Biceps Training

Last time we looked at triceps, now let’s look at biceps. These are the two muscles that every guy wants to make big and prominent. Well developed biceps are impressive, no doubt. Thick biceps speak of power, strength, athleticism, and more. We will start with the anatomy and function of this group. This group consists of two muscle heads, the short head and the long head. These muscles are the primary movers when it comes to curling your forearm up and rotating it. By The upper portion of the biceps assist with shoulder movement. A simple muscle with a simple design.

Training this muscle group is by far the most popular exercise based on how many people at my gym focus on them. This claim is also bouyed by the large number of ways to train the biceps in compound movements and isolation techniques. If you look up biceps training on google the return wil have a list of around 50 different exercises. Many of these are isolation techniques hitting just the biceps. There is likely a rack of EZ-Curl bars at your facility. I used this style of bar for years and saw little growth in my arms. The issue with this type of bar is that included in the movement is the forearm muscle known as the brachialis. This muscle does overlap the elbow and insert through the out and lower portion of the biceps. If your intent is to train just biceps then the EZ-Curl bar is not for you. Using a straight bar will isolate and engage your biceps fat more effectively. This is how the giants and greats of yesteryear did it. Arnold Schwarzenegger was immensely proud of his biceps. He built the foundation of those massive arms with a straight bar curl. For me, I have had better results with the straight bar, also. Using a bar or using a cable for curls are both going to attack the target muscle. The difference between the two is that, with a cable curl, you can have more tension against the biceps at the peak contraction whereas with the bar gravity is focusing the weight down towards your elbow. This distinction is necessary to know. If you follow the advice of the Masters, such as Jow Weider, you will contract and hold your biceps at the peak. The cable and the angle of the tension will provide more tension against the biceps at the peak. This makes for a more effective peak contraction. As with triceps, I recommend doing sonpiund movements first, then isolating the biceps. I choose bent row and upright row as the techniques in my current training cycle. Both of these involve the biceps to a degree. After warming up the muscles I isolate with cable curls. Simple yet effective. For more of a challenge in trading this group the positions of flexion technique (POC) may bring you more satisfaction. This technique trains the biceps through a contracted, stretched, and midrange position. To do this you will perform concentration curls with a dumbbell for the sets and reps you need. Usually, three sets of 10 will be more than adequate. Second, os training the muscles in the stretched position. This will be done with incline dumbbell curls. I can assure you that these will hit the biceps in a very noticeable way. You will feel it. Third, will be standard curls. Use a straight bar as discussed above. This series of POF techniques will leave your arms pumped and on fire. Another champion competitor, Mike Mentzer, promoted training biceps through lat pull-downs. Mr. Mentzer held the belief that you can get a fuller range of motion and better results in this exercise. He said that his favorite way to do this was with palms towards you as if you were doing a chin-up and with a close grip on the bar. Scientifically, we know that this grip position uses more biceps than the wide grip with palms away from you. If you follow Mr. Mentzer’s techniques and routines you will perform one set to absolute failure. The tempo will be slow and deeply deliberate. There will be a peak contraction on the movement for several seconds. Time under tension (TUT) is a technique Mr. Mentzer swore by. Performing these exercises, and any other as well, in such a slow and deliberate manner will burn out muscle fibers in a short amount of time. Three sets would be unnecessary if you follow the philosophy and training style here. The main point immediately was how to use this pull-down to target your biceps. As with any other exercise, growth will come as a result of overloading the trained muscles. Each time you do these strive for more repetitions or use a larger weight. The overload principle, one codified and proven by Joe Weider, will see you gaining muscle strength and size in short order.