Best for Biceps?

unreggd

Howayaz

Just wanted to ask whats better for building my biceps

At the moment I'm doin pull ups, wide and narrow grip, which should be workin my biceps but also my shoulders and back

I used to use the assisted machine, but my new gym doesnt have one, so Ive been doin them at my bodyweight, which I can only do about 5/6 reps per set [usually 3/4 sets]

Also, the DOMS are a lot worse compared to curls

Should I just keep goin at that, or should I do curls so I can go for 10/12 reps??

Hanley

Is the best thing to do to make your biceps bigger not train them? No...!!

By all means do your big compound exercises, but if you want bigger arms, you need to train for that.

Anyone want to dig up the Jay Farrant thread?! Actually... Maybe not. I'm sure there's stuff in there that could still get me banned.

squod

Curls with a weight stack. Or preacher / weight stack combo.

unknownlegend

I don't train them specifically, they're too exhausted by the time I've done;
Close grip chin ups
Bent over dumbbell rows
Deadlifts, etc, all of which work it out plenty!
But if I've something left in the tank try 21s with an ez bar - Google it and look forward to the burn.

Hanley

unknownlegend wrote: »

Deadlifts, etc, all of which work it out plenty!

Here we go again.

Molly

Hang Power Split Snatch's with dumbbells will have the same affect as deadlifts, maybe even more!

Michael 09

Whenever biceps are mentioned people always say "they get worked enough". I would agree that a full back workout will also be a passive workout for your biceps as there is so much gripping and pulling involved.

BUT given that the question was "how to build biceps" the answer has to be to train them!!

Curls, hammers, preacher curls etc all on heavy weights will build your biceps. My opinion/advice would be to find a weight that you can do 6-8 reps per arm max with.

Hanley

Michael 09 wrote: »

Whenever biceps are mentioned people always say "they get worked enough". I would agree that a full back workout will also be a passive workout for your biceps as there is so much gripping and pulling involved.

BUT given that the question was "how to build biceps" the answer has to be to train them!!

Curls, hammers, preacher curls etc all on heavy weights will build your biceps. My opinion/advice would be to find a weight that you can do 6-8 reps per arm max with.

Good post.

For something that takes such a short amount of time, and has an negligible effect on recovery, there's no reason not to train them if you can.

Michael 09

Hanley wrote: »

Good post.

For something that takes such a short amount of time, and has an negligible effect on recovery, there's no reason not to train them if you can.

Agreed. And as they are an important support muscle for many exercises, building them will also help you to improve other lifts (from my experience anyway).

Tigger

Hanley wrote: »

Is the best thing to do to make your biceps bigger not train them? No...!!

By all means do your big compound exercises, but if you want bigger arms, you need to train for that.

Anyone want to dig up the Jay Farrant thread?! Actually... Maybe not. I'm sure there's stuff in there that could still get me banned.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=69800939

whistles

unknownlegend

Hanley wrote: »

Here we go again.

Can you expand on that please?

Edit:
Actually, think I get you... the OP asked for what builds biceps and it looks like I said "don't, they're getting enough from x y and z". Might have came across like that, but I was just speaking from personal experience what works best for me and my goals. Horses for courses and all that, and of course if you want to work on them by all means do, I agree

Anyway I think I contributed to the OP's question by suggestion with the 21's as something to look into.

halpin17

Your upper arm is in three parts, two parts tricep, one part bicep you should train your triceps and as a result of them getting bigger, ur arms will look way bigger than if u trian ur bicep an realistically that's what you want bigger arms not just biceps yes?

Hanley

unknownlegend wrote: »

Can you expand on that please?

Can you expand on how your biceps are worked when deadlifting?

Before answering, you might want to look at this thread because it's been done before - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=69800939

unknownlegend

Hanley wrote: »

Can you expand on how your biceps are worked when deadlifting?

