Biceps

Here is all the information you need to know about training biceps!

And if you dont want to read, you can just check out this video!

Exercises and movement patterns

There are 3 types of exercises that you need to include in your biceps workout:

1. Main biceps curl

2. Brachialis & brachioradialis focused curl

3. Peak focused curl

Main biceps curl

You can think of the main biceps curl, as if it was a compound lift for the biceps.

For this purpose, we will be using the barbell, or the dumbbell curl.

We will talk about this more a little later.

Brachialis & brachioradialis focused curl

This type of curl is very important, if you want your arm to look as big as possible.

This is how your hand looks like without a well developed brachialis and brachioradialis, and this is how it looks with well developed brachialis and brachioradialis.

And as you can see, the difference is pretty big.

So the exercises that i recommend are for example a hammer curl of any kind, or any curl with overhand grip.

Peak focused curl

The exercises that do the best job at targeting the peak are in my opinion the preacher curl and the concetration curl.

Number of workouts

2-3 workouts per week is pretty much where you want to be.

But could you theoretically hit your biceps 4 times per week?

Yes you could, if you programmed it in a way that makes sense.

But just keep in mind, that more is not always better, so i would just recommend sticking with 2 to 3 workouts per week.

Number of sets

The number of sets i would recommend is roughly 12-20sets per week.

Can you go over 20sets per week?

Yes you can, but i dont think its needed.

Because if you feel like your biceps are not getting worked with 20sets per week, you are most likely just mindlessly going through the motions, and not pushing yourself hard enough.

So instead of adding more sets, try to improve the quality of the sets that you are already doing.

Rep ranges

You need to split your exercises into:

1. One main exercise

2. Two Secondary exercises

If you do that, everything will become much easier to keep track of, while also making sure that you hit your biceps from all the angles necessary, and also benefiting from all the useful rep ranges.

Main exercise

You will always do the „main exercise“ as the first exercise for the biceps in each workout.

Because i already mentioned the „main biceps curl“ before, you already know that we will be using this type of exercise for this purpose.

And obviously, because its the first exercise of the workout for the biceps, we will have the most strenght available.

Thats why the rep range for the main exercise will be on the lower end, so 5-12 reps.

You can just choose between the 5-8 and 8-12 rep range.

Just pick the one which sounds more appealing to you, both are great.

So as i mentioned before, the main exercise for the biceps will be either the barbell or the dumbbel curl.

I would highly recommend the barbell variation over the dummbbell one though.

If you are having problems with the barbell, because it hurts your writs or something like that, try switching to an ez bar, that will most likely resolve your problem.

You will quickly realize, that when you start treating one of your biceps exercises as a compound lift, your biceps will improve dramatically.

The main biceps exercise will be most likely present in every single one of your workout days that you train biceps on, but thats not the case for both of the secondary exercises, so lets check them out.

Secondary exercises

As i said before, we have two types of secondary exercises, the first type is the brachialis and brachioradialis focused curl, and the second one is the peak focused curl.

These exercises will always be done after the main biceps exercise.

Which means that we will be a little bit weaker after that.

Thats why we will be using a rep range that is little bit higher than on the „main exercise“.

For the secondary exercises, i would mostly recommend the 12-15 rep range, but you can go up to 30 reps if you want to, but that mainly depends on your preference, and on the type of the exercise that you are doing.

You might be wondering, why do we have two types of secondary exercises?

Why cant we just bundle it all into one thing?

And the answer is pretty simple, we will be rotating between them in each workout, thats why they are split into two types.

So you can imagine that the main exercise is a constant that doesnt change.

And we just switch between the two secondary exercises, from the brachialis and brachioradialis focused curl to the peak focused curl.

And we just repeat that cycle every week.

Example biceps workout

So this is how it could for example look:

And if you want to do 3 biceps exercises in each workout, you just put in both of the secondary exercises there at once, if you do that, you will not need to switch around anything.

Solution for lagging biceps

If you feel like your biceps is lagging behind the rest of your physique, try putting your biceps exercises at the beginning of your workout, instead of the absolute end.

This doesnt apply to you, if you are an absolute beginner, in that case, just keep on training normally.

Because if you always train your biceps at the end of your workout, you just cant expect it to grow properly, because your body is already tired from all the other exercises you did before that.

You might think that it cant be that much of a difference, but i want you to give that a try, and you will immediately feel the difference between training the biceps first versus training it last.

And of course, if you train your biceps first, then something else will have to be put on the back burner.

You simply cant prioritize everything at once, thats the reality.

So its up to you to decide, what you want to prioritize, because something always has to take a backseat, when you want to prioritize something.

But if you have been lifting for years, and all those years were spent with biceps being the last exercise of your workout, and your biceps are still lacking behind the rest of your physique, then i think its a really simple decision.

Well, thats all you need to know about training biceps!

Try applying all of this knowledge to your training plan, and im sure that you will see much better results..or you can just try one of my training plans!

And if you still have any questions about this topic, or about anything else that is related to bodybuilding, join our community and get help from me and other like-minded individuals!

