Training program biceps

The preacher curl is easily the best exercise you can do for isolating the short head of the biceps. The preacher curl is so effective because it fixes your elbows out in front of your body. This helps you to really isolate the short head of the biceps.

The preacher curl has another big advantage: it prevents you from cheating as you curl the weight. The only thing you can use is your biceps. The preacher curl is also a very versatile exercise. You can change the angle of the preacher curl station to overload different points in the strength curve. Here is what a 45 degree preacher curl looks like:.

This exercise works your biceps very hard in the bottom position of the exercise. It also places the short head of your biceps under a huge loaded stretch. Another popular variation is the 90 degree preacher curl. This type of preacher curl is performed with your upper arms pointing straight down towards the ground.

Your elbows fixed out in front of your body so this exercise still overloads the short head of your biceps. However, this variation makes your biceps work harder in the top half of the movement. Once again the 90 degree preacher curl prevents you from cheating the weight up and forces you to use nothing but the short head of your biceps. In fact the first ever Mr. Olympia winner Larry Scott used the preacher curl station almost exclusively to build his world-famous inch biceps.

Another great choice is the spider curl. The spider curl is performed with you lying face down on an incline bench with your elbows out in front of your body. The spider curl works sort of like the preacher curl: it puts your elbows out in front of your body which really isolates the short head of your biceps. The spider curl also does a great job of eliminating momentum and forcing you to use nothing but your biceps to move the weight.

The spider curl is similar to the 90 degree preacher curl in that it overloads the top half of the strength curve. The weight is very easy to move in the bottom position and very hard to move in the top position. Another simple strategy is to curl with a wider than shoulder width grip. EMG electromyography studies show that the wide grip forces you to recruit more of the short head. You can also use a wide grip on other exercises like standing barbell curls or even standing cable curls to target the short head.

Finally the short head can be targeted with a supinating grip. In other words you would supinate your hand as you curl the weight up.

The supinating dumbbell preacher curl is an incredible exercise for overloading the short head of the biceps. There are actually 4 different grips you can use for dumbbell preacher curls:.

Each of those links will take you to a sample training video for that exercise. All of these grips are great for training the biceps. In my experience the supinating grip and the offset grip are probably the most effective for training the short head of the biceps.

The offset grip is performed where you hold the dumbbell with your pointer finger touching the inside of the dumbbell. The dumbbell will feel off balance so you have to isometrically supinate the dumbbell on every rep.

The 1-arm barbell preacher curl is the single best exercise you can do for the short head of your biceps. However, the fact that you are curling a barbell with one arm forces the short head to work even harder. This is because the short head has to contract isometrically as a forearm supinator to prevent the barbell from tipping over to one side or the other. If you are not strong enough to curl a 45 pound barbell with one arm then you can perform eccentric-only reps with this exercise.

Here is a perfect demonstration of the 1-arm barbell preacher curl:. If you have a training partner then they can help you lift the weight through the concentric range so you can lower the weight on your own for several reps. If you do not have a training partner then you can use your non-working arm to help lift the barbell from the bottom position to the top position.

The long head of the biceps is located on the outside of the upper arm. The long head of the biceps also plays a critical role in your overall shoulder health. It acts almost like another rotator cuff muscle and helps to keep your shoulder stabilized during all kinds of upper body exercises. Larry Wheels and Eddie Hall had to learn this lesson the hard way. They both tore the long head of their biceps in freak training accidents.

Here is a video of Larry and Eddie discussing their bicep injuries:. The point is they could have avoided tearing the long head of their biceps by training a little smarter. There are 2 main ways to target the long head of the biceps:.

In my experience the incline dumbbell curl is the best exercise for targeting the long head of the biceps. Here is a perfect video demonstration of the incline dumbbell curl:.

The incline dumbbell curl is one of the 2 best bicep exercises you can perform. The other top biceps exercise is the preacher curl. The incline dumbbell curl has many advantages:. According to the Canadian strength coach Charles Poliquin you should be as strong on incline curls as you are on preacher curls.

In other words if you can perform 45 degree preacher dumbbell curls with 30 pound dumbbells for 6 reps then you should be able to do 45 degree incline dumbbell curls with 30 pound dumbbells for 6 reps. Most people who try this test realize they are FAR weaker on incline curls than preacher curls.

This is a sign that you need to spend more time training the long head of your biceps. Or you can ignore this advice and end up like Eddie Hall or Larry Wheels!

One of the things that I really like about the incline dumbbell curl is it is extremely versatile. You can easily change the angle of the incline bench or your type of grip to add variety.

