibility into your weight training routine by stretching between sets.

6.) Focus on only 1 or 2 body parts per workouts max! If you want to stimulate muscle growth you need to hammer each muscle group with heavy weights. If you’re trying to cram in 3 or 4 different body parts you will not be able to train heavy enough towards the end of your workout.

7.) Perform between 2 – 4 sets of each exercise beginning with your heavy compound exercises first and moving on to your secondary isolation exercises second.

8.) Rest for 2 – 3 minutes between sets. This is enough time to allow for complete muscle recovery, but not so long that your body cools down between sets.

9.) Train each body part only 1 time each week. This will allow for full muscular recovery between workouts.

Here’s what a typical chest and bicep workout looks like following this model:

Bench Press – 4 warm up sets, then 3 sets of 6 – 8 reps.
Dumbbell Incline Press – 2 sets of 6 – 8 reps.
Straight Bar Curl – 4 warm up sets, then 3 sets of 6 – 8 reps.
Alternating Dumbbell Curl – 2 sets of 6 – 8 reps.
While it may seem counter intuitive to limit your weight lifting workouts to 60 minutes, you’ll soon find that you can actually train with heavier weights and wind up stimulating more growth in the process!

Before we discuss biceps development, I want to point out that the biceps make up only one third of your upper arm with triceps the other two-thirds. So to have an impressive arm, you must build your triceps too or the effort on your biceps will not show good results. Many people fail to realize this and that is why you see them doing curls after curls without much improvement. We will touch on triceps exercises in another article. For now, let’s talk about biceps.

Here are some exercises that will blast your biceps. Most of you would have done some or all of these exercises. The question I am asking is, are the exercises done in the correct form and techniques because if they are not, you will most likely be wasting your time as your biceps will not grow to its full potential. Perform each exercise for 3-5 sets once or twice a week and at reps between 6-10, but make sure that at the high end of the reps, you will not be so fatigued that you can’t perform another rep in good form.

Standing Barbell Curl/ EZY Bar

You can perform this exercise with either a straight bar or an ezy bar. This is a great mass building exercises for your biceps.

Stand with feet shoulder width apart and grasp the bar with an underhand grip, hands should also be about shoulder width apart. Curl the bar up slowly focusing intensely on the biceps contraction. Do not swing or use momentum to curl especially at the later stages when your biceps get weaker. Never swing or move your body, only your arms are moving. Keep your elbows locked to the side of your body and do not pivot them.

Then lower the weight, taking 3-4 seconds resisting the weight on the way down to emphasize the negative part of the exercise. Never let gravity pull the weights down.

At all times, do not curl or bend your wrist which must always be in a straight neutral position.

Incline Dumbbell Curls

This exercise will hit different fibre in your biceps and gives you the peak bicep look.

Sit back on an incline bench holding a dumbbell in each hand, keep your elbows well forward throughout the movement, curl the weight upward and toward the shoulder level. Then squeeze your biceps hard at the top position. Lower the weights again, slowly under full control. The speed and techniques are similar to what was described earlier.

Preacher Curl

Similar to barbell curl but using the preacher curl station. This is an excellent bicep peaking isolation exercise.

Hammer Curl

Hammer curl gives your biceps the full look and your forearms are also working hard.

Similar to incline dumbbell curl except you will be using the hammer grip on the dumbbell like holding a hammer knocking nails in and standing up instead of sitting down.

Build Biceps Tips

Focus on the movement of your biceps all throughout the motion. Don’t lift weights that are too heavy that will compromise your form and techniques to show off.

By slightly turning and squeezing, you’ll build more peak on your biceps. Like all exercises, pose and stretch the biceps between sets. This is to flush out lactic acid and help your biceps recover better for the next set.

Remember to change the order of the exercises you perform after every few weeks to shock your biceps into new growth.

Chris is a personal trainer of fashion models, male pageant winners, actors and other celebs. More free fitness tips in his websites.

Most all of us want to get bigger arm muscles, but it seems that for many people, no matter how many exercises they do, their arms stay about the same size. Why? Well, it’s generally from training the wrong way. Here’s why.

The way to build arm muscles in any muscle work outs is to add enough weight until it interferes with your form. Don’t worry if you don’t understand, I’ll explain more on that in a moment. The way to build big powerful biceps is by lifting more weight. You can’t expect to do three sets of curls with a light amount of weight and see any growth. You’ll need to push yourself with heavier weights to get the results you’re looking for.

When setting up a bicep workout routine you’ll want to incorporate 3 sets of 6-8 reps each. I use 8 reps myself, but 6 will also work. You want to use enough weight so that your form is still good on the last set. If you’re using too much weight and your form gets sloppy from overdoing it, your results will suffer as well.

Another thing to keep in mind with any muscle work outs is to not overwork the muscles. This includes your biceps. You only need to work out twice a week. I’ve seen guys work their arms 4 days a week and it’s overdoing it. When you overtrain, you’re not allowing your muscles the time they need to rest and build back. This is true for all muscle groups. Contrary to what you might think, working your biceps too many times a week will actually take away your results.

The next question most often asked is what type of arm muscle building exercises work the best? Here are 3 basic bicep exercises that are known to produce muscle gains:

Alternate Dumbbell Curl – If you want to know how to build bicep muscle fast, this is the exercise for you. As your doing this routine, be sure to let your body sway a little bit in order to build up some momentum. This allows you to use more heavier weights and increase your results.

Barbell Curl – This is also a good exercise to get more muscle growth. Concentrate on using more of your arms than letting your body do the work.

Inclined Dumbbell Curl – By using an inclined bench for dumbbell curls you are able to focus in on the biceps specifically during this exercise.

