To maximize bicep gains and avoid plateauing, include new arm exercises in your routine that target brachialis – the muscle responsible for stabilizing the bicep.
This muscle can be found beneath your bicep peak, or long head. To effectively target it, movements where elbow(s) are brought forward of body such as preacher curl are best.
Barbell Curl
The barbell curl is a classic biceps exercise you can perform using just a bar and weight plates, although dumbbells or resistance bands may also work for this movement. To do one properly, position your feet shoulder-width apart and stand with back straight before grabbing barbell using an underhand grip slightly wider than shoulder width; hands just above elbows (to be exact). Once in this position, begin curling it towards shoulders by contracting short head of biceps biceps; once this position is reached, hold for one second before slowly lowering back down until it reaches this position before slowly lowering it back down again!
Be wary that when performing barbell curls, it can be tempting to cheat the movement by swinging or relying too heavily on momentum. To ensure an adequate contraction of your biceps muscles, keep elbows close to torso throughout movement; and focus on slowly lowering barbell in controlled fashion – taking at least 2 or 3 seconds per rep to complete rep.
Wide-grip barbell curls will not only challenge the biceps but also engage forearm muscles to strengthen overall grip strength and reduce wrist stress. Furthermore, for many individuals this technique may put less stress on wrists.
To increase biceps growth, incorporate wide-grip barbell curls in your workout regime along with other biceps exercises such as standard dumbbell or cable curls into your program. Squats and deadlifts may also help strengthen overall arm strength.
Dependent upon your goals, the amount of sets and reps that will best help achieve them will differ. If hypertrophy is your aim, 5 to 8 sets with 6-12 reps should suffice; otherwise it would be beneficial to spread out these sets throughout the week rather than trying to complete too many in one gym session, as this can increase muscle fatigue.
Bent-Over Row
The bent-over row is an effective compound exercise that targets multiple muscles in your back and shoulders. It can be performed using either barbells or dumbbells; when using barbells it’s essential to use proper form in order to avoid injury; for optimal results keep hands farther apart than shoulder width in order to activate biceps while simultaneously targeting other parts of your back and shoulders.
This exercise targets the latissimus dorsi as its primary muscle target, with smaller amounts also targeted to traps and rhomboids as secondary muscles. It is an integral component of many upper body strength/powerlifting workouts as well as other weightlifting disciplines like Crossfit.
Engaging in this activity may raise your heart rate due to exerting more energy to move the weight, necessitating more oxygen. However, your heart rate won’t spike as dramatically as during cardiovascular exercises like running or walking.
Bent-over rows can be an effective muscle-building exercise when performed correctly, due to the barbell providing significant resistance. Moving this resistance requires significant amounts of power from back and shoulder muscles; additionally, strengthening grip strength is also key part of overall strength development.
Bent-over rowing not only increases upper-body strength but can also help prevent back injuries and promote healthier posture by strengthening pulling muscles in your back; this can balance out overdevelopment of push muscles like chest in many individuals.
Due to this reason, it’s extremely important that you perform rows correctly. Otherwise, unnecessary strain can be placed on your lower back, leading to pain and inflammation. Varying grip sizes on rows is also a great way to target specific muscle groups in your back; wider grips engage more biceps while simultaneously targeting other parts of your back and shoulders – just make sure that at the top of each rep you pause briefly and squeeze shoulder blades together at their top before continuing.
Drag Curl
The drag curl is an advanced variant of the standard barbell curl that enables you to use significantly heavier weight and maximize biceps development. By holding the barbell close to your body throughout, this technique minimizes other upper arm muscles involvement while putting all effort towards your biceps – something many two-arm variations cannot do due to losing control and using too much momentum, leading to decreased activation of biceps activation and creating imbalances between sides.
Exercise works more than just your biceps brachii muscle; it also engages your forearms, gripping and stabilizing wrist muscles and can be an excellent all-around arm workout to increase overall strength. To maximize muscle gain, this exercise should be performed using moderate to high weight with relatively low rep range for maximum muscle gain and can be included as one of your first movements during workouts or after more intensive compound exercises like deadlift or weighted pull-ups.
This exercise can also be performed using dumbbells or an EZ curl bar if your elbow joint is affected or you cannot perform this movement with a barbell. With an EZ curl bar, you can keep the bar closer to your body during each movement and increase tension by slowing down eccentric lowering part of exercise to enhance mind-muscle connection and ensure every set leads to muscle failure.
One great variation on the drag curl is doing them unilaterally, which will train each bicep differently and further isolate it. Or try doing them with a bent bar so you’re curling it up your body instead of pulling yourself over it – this will reduce involvement from anterior deltoid muscles while at the same time training individual biceps in isolation.
At any level, this exercise can be made even more challenging by adding weighted wide-grip pull-ups as an additional challenge – further intensifying muscle development and improving overall strength. For this variation, pronated (knuckles facing your body) grip is preferred when engaging the biceps; neutral (or closed grips used for standard pull-ups) do not engage this area effectively enough.
Dumbbell Curl
Wide-grip curls are an excellent isolation exercise to develop the biceps with minimal equipment. By switching up grip widths and targeting different heads of the biceps brachii and other synergistic muscles like brachialis and brachioradialis simultaneously, wide-grip curls allow you to target all aspects of the brachius as effectively as possible. Experimentation with grip widths will help find your optimal range of motion and position to target them effectively.
Start by placing your feet shoulder-width apart, holding two dumbbells with palms facing forward in each hand, palms up. Lift them by contracting your biceps while keeping elbows close to body while lifting weights upward. When finished, slowly return them back down until you return to starting position.
Conducting seated barbell curls with wide-grip handlebars will enable you to target all three heads of the biceps brachii: long head, short head and lateral head. Furthermore, this exercise activates brachialis and brachioradialis muscles responsible for elbow flexion and grip strength – giving your arms an enhanced shape and size while improving other exercises which require elbow flexion.
The concentration curl is an effective isolation exercise designed to target your biceps. Requiring no equipment, it can be performed in various positions including standing dumbbell curling, sitting barbell or resistance band curling and an EZ curl bar with wide-grip handlebar. When performing this movement you’ll hold an underhand gripped barbell until your biceps have contracted before slowly returning it back down towards starting position and repeating this movement until complete fatigue.
One of the most frequent mistakes made when performing bicep curls is using too much momentum or shifting their shoulders during motion, as this diverts attention away from working their biceps by working other muscle groups such as shoulders and back muscles. You should avoid swinging weights to increase reps as this adds unnecessary strain to arms and joints; rather focus on keeping your torso upright throughout and braced through every stage to isolate just your biceps.