There are 4 major angles that you can use with incline dumbbell curls:. You can click on the links above for a perfect video demonstration of each exercise. The steeper the angle the more you will recruit the long head of the biceps. In other words the 30 degree incline dumbbell curl targets the long head harder than the 75 degree incline dumbbell curl. The 30 degree incline will also place your biceps under a much deeper stretch. However, all of these angles work the long head really hard and they all deserve a place in your bicep workouts.

There are also 4 grips you can use during incline curls:. Once again you can click on the links above for video demonstrations of each exercise. Then using the same weight sit up on the bench to change the position of the dumbbells relative to gravity and hit a different part of the strength curve.

Perform this Seated Dumbbell Curl to failure as well. Then lean forward and perform Drag Curl. Here the elbows are kept way back and dumbbells are tucked in close. Rep out here as well. Perform a deadlift movement into a row as you straighten the knees. This definitive list gives beginner to advanced lifters plenty of exercises to add to your biceps training arsenal regardless of what your training goals are and what equipment you have at your disposal.

If you want to force biceps growth you need to employ some unique techniques to push them beyond what those standard curls can accomplish. Estimated Est. Read Time: 15 minutes. In both cases, they are missing the mark!

How To Do Face Pulls. Face pulls are one of the best corrective exercises to help offset poor posture and shoulder dysfunction. They help strengthen the chronically weak Back , Shoulders. Body Fat Percentage.

There are many ways to measure body fat percentage; some wildly expensive and most inaccurate. It's time to give you an alternative method that The Incline Bench Press is one of the best upper chest exercises there is, but there's one major problem preventing us from getting the maximum We can only use dumbbells!

The classic theory of "Upper, Middle, and Lower" chest exercises is a good start, but, it's not enough!! The solution to this problem is to not Why not? For one, experienced lifters know that while muscle activation matters, it isn't the only thing that determines the best muscle-building exercises.

Instead, we used a number of parameters to choose the 10 best, including:. You don't have to consider this a definitive list. Take it as the start of the discussion, then go experiment for yourself in the following three complete workouts! Why it's on the list: The standard shoulder-width curl engages the short and long heads of the biceps equally, you can alter grip width to slightly change the emphasis wide to target the short head , narrow for the long head , you can really pile on the weight, and you don't have to sit there endlessly working one arm at a time.

How many more reasons do you need? If you're only going to do one biceps exercise, make it this one. Want to use a straight bar instead of a cambered EZ-bar? Have at it, if your wrists don't mind. A study found that while both variants produced greater activity than dumbbell curls, "The small difference between [barbell] and EZ variants… makes the choice between these two exercises a matter of subjective comfort.

In your workout: Hit your heavy curls at the beginning of your biceps workout when you can really challenge yourself with weight. For a bit more of a strength stimulus, choose a weight you can handle for about reps, or even a classic size-and-strength rep range like 5x5. A common biceps blunder is rocking your body excessively on this movement.

Keep it strict for the most part, especially when you're going heavy. Why it's on the list: This movement seems a lot like the standing barbell curl at first glance. After all, they're both bilateral movements in which you take a shoulder-width, underhand grip on the bar. What makes it different is that, like all of the best muscle-building cable exercises , the angle of loading gives you constant tension on the muscle through the full range of motion. Essentially, that means you can't rest at the bottom or the top, which creates more total time under tension.

Plus, depending on the gym you're in, you might have numerous handle options and body positions to keep you busy. In your workout: Because it's fairly similar to the barbell curl, pick one or the other. If you're doing it first in your workout, go fairly heavy and use a challenging weight for reps per set. If you choose to do it later in the workout, go for or more per set.

Why it's on the list: Is this really any different than a barbell curl? That's up to you. Sure, you can do the moves in basically the same way in the same workout, but we don't recommend it. The real value of dumbbell curls is that they can be done a number of ways: standing or seated, with both arms or alternating, rotating your wrists into Zottman curls to work on your fearsome forearms , or twisting that pinky up to focus purely on the bis.

In short, you have options. In your workout: If you're doing these after barbell or cable curls, emphasize the difference by performing Zottmans, or take bilateral seated curls to fatigue and then extend the set by switching to unilateral curls. If you feel your reps getting sloppy, really hammer the negatives. It's been shown that the eccentric-focused reps can produce higher levels of force than the concentric, even when you're fatigued.

Why it's on the list: Ever done a set of max-rep chins? Then you know the biceps are working seriously hard during this move. Matt Biss is a training and nutrition specialist.

He earned his B. View all articles by this author. Top 10 Highest Rated Biceps Exercises. Incline Dumbbell Hammer Curl. Incline Inner-biceps curl. EZ-bar curl.

Zottman curl. Regular-Grip Barbell Curl. Dumbbell Biceps Curl. Preacher Hammer Dumbbell Curl. Overhead cable curl. Access our entire library of more than 90 fitness programs.