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Here is all the information you need to know about training biceps!

And if you dont want to read, you can just check out this video!

Exercises and movement patterns

There are 3 types of exercises that you need to include in your biceps workout:

1. Main biceps curl

2. Brachialis & brachioradialis focused curl

3. Peak focused curl

Main biceps curl

You can think of the main biceps curl, as if it was a compound lift for the biceps.

For this purpose, we will be using the barbell, or the dumbbell curl.

We will talk about this more a little later.

Brachialis & brachioradialis focused curl

This type of curl is very important, if you want your arm to look as big as possible.

This is how your hand looks like without a well developed brachialis and brachioradialis, and this is how it looks with well developed brachialis and brachioradialis.

And as you can see, the difference is pretty big.

So the exercises that i recommend are for example a hammer curl of any kind, or any curl with overhand grip.

Peak focused curl

The exercises that do the best job at targeting the peak are in my opinion the preacher curl and the concetration curl.

Number of workouts

2-3 workouts per week is pretty much where you want to be.

But could you theoretically hit your biceps 4 times per week?

Yes you could, if you programmed it in a way that makes sense.

But just keep in mind, that more is not always better, so i would just recommend sticking with 2 to 3 workouts per week.

Number of sets

The number of sets i would recommend is roughly 12-20sets per week.

Can you go over 20sets per week?

Yes you can, but i dont think its needed.

Because if you feel like your biceps are not getting worked with 20sets per week, you are most likely just mindlessly going through the motions, and not pushing yourself hard enough.

So instead of adding more sets, try to improve the quality of the sets that you are already doing.

Rep ranges

You need to split your exercises into:

1. One main exercise

2. Two Secondary exercises

If you do that, everything will become much easier to keep track of, while also making sure that you hit your biceps from all the angles necessary, and also benefiting from all the useful rep ranges.

Main exercise

You will always do the „main exercise“ as the first exercise for the biceps in each workout.

Because i already mentioned the „main biceps curl“ before, you already know that we will be using this type of exercise for this purpose.

And obviously, because its the first exercise of the workout for the biceps, we will have the most strenght available.

Thats why the rep range for the main exercise will be on the lower end, so 5-12 reps.

You can just choose between the 5-8 and 8-12 rep range.

Just pick the one which sounds more appealing to you, both are great.

So as i mentioned before, the main exercise for the biceps will be either the barbell or the dumbbel curl.

I would highly recommend the barbell variation over the dummbbell one though.

If you are having problems with the barbell, because it hurts your writs or something like that, try switching to an ez bar, that will most likely resolve your problem.

You will quickly realize, that when you start treating one of your biceps exercises as a compound lift, your biceps will improve dramatically.

The main biceps exercise will be most likely present in every single one of your workout days that you train biceps on, but thats not the case for both of the secondary exercises, so lets check them out.

Secondary exercises

As i said before, we have two types of secondary exercises, the first type is the brachialis and brachioradialis focused curl, and the second one is the peak focused curl.

These exercises will always be done after the main biceps exercise.

Which means that we will be a little bit weaker after that.

Thats why we will be using a rep range that is little bit higher than on the „main exercise“.

For the secondary exercises, i would mostly recommend the 12-15 rep range, but you can go up to 30 reps if you want to, but that mainly depends on your preference, and on the type of the exercise that you are doing.

You might be wondering, why do we have two types of secondary exercises?

Why cant we just bundle it all into one thing?

And the answer is pretty simple, we will be rotating between them in each workout, thats why they are split into two types.

So you can imagine that the main exercise is a constant that doesnt change.

And we just switch between the two secondary exercises, from the brachialis and brachioradialis focused curl to the peak focused curl.

And we just repeat that cycle every week.

Example biceps workout

So this is how it could for example look:

And if you want to do 3 biceps exercises in each workout, you just put in both of the secondary exercises there at once, if you do that, you will not need to switch around anything.

Solution for lagging biceps

If you feel like your biceps is lagging behind the rest of your physique, try putting your biceps exercises at the beginning of your workout, instead of the absolute end.

This doesnt apply to you, if you are an absolute beginner, in that case, just keep on training normally.

Because if you always train your biceps at the end of your workout, you just cant expect it to grow properly, because your body is already tired from all the other exercises you did before that.

You might think that it cant be that much of a difference, but i want you to give that a try, and you will immediately feel the difference between training the biceps first versus training it last.

And of course, if you train your biceps first, then something else will have to be put on the back burner.

You simply cant prioritize everything at once, thats the reality.

So its up to you to decide, what you want to prioritize, because something always has to take a backseat, when you want to prioritize something.

But if you have been lifting for years, and all those years were spent with biceps being the last exercise of your workout, and your biceps are still lacking behind the rest of your physique, then i think its a really simple decision.

Well, thats all you need to know about training biceps!

Try applying all of this knowledge to your training plan, and im sure that you will see much better results..or you can just try one of my training plans!

And if you still have any questions about this topic, or about anything else that is related to bodybuilding, join our community and get help from me and other like-minded individuals!