Biceps

thomasdunne21

Any tips for building biceps?

Is it better to use heavy weights at small reps or light weights at high reps?

Usually just do dumbell curls, the z bar and pull ups on the overhead bar. They dont seem to be increasing much in size, have been working out for about 8 months, 3/4 times a week, do biceps twice a week usually.

Should I just spend one full nights training on my biceps?

Any tips appreciated. Thanks!

tunney

Is a Z bar a W bar by another name?

logic1

Biceps are one of the trickier bodyparts for alot of people.
I have to use alot of weight and alot of sets, unusual combination but it works for me. Also I only hit them once a week but dedicate a full session to them usually.

Have you put any bodyweight on since you started training?

They say you need to put on about 10lbs of quality bodyweight to put an inch on your biceps.

My current routine is something like the following:

1.) Standing olympic curls
2.) Seated hammer curls / Alternating seated dumbell curls
3.) Preacher curls
4.) Standing 21's to finish

Remember to build the tri's aswell, biceps only make up 1/3rd of your arm size.

.logic.

tunney

Logic1, I'm familar with preacher curls but not the other three(either its the names or the exercises) any chance of filling us in?

thomasdunne21

Thanks for replying Logic!

Ive put on about half a stone since starting, lost a lot of weight from my stomach as well though. Happy enough with my shape - just need to bulk up.

Those 21's are tough, seem good though.

So - are you saying that I should be doing one good session on my biceps or do them every night?

Could do with bulking up a lot as well though, any tips for that? Protein supplements? Tried that protein powder mix before - didnt see much of an improvement. Do you hear of many ppl taking steroids?

This site is great by the way - very well maintained. Well Done!

logic1

Originally posted by tunney
What the hell is a "Z" bar? Is that like a "W" bar?

An easy curl bar I imagine.

i noticed an increase in my biceps recently, started doing sets of barbell curls 3 times a week in the gym, plus a few sets of dumbell curls and a few sets of chin-ups every day, the pull-ups really make a difference. In short, do something at least 5 days a week for biceps and start doing chin-ups.

Personally I wouldn't recommend this at all. Your body needs time to recover, your biceps are one of the smaller muscle groups therefore are one of the easiest to overtrain. remember your using them when you train back aswell.

Overtraining biceps is one of the major reasons they will not grow. Twice a week if you train them hard enough is more than enough, once a week should be fine.

Again if you see good gains by training them 5 times a week then cool you found what works for you but for the vast majority of people this will be grosse overtraining.

.logic.

tunney

I stand corrected!

So you're saying that by doing chin ups daily I'm doing more bad than good?

tunney

I'm new to the whole "building muscle mass" so I'm only too glad of constructive criticism.

logic1

Originally posted by thomasdunne21
Thanks for replying Logic!

Ive put on about half a stone since starting, lost a lot of weight from my stomach as well though. Happy enough with my shape - just need to bulk up.

Sounds like good solid progress

Those 21's are tough, seem good though.

For total exhaustion I haven't found any better bicep exercise but they are one of the tougher ones.

So - are you saying that I should be doing one good session on my biceps or do them every night?

If you're working out biceps with back one good hard bicep session a week should cover you and prevent over training and catabolism.

Could do with bulking up a lot as well though, any tips for that? Protein supplements? Tried that protein powder mix before - didnt see much of an improvement.

Take a look at tmof.com for good quality cheap protein supplements. One of the best supplements a bodybuilder can take is whey protein or creatine. But supplements need to be exactly that merely a supplement to real food intake.

Do you hear of many ppl taking steroids?

I do But I wouldn't recommend anyone look into this route until they have researched it thoroughly and decided it is what they want to do.

Just in response to Tunney:

Olympic barbell curls are one of the great mass builders for biceps. Load up an olympic bar and simply curl it. Great exercise and very tough.

Seated hammer curl and basically seated alternating dumbell curls but you don't rotate the wrist at the top of the movement, rather hold the dumbell like a hammer all the way up to the squeeze and back down.

