What Lifts Should You Do to Get Huge Biceps?

The biceps are located at the front of your upper arm and they're worked whenever you're forced to bend your elbows against resistance. You can significantly increase the size of your bicep muscles by participating in frequent weight training, using exercises that specifically target the muscles. There are a variety of exercises that develop the biceps and you should create a battery of them for each workout session.

  1. Building Bicep Muscle

    • In order to build a significant amount of muscle you must complete frequent workouts of high volume, meaning they need to utilize multiple sets of a higher number of repetitions. Dr. Joseph Chromiak of the National Strength and Conditioning Association recommends lifting two to three days per week, allowing at least a day of rest between each session so your muscle groups have time to recover, heal and grow. Multiple bicep exercises should be included in each session, with each workout consisting of a total of about eight sets in order to adequately overload your biceps and stimulate muscle growth. Each set should consist of 6 to 12 repetitions each.

    Effective Bicep Exercises

    • Specific strength training exercises that effectively target the biceps include standing barbell curl, standing dumbbell curl, dumbbell hammer curl and dumbbell concentration curls. Choose an array of exercises for each workout session. Providing a variety of bicep exercises to your workouts will prevent your biceps from hitting a plateau and will continue their development.

    Techniques

    • To complete standing bicep curls, whether using a barbell or a set of dumbbells, stand with your feet shoulder width apart. Allow your arms to hang by your side and hold the barbell or dumbbells with your palms facing in front of you. Keep your elbows into your torso and bend your elbows to bring the weight up towards your shoulder. Do not jerk and thus use momentum in an attempt to lift heavier weights. To complete dumbbell hammer curl, stand with feet shoulder width apart and allow your arms to hang by your side with your palms facing the side of your thighs. Bend your elbows to bring the dumbbells up towards your shoulders. To complete dumbbell concentration curls, sit down and place your feet slightly wider than your hips. You will work one arm at a time. Bend over at the waist and place your elbow of the arm holding the dumbbell into the inside of your thigh. Allow your elbow to straighten and hand to hang down to the floor. Bend your elbow to bring the dumbbell up to your shoulder.

    Considerations

    • With each bicep exercise you complete be sure that you're using an appropriate amount of weight. You may need to adjust the weight between exercises. You should be able to complete no more than 12 repetitions and no fewer than six repetitions. If you're unable to reach six, lighten the weight on subsequent sets. Pick up a heavier weight if in an earlier set of any bicep exercise, you're able to complete more than 12 repetitions.