Need help to grow Biceps.

[Jade]

Kia ora,

ANy one got any tips on how to attack the biceps? THey are my only weakness. TRis, chest, shoulders and back are coming along fine, i've started hitting them 2 times per week. I have noticed a slight change but not much. ANy advice??

[jono]

ive been making pretty good gains on mine recently.i just focus on form, contracting the muscle, and feeling it contract. dont worry about how much weight your using.

personally i think training bis twice a week, PLUS training back hard is too much work for the bis. training back hard should kill your bis as well.

[Marcus]

Look at adding some high rep sets to your workouts. 20+ reps.

[Growth]

I agree with Marcus on this one, try some high rep work if you arent already. Also make sure your hitting the back hard too, chins, rows etc.

[Cornfed]

High reps with preacher curls seem to be good for the initial buildup. Also, it is difficult to overtrain biceps, so if they are lagging you could train them up to three times a week.

[deegee]

Yep , higher rep work has worked for me biceps ar one muscle I really do take to failure and beyond often, as they respond well but not 3 times a week, but if that has worked for you before cornfed then fair enough. I wouldnt recommend it

[ExpensiveUrine]

It's hard to say without seeing your overall training programme/nutrition outline/goals but I'd think that jono is right on the money. Pulling/Pushing movements should take care of your biceps. Maybe a couple of direct sets after that.

[Brad]

I'm with deegee - you're probably overtraining them

I hit mine hard once a week after my back workout and give them a whole weeks rest. They only grow while resting remember.

Also a drop set thrown in as your high rep set is a good idea.

[Varven]

Jade JT,

Do you squat and deadlift ? ...

might be a bizarre question but answer it and youll see where this is heading.

[ExpensiveUrine]

chamon guys!1 we all know u need 25 setz fo teh gunz!!

[Varven]

"how to squat for HUGE ARMS"

By Stuart McRobert

Adapted from his best-selling book BRAWN

To build muscle mass, you must increase strength. It's that simple. You will never get huge arms, a monstrous back, a thick chest, or massive legs without lifting heavy weights. I know that probably doesn't come as a revelation to anyone. But despite how obvious it seems, far too many people (and not just beginners) neglect power training and rarely make increasing the weights lifted in each successive workout a priority. You must get strong in the basic mass building exercises to bring about a significant increase in muscle size. One of the biggest mistakes typical bodybuilders make is when they implement specialization routines before they have the right to use them.

It constantly amazes me just how many neophytes (beginners), near neophytes, and other insufficiently developed bodybuilders plunge into single-body part specialization programs in the desperate attempt to build big arms. I don't fault them for wanting big arms, but their approach to getting them is flawed. For the typical bodybuilder who is miles away from squatting 1 ½ times their bodyweight for 20 reps (if you weigh 180 lbs., that means 20 reps with 270 lbs.), an arm specialization program is utterly inappropriate and useless.

The strength and development needed to squat well over 1 ½ times bodyweight for 20 reps will build bigger arms faster then focusing on biceps and triceps training with isolation exercises. Even though squats are primarily a leg exercise, they stress and stimulate the entire body. But more importantly, if you are able to handle heavy weights in the squat, it logically follows that the rest of your body will undoubtedly be proportionally developed. It's a rare case that you would be able to squat 1 ½ times your bodyweight and not have a substantial amount of upper body muscle mass.

This is not to say that you don't need to train arms, and squats alone will cause massive upper body growth. You will still work every body part, but you must focus on squats, deadlifts, and rows—the exercises that develop the legs, hips, and back. Once you master the power movements and are able to handle impressive poundages on those lifts, the strength and muscle you gain will translate into greater weights used in arm, shoulder and chest exercises.

In every gym I've ever visited or trained in, there were countless teenage boys blasting away on routines, dominated by arm exercises, in the attempt to build arms like their idols. In the ‘70s, they wanted arms like Arnold Schwarzenegger, in the ‘80s Robby Robinson was a favorite and currently Mr. Olympia, Ronnie Coleman, has set the standard everyone wants to achieve. Unfortunately the 3 aforementioned men as well as most other top bodybuilders have arm development far beyond the reach of the average (or even above average) weight trainer. But arm size can be increased. However, not in the way young trainers, with physiques that don't even have the faintest resemblance to those of bodybuilders are attempting to make progress. Thin arms, connected to narrow shoulders, fixed to shallow chest, joined to frail backs and skinny legs, don't need body part specialization programs. Let's not have skewed priorities. Let's not try to put icing on the cake before the cake has been baked.

Priorities

Trying to stimulate a substantial increase in size in a single body part, without first having the main structures of the body in pretty impressive condition, is to have turned bodybuilding upside-down, inside-out and back to front.