For 21's I use a preacher curl bar, load it up and stand then do 7 reps of low range motion bringing the bar from full extended to midway, then 7 reps in the high range motion from midway to fully contracted then the final 7 reps are done with full range of motion. Makes a total of 21 reps per set and is very very tough to complete. But great for total exhaustion.

.logic.

tunney

Cheers, learn something new every day

logic1

Originally posted by tunney

So you're saying that by doing chin ups daily I'm doing more bad than good?

Doing chin ups daily may not be detrimental to bicep development but certainly hitting biceps fairly hard 5 days a week will cause muscle catabolism and will directly effect mass within the bicep region.

But doing chin ups should be fine.

.logic.

tunney

pheeewwwwwwwwwww!

I only do biceps(not all that hard, but going to go harder now I know some more stuff to do!!) in the gym 2/3 times a week, but I enjoy doing chin ups whenever I pass my bar, thought I was going to have to stop for a minute!!!

tomED

Sorry lads, but what are 21's?

Thanks!

tunney

TomEd, logic1 posted what they are in this thread, jsut scroll up!!! I'd have thought a computer professional like yourself would have found it already!

tomED

sorry sorry - yes he did!!!!

apologies... thats what i get for just browsing down the page eh....

i was lookin for the pictures...

Magic Monkey

From my own personal experience, I found that chin/pull ups result in greater bicep hypertrophy (i.e. in the brachialis, and 'peak/head') than my 'regular' bicep weight-training (Standing barbell curls, dumbell/hammer curls) for me.

The weight-training was high weight/low reps, but the chin/pull ups are just regular ones. Used to do Pavel Tsatsouline’s Ladder System (www.cbass.com/Pavel'sLadders.htm) to increase the amount of chin/pull ups I could do, but regular stylee (i.e. up/down, no purposely slow movements) work great I find, alternating between pronated/supinated grips, and width apart of hands.

tunney

greater bicep hypertrophy (i.e. in the brachialis, and 'peak/head')

WTF?

tomED

LOL - u n00b

Magic Monkey

Hypertrophy = Muscle growth

The brachialis is the long underlying muscle of the bicep, and the peak/head is kinda 'on top' of that (actually, I found pronated pullups to work the brachialis better, supinated chinups for the bicep peak/head)

tunney

B*ll**k to this, I've had to use www.dictionary.com 4 or 5 times today for this thread

thomasdunne21

whats the difference between pronated and supinated chin-ups?

thanks

tomED

LOL

me too....

tunney

Courtesy of dictionary.com

Pronated is an overhand grip, supinated is an underhand grip (ie supinated is the normal one)

Magic Monkey

The way I remember it is, 'sup'inated, think 'soup, and the way you hold a bowl of soup, i.e. palms towards you.

Supinated tends to work brachialis/lats, and Pronated biceps (back too, but to a lesser extent IMO). You want to have some fun, grab the bar with one hand, and the wrist of that that arm with your free hand, and _try_ to do chinups that way

Best I ever got was 3!

tunney

SO is Supinated when yuo do them with you palms facing you and Pronated when they face away? I thought it was the other way around?

Jak

Ok to close this off..

Supinated grip is when your palms are facing toward you.

Pronated is the opposite with your palms facing away from your body.


There is also semi supinated where your palms face each other, you can do this by getting a little triangle bar and hanging it over the chin bar.


Anyhows to be even more pedantic, pull ups are with your palms facing away from you and hit your back a bit more.

Chin ups are the other two.

thomasdunne21

Tried your routine last night Logic, was tough but worth it, my biceps are quite sore today so must have been good. Thanks for your help Logic.

logic1

Originally posted by thomasdunne21
Tried your routine last night Logic, was tough but worth it, my biceps are quite sore today so must have been good. Thanks for your help Logic.

No probs

.logic.

tunney

Tried the 21s over the weekend. Fu*k me they're tough.

pookster

For the standard barbell curls, try bending the wrists slightly away from you. It makes it tougher