Learn How to Have the Biggest Biceps on the Block

Let’s face it guys biceps are not the biggest or strongest muscle group in our body but do we care about what they look like! 

Uhhhh…YES!

Does SOGO ring a bell? If it doesn’t it means “Suns out Guns out” for you rookies. Regardless if someone drops the SOGO term ultimately you don’t want to be the person that walking around during summer, with flabby arms. Let’s face it biceps are our bodies “show muscle”.

From a functional standpoint the biceps job is straightforward, it bends our arm at the elbow. Gym Junkies have found a way to utilize this muscle group in just about every way possible so every vein, bulge, and peak is visible.

Let’s go over some of the top bicep workouts…

These are the top bicep building workouts found
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Standing Single Arm Bicep Curl

Guys for this one I cannot stress enough that you should NOT sway your body when performing this exercise. Always keep your spine in a natural position; swaying will only lead you not focusing on your bicep and even possible injury.

For this exercise, you will want to make sure your feet are shoulder width apart. Place your arms in front of your body with you rotating your shoulders. This one is great for adding mass to your biceps and making them thicker. This will lead to better short head and branchial recruitment.

If you end up failing towards the end of your reps you can convert this to a standing hammer curl to get a couple more reps in. Also, you will have your other hand for stability if you need it.

EZ Bar Bicep Curl 

Again, always keep your spine in a neutral position when performing this.

Personally I enjoy the EZ bar a lot, it seems to put less stress on my wrists than straight bar. If you don’t know what an EZ bar is its the “kinked” or “s” looking bar you can slide weights on the end of.

The EZ bar curl transfers the weight from your bicep brachii to your elbow flexors. It’s often stated that the EZ bar is the best bicep builder for a lot of gym junkies. Another reason I like the EZ bar is that you can switch to close grip and burn another part of your biceps if the standard grip gets too redundant.

Incline Hammer Curls

This one will be in a seated position with the bench at an incline. You will want your feet to be a little wider than shoulder width planted on the floor. Again make sure your feet are planted and you’re not swinging around on the bench.

Your body’s placement on the bench increases the stretch on the long head of your bicep. If you were to convert to a normal grip (not hammer) it would target your brachioradialis and brachialis more. You could actually feel the difference if you were to place one of your hands on your opposite bicep while switching from normal grip to hammer grip. 

Incline Inner-Biceps Curls

All right same position on the bench but different grip this time.  The “long” head, which is utilized in the exercise, attaches above your shoulder joint. Depending on where you position your upper arm relative to your body it basically determines how much help the “long” head is helping during your bicep curl.

Wide-Grip Standing Barbell Curl

Again standing so keep your spine in a neutral position and feet slightly wider than shoulder width. Your shoulders will externally rotate by having a wider grip as compared to a normal grip with the straight bar. This targets your short head of the bicep as compared to your long head in some of these other bicep exercises.

Don’t cheat! If you have the mean lean your only cheating yourself. If you have an issue swaying around, try doing this one with your back to the wall, notice this will force you to have good form.

Overhead Cable Curl

For people that are competing this is a good one, you can practice the front double bicep pose. Brachialis recruitment is very optimal in the way your arms positioned. If you can play around with the placement of your arms a little, but the higher your elbows the more isolated the branchials will be from your bicep.

Standard Barbell Curl

Make sure your form is correct before performing this. Depending on where your wrist is located it will determine how much your biceps brachii will work. You will want to maximize supination in this curl as you can load the weight pretty heavy.

You can play around with your a grip on this curl which will either focus more on your long head or your short head depending on how wide your grip is.

Dumbbell Bicep Curl

Even folks that don’t consider themselves gym junkies know the classic dumbbell bicep curl!

For this one wrist rotation is needed, however keep as much supination as comfortable when performing this. Remember guys you can do the standard bicep curl seated or standing, however if you do it standing make sure your spine is in a neutral position and there is little body movement other than your bicep.

Hammer Curl

Same thing here guys, you will be able to do this standing or seated. Typically this will be our strongest curl; you will want to keep your wrist in a neutral position. Your brachialis is worked the most in this curl and all of our elbow flexors will be utilized in this curl. If you choose  do the hammer curl seated I would recommend doing it on the preacher bench, this way you will minimize cheating.

Standing Bicep Cable

So instead of having the two handles you will only have one and you will be facing the machine. I prefer using a split stance for this, as you will have better balance. Keep your spine in a neutral position and curl up as if you have dumbbell in place of the handle.

This one is great if you’re looking for what I like to call the “tennis ball” effect on your bicep. This is a great exercise if you’re looking to create a nice peak on your bicep, versus some of the other ones that are better for building mass.

The biceps of an average guy is roughly 1 pound of muscle
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Parts of Your Bicep

Long head, short head, brachialis and flexors?

What are you talking about and are you speaking English?

I added this picture below to quickly educate you on the parts of the bicep.

Conclusion:

Let’s face it biceps aren’t our largest muscle group in our bodies but we sure do care about them. So if you want to be someone that doesn’t appear flabby when tank tops are on then jump in head first with someone of the exercises. Remember form, is extremely important don’t cheat as you will end up not focusing on your bicep or potentially may be injuring yourself. If you utilize the above exercises you will be on your way to having the biggest biceps on the block in no time!

-Terry Asher