6 Golden Biceps Workout To Grow Your Guns

Building bigger biceps is top of many men’s gym wish list. But you only need to look around the next time you’re in the weights room to realise that their wishes haven’t come true. One of the main reasons is that sticking to simple dumbbell biceps curls every time you work out just won’t get the job done.

Your body is very good at adapting quickly to what you ask it to do, so to force your biceps to grow bigger and stronger you need to push them outside of their comfort zone and shock them into growth.

Standing Barbell Curl

The standing barbell curl is the cornerstone of many bicep building routines. Grasp a barbell or Olympic bar at around shoulder width apart using an underhand grip (palms facing up).
Stand straight up, feet together (you may be more comfortable putting one foot back for stability), back straight, and with your arms fully extended.
The bar should not be touching your body.
Keeping your eyes facing forwards, elbows tucked in at your sides, and your body completely still, slowly curl the bar up.
Squeeze your biceps hard at the top of the movement, and then slowly lower it back to the starting position.
Repeat for desired reps.

Barbell Curl Tips:

The single biggest mistake lifters make on this exercise is swinging the body back to assist in moving the weight up. This is cheating! Your body should remain fixed and only your biceps should be used to move the weight.
Another mistake is not keeping the elbows fixed and in at the sides. You should not let your elbows come forward when moving the weight up.
And finally, you need to control the weight throughout the set. This means not letting it drop quickly!

Incline Bench Dumbbell Curl

Setu p for the incline dumbbell curl by setting the bench at a 30-45 degree incline and sitting a pair of dumbbells at the end. The lower the incline, the more challenging the exercise will be so 30 degrees is preferred.
Sit on the bench, pick up the dumbbells and lay back with your back flat on the padding.
You should be holding the dumbbells with an underhand grip, palms facing up.
Take up the slack in your arms by slightly bending them, as this will put tension on the biceps. This is the starting position for the exercise.
Keeping your elbows fixed, slowly curl both the dumbbells up as far as possible.
Squeeze the biceps, and then slowly lower them back to the starting position.
Repeat for desired reps.

Exercise Tips:

Keep the rep timing slow and control the weight on the way down.
Keep your elbows fixed. They should not come forward as you curl the weight up as only your forearms should move.

Concentration Curls

Well, only if you consider huge biceps dated. According to an American Council on Exercise study, seated dumbbell concentration curls yield 97% biceps activity, in contrast to cable curls or chinups (80%), barbell curls (76%), EZ-bar curls (wide grip 75%; narrow grip, 71%), incline curls (70%), and preacher curls (69%).

“Since the upper arm is stabilized against the back of the thigh, it isolates the biceps muscle,” says ACE chief science officer Cedric Bryant, Ph.D. He recommends training bi’s two to three times a week, with 48–72 hours between sessions for recovery. “But to really get size, include concentration curls at least once a week.”

Standing Hammer Curls

The hammer curl is a great exercise for the biceps and forearms. Set up by grasping a set of dumbbells and standing straight up with the dumbbells by your sides.
You should be using a neutral grip, meaning your palms are facing your body.
Bend your arms slightly to take tension into the biceps.
Keeping your body fixed and elbows in at your sides, slowly curl the dumbbells up as far as possible.
Squeeze the biceps at the top of the movement, and then slowly lower the weight back to the starting position.
Repeat for desired reps.

Hammer Curl Tips:

Do not lean back as you move the weight – this is cheating!
Keep your elbows locked in by your sides throughout the set. Don’t allow them to come forward as you curl the weight up. Focus on only allowing your forearms to move.
Squeeze and hold at the top of the movement for maximum results.
Keep the rep timing slow and control the weight for the whole set.

Standing Biceps Cable Curl

Muscles Targeted: Standing cable curls target the biceps which are the primary muscle group engaged along with the forearms which are the secondary muscle group involved with this movement.

For this exercise, the equipment required is a cable station which is a resistance machine that has an adjustable cable that you can attach different bars and other attachments to including a V-bar, rope, straight bar and other apparatus. For this exercise you will be using a straight bar attached to the cable machine. The biceps muscle is made up of several parts: biceps brachii, brachialis and brachioradialis. This exercise lets you achieve a peak contraction of the biceps at the top of the movement and provides a much more safe and stable motion for people who want to avoid using free weights like barbells and dumbbells. Stabilizer muscles include the anterior deltoids (front of shoulders) and the trapezius. The wrists are also engaged very well with this exercise along with the benefit of increasing overall grip strength.

Preacher Curl

Grab a dumbbell with each arm and place the upper arms on top of the preacher bench or the incline bench. The dumbbell should be held at shoulder length. This will be your starting position.
As you breathe in, slowly lower the dumbbells until your upper arm is extended and the biceps is fully stretched.
As you exhale, use the biceps to curl the weights up until your biceps is fully contracted and the dumbbells are at shoulder height.
Squeeze the biceps hard for a second at the contracted position and repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.

Variations: You can perform this exercise also using a low pulley instead of a dumbbell. In this case you will need to position the bench in front of the pulley. You can also use a barbell or an e-z bar.