My Top 5 Bicep Exercises

I don't know about you, but I love working out my biceps. Unlike a lot of other exercises, you don't necessarily have to be concerned with angeling up a nice line of drive or doing any kind of special "pre-motion" before doing a bicep exercise. All you really need to worry about with bicep reps are contracting and flexing / pumping them at the end range of flex motion, and fully extending your arms on the way back down. Once you make sure of that (as well as good weight choice / rep ranges), getting a nice pump and workout from the biceps is fairly easy. Bicep exercises don't feel as terrible  as say leg exercises, and you look cool and intense when you do them in the gym.

Today I will continue my "Top 5" series by discussing the biceps, and my favorite five exercises on days that I work them out.

The biceps are also known as the biceps brachii. It gets its name from being a two-headed muscle, and its main function is involvement with elbow movement and forearm supination (wikipedia). It is composed of a long head and a short head

Source: idfa.ca





Biceps exercises are mainly just curling motions.....which further adds to my opinion of them being an easy muscle to work out. Arm placement, on bicep exercises that use a barbell for example, can work the inner and/or outer head of the biceps.

My top 5 biceps exercises include:
 

1. DUMBBELL CURLS
 

I know you've seen these before. But let me explain. You may THINK you're doing them right, but you might not be.
 

I used to do bicep dumbbell curls standing up, but there are other ways to do them. Some people like doing them over a preacher-curl apparatus, but I like doing them in a chair, preferably with a slight incline so I can consciously return my arm to a full state of extension when coming down on the full range of motion.

Whichever way you choose to do them, make sure that your elbow is "pinned" to your side. No other part of your body should be used except your forearms to move the weight upward as you hold it in your hand with your palms facing in towards you.

Slowly move the weight up until you feel a flex in your bicep. Once you feel a flex, hold it for half a second, and fully come back down until you get a full stretch in your arm, with your elbows still pinned to your side. Repeat this motion  until failure and, again, be sure not to move any other part of your body to aid you in swinging the weight upward.

Source: fitnessanddefense.com



2. BARBELL CURLS

Barbell curls are done much the same way as dumbbell curls, except they use a barbell instead of dumbbells. You'd probably also want to do these standing. There's also a seated variation of this over a piece of padding, which is then called a preacher curl.

Keeping your elbows pinned to your side, bring the barbell up to the top of your chest until you feel a flex in your biceps. Hold the flex for about half a second, and bring the weight back down to your thighs / quads, making sure to fully extend the arms at the end range of motion.
 

Source: muscle-fitness-tips.net

As a quick aside, I've actually started to de-emphasize exercises that work out both sides of my muscle groups and have leaned more towards focusing on exercises that work out each side at a time. The reason for this is, and you may not have noticed it, that when working both sides at the same time, one side tends to work harder than the other side. So while you may think that the effort put into moving the weight by each side is 50/50, I've found that a lot of times either my left or my right side does most of the work and out-performs the other side (which is why you can sometimes do more reps with another side on isolation exercises later on in your workout). So when you're not focusing one side in your exercises, make a conscious effort to put the same kind of effort into both sides.

 
3. CABLE CURLS

Cable curls are a great isolation exercise that uses the cable cross machine. The idea is the same as when performing dumbbell curls, only this time you're using the cables from the cable cross machine, and curling in towards your chest. The idea behind the flex at the end range of motion and the stretch after coming down is the same. I actually could not find a picture of someone performing this, so I'll just post a picture of the apparatus. Stand in the middle and bend over the knee opposite the bicep you're trying to work out. Let your arm hang down kind of behind your shoulder, and curl in towards your chest. I know it sounds complicated, but if you're doing it right you'll know. I wish I had a picture or video to show you. Hopefully you can get the idea from the picture shown.

Source: imageshack



 Another note: make sure that the arms are down like they are in the picture above.

4. INSIDE-GRIP PULL-UPS

I'm sure you've seen what a pull-up looks like. However, different variations in terms of where you grip the bar, how you flex into the motion, and spacing can work out different muscle groups.

For biceps, hold the bar with your fingers pointed in towards you, with your arms spaced either shoulder-width apart or slightly inside shoulder-width apart.

While hanging down with your arms fully extended, flex your biceps and bring yourself all the way up until your biceps are fully flexed. Slowly lower yourself back down. Keep doing this until you cannot do another pull-up. I believe that this particular kind of pull-up is referred to as a chin-up.

Source: l.yimg.com

It's also important to note that you shouldn't feel discouraged when doing an inside-grip pull-up / chin-up, or any kind of pull-up for that matter. They're difficult to do at first, and not being able to do even one at first is not uncommon. However, the more you do them the easier they get. If you're already a pro, try using a dipping belt to add weight to your pull-ups.
 

5. OVERHEAD CABLE CURLS

Overhead cable curls are another great bicep exercise that utilizes cable machines. However, they do not use the same apparatus as seen in the cable curls described above. You need two distantly spaced cable push-down machines to achieve the proper positioning for this exercise. The equipment used is the same equipment mentioned in my tricep push-down exercise in my top 5 triceps exercises post located here.
 

Pull the push-down pulleys (or whatever they're called) up to above your head on each side. Grab the two handles and pull in with a line of drive slightly behind your head as if you were doing a front double-bicep pose. As with all bicep exercises, hold for half a second at the end flex range of motion and fully extend on your way back. Repeat until failure. This exercise gives you a FANTASTIC pump if you do it right.

Source: menshealth.co.uk

And those are my top 5 biceps exercises. Incorporate them into your arm days or your "pull days" (days that use a pulling motion to achieve a flex like with back, biceps, etc.). It's easy to pump up the biceps and look and feel intense while doing them. So you have no excuse NOT to do them! Let me know what you think, and have fun!

If you have other ideas / biceps exercises you like better, leave a comment and let me know!

-Jtrain

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