I need some serious help with my biceps!!!

[no_oops]

Well . . . my biceps are driving me crazy. It seems like no matter what I do, they just wont grow any more. I've made quite a bit of progress since I started working out, but I'm still no where near where I want to be. I've been doing bicep curls, low row, preacher curls, hammer curls, pull ups, chin ups, lat pull down . . . Is there some miracle exercise out there that I should be doing? Something that is very frustrating is that when I work out my biceps, they don't get sore or tight like my legs/abbs/chest do when I work out. Is this normal? What does get sore and tight, are my forearms. Does this mean that I'm doing something wrong?

 

Thx,

Drew

[Guest]

What set rep scheme are you using? What tempo are you curling to?

 

Do you do direct forearm work? This article is interesting.

Thib's Quick Tricks

3 More Quick and Dirty Ways to Build Muscle

by Christian Thibaudeau

http://www.tmuscle.com/article/most_recent/thibs_quick_tricks

[VeganDrew]

Great post, 4x4! That all looks really helpful!

 

I've been neglecting my forearms, too!

 

[sydneyvegan]

All I can say is.

Don't get to carried away with the weight, I see a lot of people doing bicep work who are swinging the weight, using their shoulders, or moving their body to do the reps. If you drop the weight and nail the technique you will get a definite pump and hit the little old bicep, that much more.

You can get some good results from doing a few exercises well, rather than doing 27 exercises badly.

Maybe tri some super sets to get you over a plateau

Reverse Grip Curls SS Inclince Dumbbell Curls

Barbell 21's (7 half up, 7 half down, 7 full)

Dumbbell 21's (7 - heavy weight ss 7 medium weight ss 7 light weight)

[Lean and Green]

All I can say is.

Don't get to carried away with the weight, I see a lot of people doing bicep work who are swinging the weight, using their shoulders, or moving their body to do the reps.

 

Barbell 21's (7 half up, 7 half down, 7 full)

Dumbbell 21's (7 - heavy weight ss 7 medium weight ss 7 light weight)

 

X2

 

i like

 

-rev incline bench, dbell +arm over the top of the bench to isolate and change routine up.

-wide+med+narrow on a barbell curls ss

-cable tow rope curls

-i do a countdown X10, rest 10 sec x 9 rest 9 all the way to 1 rep nonstop with a barbell.

 

stuff like that and the rest of this thread is really good too!

 

thx for the advice on twitter btw; i applied with odr and i'll keep you posted!

[Guest]

My advice would be not to get so hung up about your 'ceps - they're one of the smallest muscle groups, anyway. Just keep training hard (and smart) and they'll grow along with the rest of the body. If overtraining one particular muscle group without adding the same amount of volume/intensity for the others really worked, the guys you see doing nothing but preacher curls in your gym would sport humungous gunz, yet, as we all know, nothing could be further from the truth. It's a slow process and the more advanced you become, the slower the gains. Keep at it and results are almost guaranteed. Personally, I observed the most biceps and forearm growth from doing lots of heavy-ass pull-ups, chins, clean & presses, deadlifts, etc. (these stimulate way human growth hormone and other goodies) and not that much from wanking with countless sets of concentration curls, hammer curls and other "exercises" that are basically variations of the same movement.

[joelk]

Barbell curls and dumbell curls or close grip chinups, 2-3 working sets of 5-8 reps twice per week. They are a small muscle group so they don't need many sets or exercises and they tend to revover pretty quickly. Fast rep speed and don't lock out at the top or bottom of the movement.

[Lean and Green]

I am glad you mention this. I had been training for quite some time this way in regards to my biceps. I have much opposition from others including my partner to lock out and have a more full range of motion and not to keep the rep speed to fast. Guess just goes to show that there is more than one school of thought and they both work I will get back to doing it my way now too!

 

Barbell curls and dumbell curls or close grip chinups, 2-3 working sets of 5-8 reps twice per week. They are a small muscle group so they don't need many sets or exercises and they tend to revover pretty quickly. Fast rep speed and don't lock out at the top or bottom of the movement.

[Devils Plaything]

Deep, heavy squats. That's my advice.

[joelk]

Deep, heavy squats. That's my advice.

 

I see you've been reading up on some of Tom Platz's philosphies

[Devils Plaything]

Not really, no. Afaik squats push your hormone production a lot an are therefore recommendable for muscle gains in general.

[no_oops]

Thanks for the advice everybody. Seems to be helping already. I really appreciate it. My newest problem is that my forearms will sometimes get sore for days after I work my biceps. Any ideas on what this might be?

[VeganEssentials]

Agree with the "don't stress doing tons of direct work" theory as well.

 

When my arms got to about 19", I did maybe 2-3 sets of hammer curls twice per month, tops. The rest came from squats, deadlifts, and rows and that was more than enough.

