The Only 3 Bicep Exercises You Need
Welcome to the gun show
The Biceps. One of the most important muscles to develop and strengthen in your upper body. They look great and are critical for all the lifting, pushing, and pulling we do daily!
But how do you grow them properly? You can’t just grab a barbell and curl away for the next eight months to get boulders in your arms. A properly trained, well-defined bicep is moulded by targeting every part of the muscle at a high degree of intensity. There are hundreds of bicep exercises on the wide web, but I’ll show you the only three you need to get massive guns.
A lesson in bicep anatomy
Before discussing exercises, let’s talk briefly about the anatomy of your bicep.
Your bicep is made up of (technically) 2 different heads. The short head is responsible for the thickness of your bicep from the side, and the long head is responsible for your biceps “peak.” There’s also a third muscle, the brachialis, that we’ll talk about a little later. For now, let’s focus on both heads of the bicep.
Now, how do your biceps actually grow?
Think about doing a barbell curl. Your elbows are tucked in, and you pull the weight up to your chin and fully flex your biceps at the top of the motion. Then you lower the barbell, returning it to the starting position with your arms fully extended at the bottom. Wanna guess at which point during the motion your biceps are under the most tension? You would surprisingly be wrong if you guessed at the top of the motion. In reality, your biceps are under the most tension on the way down when your elbows are extended, and your biceps are stretched.
Check out this recent study here, where two groups performed preacher curls in two different ways. One group only did the top half of the movement, where your biceps are fully flexed, and another did only the bottom half, where your biceps are stretched. Remarkably, the test group that only performed the bottom of the motion experienced 3x more bicep growth than the other.
Keeping that in mind, let’s start talking about exercises.
1. The Preacher Curl
Utilized in the study above, the preacher curl is one of the best bicep exercises to isolate the long head of the bicep and focus on the stretch at the bottom of the motion. I enjoy performing these at a heavy weight and slowly performing the bottom motion of the exercise for maximum intensity and growth. If you worry about tearing your bicep during this movement, utilize the preacher curl machine instead of a barbell or dumbbell.
2. Spider Curls
Take a look at this video. As you can see, you’ll need to grab a bench and lock it in the incline position. Notice how the angle of your elbows is decreased, and they are locked into place? Good. This allows for an incredible stretch of the short head of the bicep. Make sure to squeeze at the top of the motion and that you’re performing this exercise with a full range of motion to get the most out of this movement.
So now we’ve got one exercise for each head of the bicep, but we’re not quite finished yet. I mentioned we would discuss a third muscle, the brachialis, in more detail later. Recall that the short head of the bicep is responsible for the thickness of the bicep from the side, and the long head is responsible for the peak (when your bicep is fully flexed). To fully round out the perfect bicep workout, we must target bicep thickness from the front.
Your brachialis is responsible for the flexion of your elbow, but it can also be targeted through weight lifting to increase the width of your bicep, making it appear fuller and bigger from the front. And so, in order to target the brachialis, it’s time for…
3. The Hammer Curl
My biggest recommendation is to utilize the hammer curl to focus on targeting the brachialis. Studies like this one from the Tohoku Journal of Experimental Medicine show that flexing your arm in a neutral grip while curling (with your thumb facing upwards) shifts the tension away from your biceps and onto your brachialis. Furthermore, I recommend slowing down the exercise's eccentric portion to further increase the pressure this movement puts on your brachialis. As shown in this study here, your bicep is the least engaged during the bottom half of the hammer curl movement, whereas your brachialis is the most engaged.
When it comes to targeting your biceps, it’s crucial to incorporate exercises that target each part of the muscle to maximize your time in the gym. Remember that proper form and technique are essential for maximizing the benefits of each of the three exercises I’ve provided you today and that as you perfect your form, gradually increasing the weight and implementing progressive overload will skyrocket your muscle development. Combine all that with adequate rest and proper nutrition, and you’re on your way to developing strong, well-defined biceps.
(Stay Informed, Stay Motivated)