Don't go too heavy
“Your arms take a beating when you go heavy on back and chest days, so you don't need to lift heavy weights when training the biceps or triceps directly,” says Ventura. “In fact, I like to go light but do a lot of reps.
To grow bigger, stronger biceps, you need to train with heavy weights using low to moderate repetition sets. If muscular endurance is the goal, train with lighter weights utilizing high repetition sets.
“If you want to build big biceps you don't necessarily have to always focus on lifting heavy weight. In this video, I'm going to give you a complete biceps workout that you can do with lighter weights than you normally lift and still get massive growth in your biceps.
If you're doing a biceps curl, for example, start with 8-15 lbs for women and 12-20 lbs for men.
The biceps and triceps should be trained using rep ranges between 5-20 reps to best maximize strength, muscle growth, and overall development of the muscles.
Biceps get a lot of attention at the gym, and many people can overwork them in an attempt to get gains fast. When struggling to grow your arms, it can be easy to just keep on adding to your routine, but this can easily go wrong. Biceps are different from larger muscle groups, where additional exercise is always better.
Start with a low weight, like 5 pounds (2.3 kg), and do a few repetitions of a simple exercise like bicep curls. Increase the weight by 2.5 pounds (1.1 kg) until you get to a weight that is difficult to use for the exercise. Then, go down one increment. This will be the best weight for you to start at.
Strong biceps are integral to many compound movements, including the bench press, barbell row, and pull-up, so neglecting to train the biceps muscle can compromise overall strength. Whether the focus is on strength or hypertrophy, if you want to build muscle, you need progressive overload.
So, in general, low reps with heavy weight tends to increase muscle mass, while high reps with light weight increases muscle endurance. This doesn't mean that you have to rely on one method exclusively. Alternating between the two may be the best approach for long-term success.
There are two main training errors people make that keep their biceps from growing. These are overtraining the biceps (often unintentionally) and a lack of variation in training techniques. Adding additional biceps focused workouts and trying multiple biceps exercises doesn't work.
Through weightlifting exercises, you may be able to put an inch of muscle on your biceps in a week. You may be able to gain another inch in two weeks, but soon your body will plateau and you won't see that kind of growth every week.
10-11 inches (25-28cm): Skinny, time to eat more. 12-13 inches (30-33cm): Average size; keep it up. 14-16 inches (35-41cm): Bigger than most of your peers including men, definitely turning heads. 16-18 inches (41-46cm): Stacked, you garner attention from people who think you're a bodybuilder.
The average Dumbbell Curl weight for a male lifter is 52 lb (1RM). This makes you Intermediate on Strength Level and is a very impressive lift. What is a good Dumbbell Curl? Male beginners should aim to lift 14 lb (1RM) which is still impressive compared to the general population.
Yes, a bigger muscle will be a stronger muscle, to an extent. But strength is largely neuromuscular; it's about your brain being able to connect to your muscles.
The Minimum Effective Volume (MEV) for biceps requires you to perform at least eight sets of direct bicep workouts per week. It means that you need to complete eight sets of biceps throughout the week.
Many fitness beginners and even bodybuilders have difficulty in building up their biceps. This is not solely because the biceps is an isolated muscle that is naturally hard to develop, but mostly because they may just be doing the wrong bicep exercises for long-term results.
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!
There is no set weight to start with when using dumbbells, some people may feel comfortable beginning at 5kg and others at 15kg. It is important to start with a manageable weight, nothing too light or too heavy, as you want to be able to feel some impact.
THE RESULTS
When compared to the other seven exercises, the concentration curl came out on top, eliciting significantly higher muscle activation of the biceps than any other exercise tested (Figure 1). * Significantly different than concentration curl (p<0.05).