Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Personally, I feel that my biceps workout is lacking. I wish I felt like it was more substantial. Does anyone have any advice? Right now I do dumbbell curls and hammer curls on alternating weeks.

" Where the attitude goes, the mind goes. Where the mind goes, the body goes. Where the body goes, others will follow"

Preacher curls, 21s might be good to try. I have a separate day for arms but honestly my biceps feel the most wrecked after back day, not the designated bicep and tricep day...

I will have to try those. I am currently doing biceps on my back day. In a few weeks I will change it up. Most likely to an opposing muscle group setup. Antagonistic I think is what it is called.

" Where the attitude goes, the mind goes. Where the mind goes, the body goes. Where the body goes, others will follow"

Add wrist curls and reverse wrist curls to increase your grip strength and balance out the muscles at the base of your arm. Then, add some oldies-but-goodies: concentration curls against the inside of your knee. Switch it up with Slow Reps on those, where you take ten seconds to go up and ten seconds to go down, essentially flexing the muscle the entire time (use lighter weights for that). Try using a short bar or the rope grip for cable curls. Meanwhile, start using your non-dominant hand to do more stuff, like opening doors and reaching for things. Adds balance and trains your brain to shunt more energy to your weak side on a regular basis. Stretch lightly throughout the day to keep your joints lubed up while they strengthen.

Kick ass!

Baby Herc

Definitely. One thing I stayed away from was cables. It sounds like I should add more variety to my workout. I never thought about learning to use my non dominant hand for things.

" Where the attitude goes, the mind goes. Where the mind goes, the body goes. Where the body goes, others will follow"

I have to disagree; few things in the gym are more ridiculous than seeing some skinny guy hunched over doing endless concentration curls.

Forget the curls & focus on deadlifts, rows, pull ups, chin ups; these are the key to big arms. Also bear in mind that to add 1 inch to your arms you generally need to add 1 stone in bodyweight, so you need to eat plenty too.

Preacher curls(seated and using an EZ curl bar) are a good way to build biceps. Barbell curls are also good to add on size. Then to shape do concentration curls, alternating dumbbell curls etc.

My 13" biceps are proof enough for me! And I always cheer on the "skinny guys" in the gym...as well as the fat ones, short ones, tall ones, young ones, and old ones. Bottom line: they're in there, lifting. They're taking action with the future in mind. Plus, they have the balls to show up even when there are idiots out there judging them for not looking like the cover photo of a muscle mag. You can't tell a damned thing about a person just by looking at them, the most you can say is that your eyes are workin'.

Besides, hellguy is smart by gathering info from all corners. Only he can say for sure what's right for him in the end. If he sticks to his guns--pun intended--he'll be giving himself one hell of a gift for Christmas.

Baby Herc

Very well said. Thanks again for the vote of confidence.

One of the coolest guys I ever saw in the gym was an old man that was frail and carried oxygen with him. He would do the lifecycle circuit. It would take him a few minutes to get off of one machine and get on the next but he didn't give up. If he can do it, I can do it.

" Where the attitude goes, the mind goes. Where the mind goes, the body goes. Where the body goes, others will follow"

One thing to note, the more compound lifting you do via deadlifts, barbell rows, etc. the more your biceps get worked without your knowing, which often provides quality muscle stimulation without the need for much added in the way of extra biceps work. I think I've trained mine about 6 times since the start of the year, and my arms never have gone below 18", due to the fact that my upper and lower back work (plus benching and overhead pressing) puts them to the test with frequency.

If you're not doing much for compound lifts, then you could likely require a bit more for biceps work. I've always been partial to hammer curls (either cross-body or normal), they help me kick in a bit more forearm work with it and tend to feel the most comfortable on my biceps for a natural plane of movement. But, unless you've already got big arms that need more refinement than anything else, there's little reason to spend a lot of time doing extra biceps work. I see WAY too many people doing 10+ sets in a session when 3-5 would be plenty - remember, they're a small muscle group that recovers quickly (so long as you don't keep hammering them directly and/or indirectly without adequate recovery time), and if since you don't need 30+ sets for other larger body parts to grow, there's no reason to force excessive volume on smaller ones! Quality over quantity.

Couldn't of said it better myself. Less is defiantly more where biceps come in.
They are relatively a small muscle group so don't need pounding. If your not hitting many compounds then some additional movements would be called for.

I find undergrip rows really gives me a good pump there! Build a strong back & your biceps will also follow

If you want to work 100% of you biceps and biceps only, isolation exercises are the best. Added compound lifts are not bad, but I believe are not the best way. Any time you add a compound lift in attempts to target a specific muscle group you are technically doing the exact opposite. The more muscle groups that are involved in any anatomical movement requires more ATP and glycogen to be spread out to the muscles required = less for the primary muscle.

Isolated biceps brachii movements will devote nearly all of you energy towards that particular movement. Whenever you do movements like rows, etc., yes you are using you biceps, but also you rhomboids, lattisimus dorsi, posterior delts, errectus spinae, legs for balance, etc (you get what I'm saying). Compound exercises are great for shocking the muscle, neurological pathway training for specific movements, and variety. I don't want what I'm saying to get confused with forearm workouts or anything else, I'm talking specifically about isolating the biceps.

My advice would be if you're looking to increase strength in you biceps. Look at the anatomical movements and make sure you are isolating both heads as much as possible when lifting. Hands always supinated (palms upward) and elbow movement as none existant as possible. To isolate more of the short head, use the elbow flexion machine, but put the seat low enough for shoulder flexion to occure. I have to get back to work, but look up passive and active insufficiencys of any muscle group and you'll get a better idea of what I'm saying as well as ways to increase intensity, actin and myosin interaction, and isolate specific muscles as much as possible. Any more questions feel free to ask

Finally, someone who won't give me a slack-jawed, deer-in-the-headlights look when I talk about VMR, mind-body focus, and building myelin sheaths.

Baby Herc

Huh???????

:=D

Where the attitude goes, the mind goes. Where the mind goes, the body goes. Where the body goes, others will follow.

Try weighted chinups.