 

I'm sure there are some people who will require more direct work, but I think that sometimes we get too hung up on isolation stuff and tend to overlook that, even if you don't do a lot of direct arm work, doing plenty of compound movements will have their own positive impact on growth.

[sydneyvegan]

Thanks for the advice everybody. Seems to be helping already. I really appreciate it. My newest problem is that my forearms will sometimes get sore for days after I work my biceps. Any ideas on what this might be?

 

Could be a few things...

1. DOM's due to the fact you are isolating muscles that you haven't really worked out much before.

2. If it is lower down in your arm near your wrist it could be a bit of strain on your wrist etc.

I had this problem when I was doing a lot of heavy preacher curls. So I concentrated on strengthening my wrists and forearms, using wrist curls and hammer curls etc

 

Just on a side note, I've rediscovered Strict curls in my own training!

Just stand up against a wall and do your barbell curls, making sure the back of your head, butt and back stay in contact with the wall.

An awesome exercise for smashing your bi's.

[DCNINJA]

Repeating a little of what has been said here. First heavy duty real iron pounding squats, deads, and rows on back and leg days to get the hormones pumping. Second make sure your triceps are good. Most people worry about arm size and forget the upper arm is mostly tricep.

 

I agree with the school of thought that is saying don't worry about weight. Arms respond best in my opinion to good form. It is too easy to use shoulders and back to make a curl. First make sure you are doing multiple grip training. Pronate, suppinate and neutral grip. Each of these hit the bicep in a different way and will give you real growth. I have seen people put an inch on a bicep by simply adding a neutral grip exercise. The exercises everyone is recommending here are all great. Experiment with them and figure out what works for you. Also experiment with rep ranges.

[evolveahimsa]

hopefully your form is good and you go to full extensions on all your curls and chins? chins with a really close grip can add size. not sure if you are a hardgainer or not but, you might have to start eating a little more too. also, don't neglect your triceps!!

[Guest]

hopefully your form is good and you go to full extensions on all your curls and chins? chins with a really close grip can add size. not sure if you are a hardgainer or not but, you might have to start eating a little more too. also, don't neglect your triceps!!

What do you mean by full extension? Locking the elbows while curling is bad for the elbows.

[evolveahimsa]

hopefully your form is good and you go to full extensions on all your curls and chins? chins with a really close grip can add size. not sure if you are a hardgainer or not but, you might have to start eating a little more too. also, don't neglect your triceps!!

What do you mean by full extension? Locking the elbows while curling is bad for the elbows.

 

You should never lock any of your joints or make sudden jerking motions when lifting (which can lead to joint damage), good form is injury prevention. However, sometimes I see people in the gym that curl or do chin-ups where their arms only reach about 110 or 120 degree angles on the negative part of the repetition and such only works a limited part of the muscle (a forceful return to 180 degrees would be a "locked" position) I always do chins to dead hang and come down to 165, 170 degree angles on most curls.

[Tarz]

You could also try reverse curls – not reverse grip curls – where your start position is your chest and you lower the weight, as opposed to a standard curl where you start by raising the weight from your hips/waist.

 

I like half curls, whereby you only curl 90 degrees as opposed to the standard 180 degrees.

 

You could try super-slow sets too.

 

Not sure if these would have an effect or not, but I like to vary my bicep exercises.

[CollegeB]

Doing the compound movements should help. Rows especially. However, sometimes they just don't do it for you, you know? And you gotta curl. One concentration exercise you can try is to get an incline bench and do curls while seated on it. Seated curls are also a good option. Do you ever work with an e-z bar? also a device called the arm blaster might be of value to you.

[ericscottf]

I've plateaued on my biceps too.

I was stripping on a standing preacher bench from my 1RM down to an empty ez-curl bar 3 times per session, then once with a tricep bar. All sets alternating between the two angles on the bench.

My arms would be sore for a day or so after, but no real growth.

I would also do chinups on a cable machine in between sets.

Now i'm starting with low weight and a set number of reps and adding weight upwards until failure.

We'll see how this affects my plateau.

 

You also have to recognize that enormous "looking" biceps are also a lot of tricep. Not only that, but I don't think it is even possible to have giant biceps without having enormous triceps too. Don't neglect your dips and other tricep exercises!

 

A related question -- when i fatigue my biceps really well, the next day, the only part that is sore is the part closest to my elbow, say, the first 1-2 inches. I've never had my biceps sore close to my shoulder or even the middle.

Is this normal?

[no_oops]

A related question -- when i fatigue my biceps really well, the next day, the only part that is sore is the part closest to my elbow, say, the first 1-2 inches. I've never had my biceps sore close to my shoulder or even the middle.

Is this normal?

 

I get the same thing too.

[Pegesus]

lately i have worked on 30 degree incline bicep curls. I find myself curling less weight but it is alot harder for me and gives me a great workout. I do them twice per week on the second workout I superset them with Preacher Curls. This just about leaves my arms as wet noodles. This has been a great change over the usual standing DB curls or cable curls i was doing prior.