If you’re wanting to know how to build bicep muscle fast, put these bicep tips into your weight training routine and you should start seeing results in a quick amount of time.

Plan of Attack

Know the functionality and main movement patterns of the Biceps:

1. Angle of Greatest Stretch – this is the most important one and is often missed during a workout. Big mistake. Arnold knew about it and look what it did for him! The position is where you have your arm behind your body. This is achieved during an Incline DB Curl when you are seated at 45º or lower and perform strict bicep curls keeping the upper arm perpendicular to the floor. In this position the muscle fibers are pulled the maximum distance apart and the biceps is stimulated all the way along from origin to insertion causing maximum muscle fiber damage and therefore growth.

2. Angle of Greatest Contraction – this one is also important but is too often the focus of bicep workouts. The position is when you have your arm in front of your body during an exercise such as a Preacher Curl. At this angle the muscle fibers aren’t fully stretched at the bottom of the movement…

3. Neutral Grip to Pronated Grip (i.e. palm facing in twisting slowly to palm facing up) – the bicep doesn’t just cause elbow flexion (a normal curling action) but also rotates the thumb outwards where a full contraction is achieved. If you add this small, twisting motion during a bicep curl then you are utilizing the full action of the biceps creating maximum stimulation.

4. Neutral Grip (Hammer Grip) – performing curls with the palm facing in emphasizes the brachialus (outside of upper arm), the brachioradialus (the long, thick part of the forearm running from the inner elbow to the base of the thumb) and the long head of the biceps. This will give your arms more thickness and make them more complete.

5. Reverse Grip Back Exercises – bicep mass isn’t created performing concentration curls. It is a direct result of regularly and intensely pounding away at heavy, compound back exercises. Perform Reverse Grip Chin-ups, Reverse Grip Lat Pulldowns, Reverse Grip Barbell Rows and your arms will grow at a far greater rate than if you were to rely on specific bicep work alone. It allows your biceps with help from your back muscles to lift a mountain of weight safely.

6. Shoulder Flexion – one of the first things that you are taught when training biceps is to keep your elbows locked against the side of your body. This is to minimize the involvement of the anterior and lateral deltoid (front and side of the shoulder) so that the biceps is fully isolated and fatigued. Most of the time this is a good idea but when you are performing a heavy mass building exercise such as Standing Barbell Curl or Standing Alternate Dumbbell Curl a little elbow movement backwards and forwards can be beneficial. A little known fact is that the bicep assists in shoulder flexion so raising the elbow during a curl not only allows you to deliver more power it also facilitates a more complete contraction.

The Rules

Creating a great Bicep workout plan:

• Train arms only once per week – they are involved in all of your upper body and some of your lower body exercises and need time to rest and grow.

• Perform repetitions of 6 to 15 – biceps (and triceps) respond well to a broad range of reps with high intensity and good technique.

• Perform 2 super intense work sets per exercise – this will allow you to focus your intensity and achieve greater exercise variety hitting the biceps from all angles.

• Choose 4 to 6 exercises – it sounds like a lot but remember that (after warming up) you are only performing 2 sets per exercise.

• Superset biceps and triceps together set for set – this is the best way to train arms. While one is working and fatiguing the other is recovering. You can lift heavy for the entire workout and get extreme muscle pumps.

• Use a mix of Dumbbells, Barbells and Cables.

• Always employ safe, strict, controlled, intense technique.
The Workout

45º Incline DB Curl 1 x 20, 1 x 15, 2 x 10

+

45º Incline BB Extension 1 x 20, 1 x 15, 2 x 10

Standing EZ BB Curl 2 x 8

+

Close Grip Bench Press 2 x 8

Standing Alternate DB Curl 2 x 8 each side

+

Seated Overhead DB Extension 2 x 10

Cable Preacher Curl 2 x 15

+

Rope Pushdowns 2 x 15

Kneeling DB Hammer Curl 2 x 10

+

Weighted Bench Dips 2 x 15

You will not find a more effective or more complete Bicep workout than this. All bases are covered. To learn the proper technique for all these great exercises please visit the Video section of my online Weight Training and Bodybuilding website www.GlobalWeightTraining.com. Thank you for your time and attention. Train hard and watch your arms grow.

There’s no point doing 4 sets of 8 reps with medium weights and going through them easily. You can do that all week long and you won’t see any significant Bicep muscle growth. If you want to explode your Bicep muscles then your Bicep workouts should be done with heavy weights, just heavy enough to force you to lose form at the end of your sets. It’s important to maintain form through out your workouts but you should lift weights that push your body just beyond the breaking point to really work those biceps. So lift enough weights so that your arms feel like they will explode at the end of your sets and you know you’re doing a great bicep workout.

Bar bell curls are great to begin with. Remember to exhale as you curl your arms up towards your chest. Pause as you reach the top and flex your biceps and feel the burn. Then slowly curl your arms back down resisting all the way. Remember to do it slow.

45 degree inclined dumb bell curls are also a great way to focus on your biceps. The inclined bench will stop your back from aiding your curls, thereby forcing your arms to do the work. 4 sets of 8 reps should be plenty if you use enough weights to push you to failure at the end of your sets.

One of the Best Bicep workouts is the Zottman Curl. You can do this either standing or on an inclined bench. Pick a dumb bell up in each hand and curl both arms up with your palms facing you. When you reach the peek, flex your biceps for 2 seconds then as you curl your arms down rotate your palms 180 degrees so that your palms face away from you as you bring the dumb bell back to the starting position. Adding the Zottman curl to your bicep workouts will explode your bicep muscle mass in no time.

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