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Men often brag with the size of their biceps. The fact is everybody wants to have huge biceps. But that can be only achieved by doing it properly. The genetics also play a big role in bicep size and shape but we don’t have the influence on that.
Bicep muscle has two heads : long – the outer head of biceps branchii , and short – the inner head of biceps branchii , but the brachialis is also considered as the part of the bicep . For overall development of the biceps it’s necessary to combine the exercises that work long head with the ones that work short head of the bicep. Many of them think that to have a huge arms you are suppossed to have a huge biceps. That’s not the truth cause the bicep is only a smaller part of the upper arm and only 1/3 of the upper arm’s size belongs to the bicep muscles so that means that 2/3 belongs to triceps.
Chin ups
This exercise can be used for doing back, but also it’s a great biceps exercise if doing it properly . By keeping your hands close together and focusing on your biceps to lift your body this can become one of the best mass building bicep exercises. Highly recommended.
Barbell Curls
Basic exercise for building the biceps. Here you can go as heavy as you can . This exercise mostly stimulates the short head of the bicep muscle (inner portion). By changing the grip width you change the part of the bicep muscle being stimulate; so if you go wide the short head will be more isolated and if you choose the close grip the outer part of the bicep (the long head) and the brachialis get more involved in the exercise.
When doing the barbell curls your elbows should be locked so only the biceps do the work. If you move your elbows up the shoulders will get involved too. Avoid swinging the bar, that’s cheating – don’t ego lift. The movement should be like : contracting the muscle on the way up and slowly controlled move when bringing the bar down.
This should be your first choice and the No.1 bicep exercise.
Low Pulley Curls
You can do the same move with the barbell or with the cable. The advantage of using the cable is constant tension we get all the way of the move.
Dumbbell Curls
It’s the pretty same move like the first two. You can do it alternating the hands or with both hands at the same time. It stimulates mostly the short head of the biceps.This exercise should also be in your regularly training routine .
Hammer Curls
It’s the similar move like when doing regular dumbbell curls with the difference on your hands position. They should be turned one to each other. That way we stimulate more the long head of the biceps, involving the brachialis and the forearms muscles.
Incline Dumbbell Curls
Every bicep exercise that involves the incline bench will generally stimulate the long head of the muscle. The incline position of the body stretches your arm somewhat more than in vertical position. This exercise can be executed with the cables as well.
Seated Preacher Curls
Preacher curls or Larry Scott curls as they were called according to the first Mr. Olympia who is the inventor of this exercise. This is a great biceps isolation move and we are using the bench exactly to achieve that. The momentum is excluded here so it’s all up to your biceps. It’s mostly a short head exercise but it also includes the long head ( especially when using close grip ) and forearms muscles. Dumbbells and cables can also be used to complete this exercise.
Concentrations Curls
This is an another one biceps isolation exercise. It hits the long head of the muscle and it’s a great choice if you want to achieve that peak. Arnold did it all the time and we all know that his biceps were out of this world. Can be done with the cable or with the dumbbells, either standing or seated. It’s often used as a finishing move to blast the biceps at the end of the workout
