The human body is made up of over 600 muscles based on various credible sources, and while it is important to develop all of them if you want a top-notch physique, one muscle group that is at the top of many people’s developed muscle wish list is biceps. If I told you to close your eyes and envision someone flexing in your mind, I think it is a safe bet that what you would envision is someone doing a classic bicep pose.
How many muscle groups have their own catchphrases like ‘sun’s out, guns out’ or ‘welcome to the gun show’? Not many. Well-developed biceps that fill out shirt sleeves and look like they were chiseled out of marble is not something that comes about overnight. It takes a lot of consistent, methodical work over a decent duration of time to get demigod python-caliber biceps.
According to a team of researchers affiliated with the University of California, Michigan State University, and Penn Highlands Healthcare System, “The biceps brachii, or simply “biceps,” is a large, thick, fusiform muscle on the upper arm’s ventral portion. As the name implies, this muscle’s proximal attachment has 2 heads. The short head is sometimes referred to as “caput breve,” while the long head is also called “caput longum.”
I cannot think of a better source for advice on how to properly develop bicep muscles than the legend himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnold’s bicep muscles are literally some of the best and most iconic muscles that human history has ever known. He discusses the best ways to develop bicep muscles at length in his fantastic book The Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding. Below are some of the general points that Arnold offers up in his book (pages 396-399):
- Genetics plays a big role in how your biceps develop
- Biceps come in many shapes – longer, shorter, higher peaks, lower peaks, thickness, etc.
- Isolating the bicep during lifting is important
- Perform a full range of motion on curls
- Don’t curl your wrists during bicep lifting reps
- Change your hand position often
Below are lifts that Arnold recommends for building certain aspects of the biceps (pages 404-409):
- Increasing Mass – Heavy barbell curls (closer grip), ‘cheat curls,’ hammer curls, incline dumbbell curls, standing alternating dumbbell curls
- Improving Length and Thickness – Incline or prone curls, preacher curls, reverse curls
- For Height – Concentration curls, twisting side curls (flex your biceps extra hard at the top of the movement)
- Separation and Definition – Higher rep sets and supersets (incorporate reverse curls into the supersets)
With so many ways to do curls, and the need to not overwork your biceps, it is important to stick with no more than 3-4 types of bicep lifts at a time. If you are new to weightlifting, probably stick to more like 1-2 different types of curls per session. Make sure to give your biceps enough time to recover in between sessions. I only focus on biceps one day a week, for what that is worth.
Check out a previous article on this website to find out more regarding how often to change your weightlifting routine. Always make sure to eat enough protein every day when working to grow your muscles, biceps included!
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