Building arm muscles

Detailed training routines for building arm muscles. Strengthening, toning, and shaping the biceps.

What are the biceps?

The biceps muscles are the two (thus “BI”) muscles to the front of the upper arms that perform the upper arm’s pulling activities. From this you can guess right away that most any safe pulling exercise uses and therefore can be used to work the biceps.

Mode of training

As equipment for training the biceps with weights is among the easiest to come by and as there are so many routines with weights we will limit ourselves to weight training.

Training the biceps for size, shape and strength

As a general rule in any weight training, the lighter the weight and the more the reps the more you are gaining in size than in strength. We will follow this rule for training our biceps for size in the following routines. Changing from one routine to another monthly, especially when the muscles resist further growth, is a good approach to continued muscle development.

Routine One

1. The Standard Straight Bar Curl = 3 sets of 12 to 20 repetitions, always to exhaustion.

2. Alternating Dumbbell Curls = 3 sets of 12 to 20 repetitions, always to exhaustion.

For the straight bar curl we will be using a straight bar and enough weight to completely exhaust the biceps muscle. You should estimate enough weight so you can’t perform more than 20 but can do at least 12 repetitions or “reps”. Hold the bar evenly in front of you, hanging at the thighs, palms forward. Take a deep breath then curl the bar upward toward your chin, arms in at the sides, utilizing only the biceps muscles. Don’t swing, jerk, leverage or use your back or other muscles as this will not isolate the biceps alone for the exercise and could injure you. Breathe in as you lower the weight for the second movement. Count backward from 4 to 1 in your head slowly to make sure you perform the exercise slowly and in a precise, controlled fashion. This method proceeds from a true and popular bodybuilding mantra “slow to grow”. Workout slowly, but hard and with precision, in good form and with proper breathing to grow the muscles quickly, safely and correctly.

Take a rest of about a minute between sets. Take some water. Perform the rest of your sets.

For the dumbbell curls, take two dumbbells of equal weight in hand. Hold them palms out and curl one arm at a time, then the other, up toward the shoulder. Do 12 to 20 repetitions for each. Otherwise follow the fundamentals of the slow to grow mantra.

Routine Two: Super Setting

Super setting involves doing a set of one exercise, then of another, resting and repeating the process. Be sure to take water between super sets. You may want to wait until you have achieved a relatively good condition from having exercised with weights for a few weeks or months before trying the super setting method described here.

Though you can follow the obvious super setting pattern with a simple change to routine one above, we will use a different set of exercises to increase your arsenal of biceps workouts. Here is routine two.

1. Alternating Cable Curls = 3 sets of 12-20 reps.

2. Alternating Twisting Dumbbell Curls = 3 sets of 12-20 reps.

Grab two cable triangles close together and alternate curling them upward in the form of dumbbell curls. Then move to dumbbells. Alternate curling the dumbbells as in the previous exercise in routine one. In this case however, begin palms in and end palms in, rotating the forearm as far as possible in the movement. Go back and forth from one exercise to the other from set to set.

This latter routine has introduced us to the most proficient means of shaping the biceps, the twisting dumbbell curl, which produces the point at the tip of the biceps seen on so many bodybuilders.

To train for strength, increase the amount of weight used for the above exercises and decrease the number of reps. Use a weight that will allow you to exhaust the muscle while performing only 2 to 8 repetitions per set. Be very careful and use a spotter. If in doubt, just don’t do it; use a lighter weight or do another exercise.

To develop an ongoing routine in which you can achieve greater size, strength and shape, use routines directed primarily to size training for 3 months, then try strength training primarily for the next 3 months. Use the shape developing exercise during the size or bodybuilding “season” of your new biceps workout schedule.