Bicep exercises – rules, precautions. Examples of exercises for biceps

Bicep exercises are popular especially among men who want to improve the appearance of their figure, but some ladies also like to use them. Biceps is the biceps muscle of the arm, the function of which is to bend the arm at the elbow joint. This muscle consists of the outer (longer) and inner (shorter) parts. Below are some of the most effective exercises to help shape this muscle group, i.e. both the inside and outside of the biceps.

Bicep exercise – bending the forearms with the barbell in a standing position

When doing this bicep exercise, remember to keep your elbows in the same position. They should be stationary and parallel to the body. Exercises for the biceps with a barbell are excellent and essential for beginners who want to increase the strength and muscle mass of the arms, especially the biceps. This exercise also develops other muscle groups. More advanced athletes use this type of bicep exercise to pre-tire and warm up the biceps muscles before moving on to other bicep exercises.

Exercise for the biceps – bending the forearms with dumbbells (dumbbells)

The bicep exercise with dumbbells complements the exercise with a barbell. During this exercise, the muscles that are not involved in the bicep exercise with a barbell also work. There are two ways to exercise with dumbbells: with the so-called supination and with a hammer grip. Exercise for biceps with supination allows you to “tighten” the biceps muscle of the shoulder (pressing it against the lower arm), which increases the load on the biceps, hammer grip ensures a faster increase in biceps muscle mass.

Thanks to this exercise, the biceps muscle will also be nicely sculpted and clearly separated from the muscles of the three-headed arms. During the exercise for the biceps, both with a barbell and with dumbbells, the biceps should be constantly tense. The elbows should be as close to the torso as possible, the shoulders should be lowered.

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Bicep exercise – bending the forearms against the knee

Bending the forearms based on the knees is a type of bicep exercise that allows you to polish the condition and shape of the biceps. This exercise should be performed in such a way as to feel the tension in the biceps muscles of the arms, as well as each muscle fiber. The exercise is performed with dumbbells.

Bicep exercise – bending the forearms on the preacher book

This version of the bicep exercise allows you to sculpt the biceps muscle as it engages the long head (the outer side of the biceps) more, while the load is mainly on the lower biceps, near the elbow joint. This exercise consists in slowly straightening the forearms based on the prayer book. They can be performed with a barbell or dumbbells, also alternately with one hand. This exercise for the biceps does not put any strain on the back muscles as is the case with a barbell and dumbbells in a standing position.

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Bicep Exercise – Forearm Bending: Pull-ups

Pull-ups are an exercise that allows you to strengthen your back or shoulder muscles. Pull-ups on a bar with an overgrip will strengthen the back muscles, especially the back muscles, while pull-ups with a pull-up will strengthen the arm muscles – especially the biceps.

Pull-ups are a very simple exercise that requires a bar suspended at the right height and your own body: it’s a great way to stay fit and develop the muscles that support your spine, arms, chest and abdomen. This exercise is also good for strengthening and training the arm muscles, especially the biceps. In order to exercise the arm muscles by pulling up on the bar, grasp the bar with the grip, i.e. the fingers of the bar should point towards the exerciser. This type of chin-ups causes the biceps muscles to develop very quickly. It also significantly strengthens their strength.

Pull-ups on the bar are the best when it comes to building and developing muscle mass when training is carried out two or three times a week for 12 or more repetitions. Less intense training is, for example, a pull-up exercise once a week for 2-4 repetitions. The strength of the back and shoulder muscles is then strengthened, but there is no visible broadening of the shoulders and biceps. You can also practice pull-ups for 8 repetitions twice a week – the biceps muscles will then be expanded, but will not have a distinct shape.

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Bicep exercises – precautions

It should be remembered that many exercises performed primarily in the gym involve the biceps muscles of the arm. This is the case with most upper back muscle exercises, for example. For this reason, especially at the initial stage of training, it is recommended to combine exercises for these two muscle groups. If bicep exercises and upper back exercises are performed separately, there should be at least 48 hours between workouts as the muscles need time to recover and rest.

Bicep exercises – rules

Everyone wants bigger shoulders, but there is no special ideal exercise that can be done to get them. However, there are some rules you should follow in order to build bigger biceps:

Understand your anatomy

While biceps training may seem quite simple since this body part only has two heads, it’s actually a bit more complex than you might think. First, the brachial muscle – another shoulder muscle that flexes the elbow – is under the biceps. Even though the brachial muscle is a fairly small muscle, increasing its size can increase the overall size of the arm.

The largest muscle in the forearm, brachioradialis, which is on the top of the forearm near the elbow and crosses the elbow joint, is also involved in some elbow flexion movements. Being aware of these extra muscles and including them in your training will bring the greatest overall gains in mass and strength.

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Begin exercising with the correct weight

Coaches have long argued that falling into your comfort zone is one of the biggest enemies in the gym. If in your routine you first perform the barbell curls, the last thing you should do is be comfortable and choose the same load as you have had for the last 10 repetitions. The beginning of the routine is the best time to face strength.