Before answering, you might want to look at this thread because it's been done before - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=69800939

Aha, you were focusing specifically on the deadlift comment. Why couldnt you have just said :rolleyes: in that case fair enough, mistaken about the dl's :cool:

Hanley

halpin17 wrote: »

Your upper arm is in three parts, two parts tricep, one part bicep you should train your triceps and as a result of them getting bigger, ur arms will look way bigger than if u trian ur bicep an realistically that's what you want bigger arms not just biceps yes?

I agree on this too... when you're standing there not flexing, tricep mass is probably more important to the 'big arm' look.

Hanley

unknownlegend wrote: »

Aha, you were focusing specifically on the deadlift comment. Why couldnt you have just said :rolleyes: in that case fair enough, mistaken about the dl's :cool:

In fairness, I did isolate that part of your comment in my quote

unknownlegend

Hanley wrote: »

In fairness, I did isolate that part of your comment in my quote

That is true but "here we go again" genuinely left me curious, glad it's cleared up. Anyway I dont want to be cluttering up this thread with my superflous posts so I'm off to train my biceps by drinking beer and my vocal cords by watching Ireland

jive

For me I have found that barbell curls are the best. The differences between the excercises may be negligible but I find barbell curls to be really good and it makes sense from a physiological point of view I guess. Biceps along with the forearms are directly targeted using barbell.

I use 3 different excercises to make sure I target all the muscles involved in the movement. Usually I do barbell curls with palms facing me, barbell curls with palms facing away from me and hammer curls using dumbbells.

As has been said already though, tricep mass is more important for the overall size of your arm. IIRC triceps are about 2/3 of the upper arm (I stand to be corrected on this!).

Kev M

I heard squats are all you need for biceps .

If that fails though then all direct bicep training seems to work too. Parallel close grip chins are the only other thing I'd mention, they seem to have an extreme hammer curl type of effect for me.

unreggd

Hanley wrote: »

Is the best thing to do to make your biceps bigger not train them? No...!!

By all means do your big compound exercises, but if you want bigger arms, you need to train for that

Can you explain so exactly what that is?

I will be working my triceps too, my main question was about the amount of reps: Should I stick with 5/6 body weight reps x3, or do curls so I can adjust the weight to last 3 sets of 10-12 reps?

Brian?

Do curls at the end of your workout, pick a coue of types and get stronger at them. Simples

Brian?

Do curls at the end of your workout, pick a coue of types and get stronger at them. Simples

shootermacg

I would also aim to get your pullups/chins up to a reasonable number. Try doing them more often. A guy who has a reasonable back and arms and isn't 5 stone overweight should be aiming for 15/20. Medium grip chins are great for the biceps/back growth but not at your current rep range.
If you are doing your rows and chins / pull-downs etc, your arms should get an huge pump (I know: pump != growth).
I also include bicep work on chest day so I hit them twice, exercises hammer curls, incline curl, EZ-reverse grip curl (helps if you have short biceps) rep range 8 to 12 for 3 sets works for me.
I personally hate biceps work, and love triceps work, have no idea why ^ ^.

Hanley

unreggd wrote: »

Can you explain so exactly what that is?

I will be working my triceps too, my main question was about the amount of reps: Should I stick with 5/6 body weight reps x3, or do curls so I can adjust the weight to last 3 sets of 10-12 reps?

Do curls of some sort.

Bigger muscle = train the muscle

bigger arms = train arms

train arms = various types of curl

shootermacg

Why not do both? You'll still be doing the chins as part of back day. Do your max chins and work on getting more reps out. Finish off with a few sets of assisted chins in the required rep range.

Hanley

shootermacg wrote: »

Why not do both? You'll still be doing the chins as part of back day. Do your max chins and work on getting more reps out. Finish off with a few sets of assisted chins in the required rep range.

Where did I say not to do chin ups?

shootermacg

Hanley wrote: »

Where did I say not to do chin ups?

You didn't:D
I wasn't reacting to your post, the OP was asking if he should introduce curls instead of chins, I said he should do both.

