To build muscle mass, you must use a weight that is heavy enough so you can only complete between six and 12 repetitions for four to six sets of each biceps exercise. Curling 20-lb. dumbbells will build your biceps if you stay within this range of repetitions.
In fact, they can be a great tool for building muscle at home. There are many different exercises you can do with 20 pound dumbbells that target all the major muscle groups. You can also use them to do compound exercises, which work multiple muscle groups at the same time.
20 pounds is a good weight for a dumbbell biceps curl, nothing for a barbell bench press. Are you stuck at 20 pounds in both of them?
Yes it is very much possible to get well defined arms with just a pair of Dumbbells and body weight moves. Since the weight of the Dumbbells is a constant, you will need to play around with the type of exercises to add bulk and peak to your biceps.
The appropriate weight for your biceps dumbbell curl depends on your fitness goals and your current level of strength. Lifting an 8kg dumbbell for three sets of 10 reps is a good starting point, especially if you're a beginner. However, whether it's considered "strong" or not depends on your fitness level and goals.
Yes, so long as you increase the weight over time.
You can absolutely bulk up with dumbbells, but you're going to hit a wall if you don't keep adding weight. Every few weeks, increase the amount of weight you're lifting by 5–10 lb (2.3–4.5 kg) or so to keep those gains going.
Strong biceps help with lifting, holding, and carrying heavy objects. The old-school curl is still the best exercise for building biceps. Use a pair of light dumbbells (about 10 pounds each). You also can use soup cans, full plastic water bottles, or any other easy-to-hold item that feels like an appropriate weight.
For most types of biceps exercises, however, the whole 5-30 rep range is highly effective. When constructing a weekly training plan, it's probably a good idea to train the heavy ranges before the lighter ranges. Because both types of training cause fatigue, they all interfere with each other to some extent.
Typically, it takes around 6-8 weeks for you to start noticing changes in the appearance of your arms. At around the 12 week mark, this is typically when you can expect to see more significant changes, especially if you didn't already have a large amount of muscle mass in the area!
These beginner arm toning exercises are easy to do at home with a pair of 3-pound dumbbells (or bodyweight alone). For best results, do each of the upper body exercises for the number of reps indicated one to three times per week.
Slow Tempo Curls
To build muscle mass, you must use a weight that is heavy enough so you can only complete between six and 12 repetitions for four to six sets of each biceps exercise. Curling 20-lb. dumbbells will build your biceps if you stay within this range of repetitions.
A bicep size that is considered big is subjective to personal opinion and preference. However, as we saw above, young adult men's average biceps range from 13–15 inches, and women's range from 12–13 inches. By these standards, biceps measuring 15+ inches for men and 13+ inches for women are generally classified as big.
Medium vs. Heavy Weights. For beginners, Ben recommends trying five to 10 pounds for light weights, 10 to 20 pounds for medium weights, and 15 to 30 pounds for heavy weights—or simply starting with five-pound weights for each exercise and working up from there.
Dumbbell exercises are ideal for creating hypertrophy if you want to put on size. This is done by overloading muscles with rep ranges 8, 10 or 12. If you want to focus on just building muscle and strength, focus on 8-12 rep.
Or, to increase the intensity, you can perform supersets that only target one muscle. This will vastly increase the burn you feel from the 20 pound dumbbells. An example is bicep curls, hammer curls, and then concentration curls. Try to keep each set in the range of 8–12 reps.
The average Dumbbell Curl weight for a female lifter is 30 lb (1RM). This makes you Intermediate on Strength Level and is a very impressive lift.
Although simple, dumbbells are an effective tool for toning and strengthening arms. Dumbbells are incredibly versatile, and allow you to target different muscle groups in different ways, including biceps, triceps, forearms, and shoulders.
In addition to curls, Galpin says that other exercises such as lat pull-downs, diamond push-ups, dips, close grip bench press, pull-ups, bent-over rows and even lower body exercises like the deadlift can activate the biceps. "Use a variety of exercises; don't just stick to one," he suggests.
Training your biceps every day will put a great deal of stress and strain on the muscle and may mean you reach “failure” quicker than you should. Failure occurs when a muscle can no longer contract concentrically.
Growing biceps is a real game changer but not an overnight process. It takes dedication and time, along with a proper set of exercises. The best way to grow biceps is to start by adjusting your exercise volume to 30 sets per week, and your per-set volume should be, at most, 8-10 complex sets per muscle.
If you are training the biceps directly for strength, it is recommended that you train in the 5-10 rep range, or the 8-10 rep range to minimize overloading the tendons and ligaments of the elbow joint due to the single joint nature of most biceps isolation exercises.
So, which is better? It really depends on your goals. If you're looking to build bigger biceps, then you should focus on bicep curls a bit more than hammer curls. However, if you're just looking to tone your arms and don't really care about building bigger biceps, then either exercise will work just fine.
Studies have proven that bicep curls, performed with the EZ bar, are one of the best exercises for big biceps [3]. Unlike a straight bar, the EZ bar only requires a semi-supinated grip due to the angle of the bar.
I recommend starting with 5-pound weights. Halfway through the month, do a check-in with your body to see if they feel too light. If so, you can move up to 7.5- or 8-pound weights. If you notice you are building muscle too quickly, or bulking instead of toning, I recommend staying lighter with your weights.
Not necessarily. Whether you choose to lift light weights or heavy weights is often a matter of personal preference. Both will achieve the goal of making your muscles stronger, assuming you work out to the point of muscle fatigue. Muscle fatigue means you can no longer do more reps in proper form.