After warming up, you should be doing relatively heavy sets of just 6 repetitions to really stimulate your arms. Biceps only grow when demands are made on them that go beyond what they are used to.

Change your grip

The slight anatomy of the biceps can help to emphasize (but never isolate) one of the two heads above the other. The long head (forming the so-called biceps peak) is located outside the short head, so the use of a narrow grip while bending the forearms with a barbell will enhance its development. On the other hand, using a grip that is far beyond the width of our shoulders will strengthen a shorter head.

Focus on each bicep head separately

You can focus on the long or short head by selecting the appropriate arm movement. Just remember that a fully stretched muscle is capable of more severe contraction.

1. Bending the arms when the arms are in front of our body, i.e. exercises such as bending the arms with a barbell on the preacher book, or bending the arms with the line of the upper lift, prevent the long head from being fully stretched and allow you to focus better on the short head;
2. The arm curls, such as practicing the dumbbell curls at an angle or the hammer grip dumbbell curls, completely extend the long head and allow it to concentrate carefully.

Nowhere is this distinction clearer than when comparing the arm curl with the dumbbells on an inclined bench – where the arms hang straight down beyond the body plane – with the barbell arm curl on the preacher book where the arms are far in front of the body plane. In the first case, the long head is fully stretched in the lower position; in the second case, this part of the biceps hardly stretches at all.

Exercising the biceps at different angles will “hit” all areas of the biceps, and selecting particular movements strategically allows you to pick up weaknesses or focus on a specific area of ​​a given muscle part.

Isolate the muscles

As you progress with your arm training, use the multi-angle flexion. To focus on one or both biceps heads, consider adding movements that isolate the muscles better. The bending of the arms with the barbell in the preacher, when the arm is stabilized by pressing against the inner thigh (in the case of dumbbells) or the bench, almost completely eliminates the possibility of using the force resulting from the momentum of the arm. However, keep in mind that these kinds of movements require a reduction in weight, so it’s best to do them at the end of your biceps training.

Finally – the forearms

Finishing your biceps training with forearm exercises makes sense as the smaller forearm muscles support the biceps muscles. As a smaller group of muscles, they should usually be trained last. In the case of bending the arms with a barbell on the preacher book, it is worth using the load, instead of catching with the undergrip, you should do it with the overgrip, thanks to which the exercise will be great for the muscles of the forearms.

Bicep exercises – myths

The more the better

Many gym goers train their biceps too hard, without adequate recovery time between workouts. Each muscle in the body takes about 48 hours to regenerate properly, because it is during rest that the actual muscle growth occurs. Putting too much weight on yourself is also a big mistake.

When in good shape, increasing the weight will increase your training progress. However, most gym goers gain weight excessively and too quickly, deteriorating their form and increasing the risk of injury. An injury will of course reduce muscle growth over time.

Exercises for the back work properly for the biceps

Yes, the biceps are engaged during back training, but not so much that they can develop their full potential. If our main goal is functional training, we probably won’t be concerned about maximum biceps size, as long as they can help us achieve more pull-ups, or wear heavier backpacks. However, if our goal is to have big, strong biceps that will impress others, we must include exercises for this muscle part in our weekly training plan. Every muscle we want to develop will need more attention on our part.

If you want big shoulders, you need to exercise your biceps

Exercising the biceps is definitely one part of strong arms, but many people, especially men, tend to forget about the triceps. There are three heads on the triceps, which makes it a much larger muscle than the biceps. So if we want large arms sticking out of the sleeves of our T-shirts, we need to spend the same amount of time, if not more, on practicing the triceps.

You can train your lower and upper biceps separately

There is no such thing as training the biceps separately, as the biceps are one muscle. There are two heads, hence the “bi” in “biceps”, but it’s one muscle, and it is impossible to deal with only the top or bottom of it. Turning on the “upper biceps” will automatically turn on the “lower biceps”, so it doesn’t make sense to bother trying to specifically train specific areas.

You can train your biceps to look more sculpted

This is a widespread myth on which many gym goers base their workouts. Performing a thousand repetitions will not make our biceps look more sculpted. Having clearly defined bicep muscles generally comes down to two things: losing fat and maintaining muscle mass.

Fat loss – not weight loss – is the result of a caloric deficit, and maintaining muscle mass is the result of a well-balanced training program. So it’s not your biceps alone that will make your arms look frayed, but a mix of other elements like nutrition and cardio in addition to the training itself.

Aching biceps = effective training

This is a mistake, not only for the biceps, but for all parts of the body. Muscle soreness is mainly caused by lactic acid, which is produced in the muscles during eccentric movement. The eccentric part of the exercise is when the muscles get longer. A part of our body that does not feel as much pain the next day may be perceived as a sign that our body is growing or adapting to exercise.

Soreness can be used to judge how good or bad the training was, but it should be added that this is also a very inaccurate indicator. Many things like hydration levels, supplementation, and stretching can affect muscle soreness. It’s a good idea to keep an accurate diary of your training and use it to measure muscle growth, not pain levels.

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