Hanley

shootermacg wrote: »

You didn't:D
I wasn't reacting to your post, the OP was asking if he should introduce curls instead of chins, I said he should do both.

Oh well then - agree!

unreggd

Yeah, I was gna say that. Ill most likely alternate with both

Should also note that I usually train with a gymnastics club twice a week, where we do rope climbs and chins as part of conditioning [3 sets each to fatigue], so maybe keep that for chins and gym for curls

Cheers!

shootermacg

unreggd wrote: »

Yeah, I was gna say that. Ill most likely alternate with both

Should also note that I usually train with a gymnastics club twice a week, where we do rope climbs and chins as part of conditioning [3 sets each to fatigue], so maybe keep that for chins and gym for curls

Cheers!

Sure thing and never mind those gymnasts laughing at your feeble chinup efforts, you go girl!
A bit more information as to your weekly workout would be helpful. I'm sure you don't want to have big biceps and be tiny elsewhere.

unreggd

shootermacg wrote: »

you go girl!

Condescendin much? :P

shootermacg

unreggd wrote: »

Condescendin much? :P

Sorry for the feeble attempt at humor, but, I just can't make out where you are coming from workout-wise, which is why I asked for more information.
I get tyhe feeling that you are doing some pull work with no push work whatso ever, so I'm wondering what your actual goals are.

unreggd

Well the gymnastics I do for the sport, but the conditioning is necessary, and rightly so

Its usually a 2 day split, 50 mins per day, usually split lower/upper, always lots of Ab work

Gym wise Im only back after a long break so concentrating on my cardio for the moment. But I wanna do some extra upper body work to balance out my proportions

rocco.

Hanley wrote: »

Do curls of some sort.

Bigger muscle = train the muscle

bigger arms = train arms

train arms = various types of curl

SMUGLEY

shootermacg

unreggd wrote: »

Well the gymnastics I do for the sport, but the conditioning is necessary, and rightly so

Its usually a 2 day split, 50 mins per day, usually split lower/upper, always lots of Ab work

Gym wise Im only back after a long break so concentrating on my cardio for the moment. But I wanna do some extra upper body work to balance out my proportions

Post your workouts(exercise, sets and reps) for the two alternate days.

Laisurg

Standing barbell curl and concentration curls have worked quite well for me.

marathonic

No joke, I was in the gym this morning and I wouldn't be one for looking down on anyones workout but there was a man there that was a little bigger than me doing biceps curls using tiny dumbbells. When he left, I went over to have a look at them...... 2kg :eek:

I'm a newbie but even I know that's a waste of time - although I should probably give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he was injured or something (but then again, why would he even be in the gym if he was?)....

shootermacg

marathonic wrote: »

No joke, I was in the gym this morning and I wouldn't be one for looking down on anyones workout but there was a man there that was a little bigger than me doing biceps curls using tiny dumbbells. When he left, I went over to have a look at them...... 2kg :eek:

I'm a newbie but even I know that's a waste of time - although I should probably give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he was injured or something (but then again, why would he even be in the gym if he was?)....

Yeah, I never take appearances in a gym for granted. In most cases I'd have more respect for the guy using a lighter weight, he may indeed be recovering from injury or working on form etc. A lot of rotator cuff stuff may look like curls also.

marathonic

shootermacg wrote: »

Yeah, I never take appearances in a gym for granted. In most cases I'd have more respect for the guy using a lighter weight, he may indeed be recovering from injury or working on form etc. A lot of rotator cuff stuff may look like curls also.

Good point. I done a lot of research on rotator cuff injuries last Thursday when I thought I'd injured mine. It must be a nightmare to get injured as it seems to put you out for 6+ months.

A lot of the people who I read about lost interest in the gym only to come back to start again up to 2 years later.

Thankfully, I've managed my last two workouts fine. I did feel it a little sore doing dumbbell presses today but it must be just DOMS - I think that, if I can push out chins, dips, bench presses, renegade rows, shrugs and so on, it's reasonable to assume that it's not a rotator cuff tear like I'd thought last week.