The 10 Best Biceps Training Tips

What's your single best tip for building bigger biceps? 10 experts answer ...

Paul Carter – Strength and Bodybuilding Coach

Do 100 reps of empty barbell curls.

Most guys that struggle with biceps growth use really heavy weights and a lot of momentum to curl. Then they do reps in the low ranges and, ultimately, the biceps really don't end up doing a lot of work or getting a lot of tension. The upper back helps with the initial cheat to start the concentric and then the eccentric or negative portion of the rep is basically just the barbell dropping back down.

 

Chris Shugart – T Nation CCO

Time your curls.

There are many ways to build biceps. And sometimes the "best" method of triggering fresh muscle gains is to simply do something new... something you haven't done before or haven't done in a long time.

For biceps, here's something to try. The next time you do a set of curls of any type, keep an eye on the clock or have a buddy time your set. How long did that set of curls take?

If you typically go heavy so you don't have to go home (as mandated by bro code) your set probably fell below 60 seconds. Let's say you did a fairly heavy 8-rep set, and it took roughly 1 second to lift the weight and you lowered it under control for 2 seconds each rep. Do the math. That's 24 seconds per set. Add a 1 second squeeze at the top of each rep and you get 32 seconds.

 

Mark Dugdale – IFBB Pro Bodybuilder

Chase the pump.

I compete in the IFBB and we don't care all that much about strength. "How much does the competitor curl?" This is a question you won't find on the judges scorecard. Interesting enough, 20-plus years of training also taught me that lifting big numbers, particularly in regards to arm training, does very little for gains in size.