Why Do We Love Biceps Workouts So Much?

Biceps workouts are always among the favorites for guys in the gym. They are one of the easiest muscles to show off when you build them up. The ladies also take much more advantage of biceps training than in the past to get a “toned” look to the upper body. This is always going to look better than having flabby arms.

Don’t Go Too Heavy

Being a smaller muscle that gets trained with isolation exercises, the biceps don’t require super-heavy, low repetition sets. You want to really feel the muscle working to build bigger biceps. Just doing 3 to 5 heavy curls isn’t gonna do it. Even the heaviest biceps sets should allow you to get about 10 reps at the least. It’s not just a matter of getting the weight up either, as you will feel the biceps working more if you think about curling with a wider arc.

Proper Form Is Key

Proper form to focus the resistance on the biceps is also very important while training them. It’s easy to bend forward and force the weight up or shrug your shoulders a bit to get more weight up. That being said, you can do some cheating while doing barbell or dumbbell curls if you lower the weight slowly, forcing the biceps to resist gravity. Use cheating to your advantage with negative reps and extra reps at the end of a set. Doing little baby curls where the weight hardly goes upward won’t get you anywhere.

Variety Is Also Essential

Virtually all of the best biceps exercises involve curling a weight. Even so, there is still great variety to be had. You can do both arms at the same with barbell curls, or one at a time with dumbbell curls. Free weights, cables, and machines can all be used effectively as well. There are plenty of great options to get your arms to grow with the best biceps workouts.

Biceps Workout #1

Barbell Curls

Barbell curls are the mainstay of any biceps workout. While it can be easy to do a little, or a lot of, cheating on curls, at least strive for a big arc to your curl instead of just getting the weight up. I’ve gotten better at this, and it shows in my biceps. After warming up, I like to do 3 straight sets of this exercise with 90 seconds of rest between each set. Start with your heaviest set and aim for about 8 to 10 reps. Decrease the weight by about 10% on each subsequent set. I usually do these with a straight bar, but will use an EZ curl bar depending on what’s available at that time.

Two-Arm Hammer Curl

This will target the brachialis muscles to build more thickness in the upper arms. I like to use a hammer curl bar that can be gripped with both hands to train both arms at once. Go for 2 straight sets to failure. The first set should have you targeting about 10 reps. For the second set, decrease the weight by 15 to 20% to get more reps.

Machine Curls

The gym I go to has a biceps machine where you have the upper arm up on a pad and when you curl it towards you, it’s like doing a biceps pose. It’s a great exercise to really flex the bis on every rep. It’s more about feeling this exercise as opposed to trying to use a lot of weight. I like to train one arm at a time until failure before switching to the other arm. After reaching failure with the second arm, I’ll repeat the process for each arm with little or no rest.

21s

This is an old-school biceps exercise I like to incorporate into my biceps routine. Take a weight and curl it halfway up for 7 reps. Then go from halfway to the top of a curl rep for another 7 reps. The final 7 reps are full curls – all the way down, all the way up. If you can’t do 7 full reps, no big deal. If 7 full reps are too easy, keep curling until failure and use a little more weight next time.

Incline Bench Curls Superset

Start with incline dumbbell curls done with both arms at a time for as many as 20 reps. When failure is hit, go for some reps alternating between arms. To finish, either do some alternating hammer curls or stand up for more alternating dumbbell curls. This one will give you a nice pump to finish your biceps workout.

Biceps Workout #2

Cable Curls

As above, I start this workout with 3 straight sets. One difference here is that I like to use an EZ-curl attachment to the cable. Start by going heavy for around 10 reps on the first set. I like to decrease the weight by about 10% for my second set, and another 10% for the last. Take about 90 seconds of rest between sets. Once again, concentrate on a nice big curl motion to really work the biceps

Rope Hammer Curls

Using a rope connection attached to a cable is a great way to do a version of the hammer curl to build thicker upper arms. Go for a set of about 10 reps to failure. Give yourself 90 seconds to rest, decrease the weight by 15 to 20%, and do another set for higher reps.

One-Arm Machine Preacher Curls

I like to use one of my favorite high-intensity techniques in this exercise. This is done by going to failure with one arm, then immediately training the other. Without, any rest, repeat the process for both arms. Start with 12 to 15 reps on the first round of this superset. The reps will certainly be lower on the second round if you really hit the first round hard.

Dumbbell Hammer Curl Superset

I like to do a lot of reps on this superset to end my biceps workouts pumped. Start by doing dumbbell hammers, and curling with both arms. Once you hit failure, you can get more reps by alternating between arms on each rep.

Supinating Dumbbell Curl Superset

This is done the same way as the above dumbbell hammer curl superset. Start by curling with both arms, and finish by alternating. These last two sets will really have the upper arms engorged and feeling big.

Biceps Workout #3

Alternating Dumbbell Curls

This is a classic biceps exercise. As you curl the dumbbells up, you rotate your wrist from facing your side at the bottom to upward at the top of each rep. Also, keep in mind to get that nice big arc to hit the biceps. Alternating between arms on each rep until failure. Go for 3 straight sets with a 90-second rest between each set.

Alternating Hammer Dumbbell Curls

Target the brachialis here with dumbbell hammer curls. Alternate between arms on every rep as with the exercise above. Go for a nice amount of reps, about 15 works well. Take a couple of short breaks to get more reps for a total of 20 to 25 reps.

Seated Machine Curls

Try a different biceps machine curl than the one used in the first workout. Do one arm at a time to failure before repping out with the other arm. Give it a short rest or immediately go back to training the first arm. Repeat until each arm has gotten reps three times.

Cable Curls

I’ll use an EZ curl bar attached to a cable for a high rep drop set. Start with a set of 15 to 20 reps, then drop the weight by 10 to 15% and continue repping.

Rope Hammer Curls

Go for the same here as with the cable curls. Just use a rope attachment instead to focus on training the brachialis muscles of the upper arms. You can also try doing these last 2 drop sets one arm at a time for a change of pace.

How I Set Up My Biceps Workouts

With the volume of exercises and sets in my biceps workouts, I train them just once per week. My preference is to train them with the triceps and forearms as part of an arm workout. Many lifters prefer training back and biceps together. Whatever way you like to set up your routine is fine.