The typical bodybuilder simply isn't going to get much meat on his arms, calves, shoulders, pectorals and neck unless he first builds a considerable amount of muscle around the thighs, hips and back. It simply isn't possible—for the typical drug-free bodybuilder, that is—to add much if any size to the small areas unless the big areas are already becoming substantial.

There's a knock-on (additive) effect from the efforts to add substantial size to the thigh, hip and back structure (closely followed by upper body pushing structure-pecs and delts). The smaller muscle groups, like the biceps, and triceps will progress in size (so long as you don't totally neglect them) pretty much in proportion to the increase in size of the big areas. It's not a case of getting big and strong thighs, hips, back and upper-body pushing structure with everything else staying put. Far from it. As the thigh, hip, back and upper-body pushing structure grows, so does everything else. Work hard on squats and deadlifts, in addition to bench presses, overhead presses and some type of row or pulldown. Then you can add a little isolation work—curls, calf raises and neck work (but not all of this at every workout).

The “Driverâ€

[Jade]

Kia ora,

Appreciate all the tips, I'll try putting some of that information in to action over my next training cycle.

Thanks.

JT

[sponge]

Jade JT,

Do you squat and deadlift ? ...

might be a bizarre question but answer it and youll see where this is heading.

bump to this

[Jade]

Kia ora,

I've put more focus on my deadlifts and squats to gain more thickness on my frame to up my bicep growth factor. See where things go. Thanks heaps.

[Marcus]

Good idea man.

[jono]

Kia ora,

I've put more focus on my deadlifts and squats to gain more thickness on my frame to up my bicep growth factor. See where things go. Thanks heaps.

foccusing on squats / dls is a givin. focus hard on heavy back work. this will really help your bis grow.

[badboy]

I don't know how long you have been training and how savvy you are with the basics etc but something that i found useful after years of bicep training is when you add serious weight to the basic exercises like bb curls, db curls etc they will certainly grow.

In my case concentrating on as near to perfect form as possible and just adding incremental weight and progressively more reps added an inch to my arms in pretty quick time after a few years of stagnancy.

I believe i was bb curling 70kgs for sets of 12-15 at the time pretty easily and then had my partner take me up to the next level - 80 kg bb curls for sets of 12. My bis grew fast. And once i started getting spotted from 10-12 reps up to around 20 they really exploded.

But be careful and patient - I belive (as i can only offer from personal exp.) that your body will go thru periods of growth, stagnancy and sometimes regression. Its just all part of the cycle - just make sure the highs are progessively higher and the lows a little higher every time and that means you are doing the basics right.

[Pseudonym]

your body will go thru periods of growth, stagnancy and sometimes regression. Its just all part of the cycle

:nod: I think so. It's not fashionable to say it, of course, but it often seems all you can do in bbing is ensure you're doing everything right, then hoping your body's in a phase where it can respond. To use a surfing analogy - pointing your board in the right direction, then waiting for the wave.

[deegee]

your body will go thru periods of growth, stagnancy and sometimes regression. Its just all part of the cycle

:nod: I think so. It's not fashionable to say it, of course, but it often seems all you can do in bbing is ensure you're doing everything right, then hoping your body's in a phase where it can respond. To use a surfing analogy - pointing your board in the right direction, then waiting for the wave.

I don think this is wrong at all I always go through these cycles, somtimes I just cant win in the gym for a while no matter what the diet and other factors. I do tweak things a bit but as you say sometimes its just wait and keep at it and hope you catch another wave.

[Tehhaxorr]

My biceps are by far my strong point, just curl 20kg DBs untill you can't curl no more :grin:

[Pittbull]

I personally think that as a few of the other bro's have said, if you're hitting your back with enough intensity & useing big movements like chins, rows etc at the end of back your bi's are really feeling it too, do 1 exercise with 3 sets of high rep work (20-30) on bi's then leave them alone till arm day.

I've found this has generated a groth explosion for me in the past if I reached a sticking point.

Hope this helps,

Pittbullâ„¢

[deegee]

The change to a high rep routine for a short duration is one i prefer too

[FastFreddy]

MORNING

i see some good ideas and some not good ones in this discussion

first,like some of the boys say:push and pull good weights and ya biceps will get indirect stiumution,

id be inclines to train them with shoulders and triceps(but before tris so you can work them harder has ya energy will be high still,

id not train them the same day as back because you will over train them,

having a leg day between upperbody workouts.

fail fail and fail them every bicep day,make them fail so they have to adapt! grow bigger!!! and strongher!!!

i find one working set till failer, after a good warm up set seem to hit them to grow!

and i new movement each time so they dont adapt to it

any more than that id over train them