Ask Jtrain: Bicep Growth and "Feeling" the Weight

"Why is it that normally, and following correct technique, my biceps do not seem to feel the weight? I try, and i try, but they don't really grow quickly. I do not want massive arms,and a chicken body, but why can i not feel it?"

Thank you for your question!  Yours will be the first that I answer, and so I hope it is to your satisfaction! I'm actually typing this out while flying on a plane, so there are a lot of first time things going on here haha.

When it comes to biceps, there are few things you really need to keep in mind, but those few things are very important. While the bicep is a very easy muscle to stimulate and exercise (i.e. you don't really need to worry too much about body positioning, and doing a curl motion is adequate enough for them to start growing), there are some things I want you to keep in mind.

I'm going to assume that what you mean by "feel" the weight is a combination of getting a satisfactory feeling of lift while at the same time achieving a satisfactory pump (that amazing feeling you get when all of the blood starts rushing into your muscle, inflating it and making it look and feel massive). Here is my advice for achieving both:

• Range of Motion: The most important thing you want to think about first when doing a bicep exercise is getting a full stretch in the arm at the stretch range of motion (when the weight is coming down), and and flexing really hard and holding that flex for a good half a second to a second at the flex range of motion before coming back down. Often times I'll see people not leave their arms hanging straight at their sides (a complete vertical angle) when they're coming down from their flex. I see a lot of 90-120 degree angles made before the person comes back into the flex motion. Do not do that. To achieve a nice repetition from a motion standpoint, it is important you get the FULL range of motion. So from a technique standpoint in many, if not all, bicep exercises, fully flex the muscle on its way up (like really squeeze the heck out of that bicep head when you get to the end flex range of motion), but also fully extend your arms on the way down.
• Lift until failure: You have achieved set success with biceps when you keep screaming in your mind for your biceps to move, but literally nothing you do will get your arm to move the weight up towards your chest. Every single set should be that way with biceps. 
• Weight Choice: As far as "feeling the weight", I think that maybe your issue might be one of weight choice. Do you know what weight you will absolutely fail at around the 8-12 rep range? That's the weight you want to lift. 
• Drop Sets: Consider incorporating drop sets to each of your sets. If you're not getting a satisfactory pump in your bicep head, then after performing your set of a particular exercise, say barbell or dumbbell curls, put that weight down and immediately do the same exercise on the same set with a weight that is 10-30 pounds lighter and lift that until failure. 

I won't make a bullet point out of it, since this goes for all muscle groups and growing them, but also take a look at your nutrition. Maybe you're eating the right things, but not in enough quantities to feed the biceps if in fact your bicep routine is satisfactory for muscle growth stimulation. Eat big for big growth!

As for having a disproportionate arm size to the rest of your body, that's up to you and how you design your workout routine. Remember to develop a balanced workout plan that does not give too much attention to one thing and not enough to others. For bodybuilding, that means that you want to give love to ALL of your muscle groups. So long as you are doing that equally to each of them and putting in the same kind of intensity, you probably won't have to worry about a disproportionate body aesthetic.

Hope that helps! Lift hard, kill those biceps with your intensity, and force them to grow!

-Jtrain

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