adding size to biceps

[chadlugo22]

I have been working out for a while now, and i can get the pump in and after the gym I want for my biceps, but the size when im not working out is just not there. I work out chest with triceps together, and biceps by themself. What can exercises can I do or what should I workout together to add inches to my bi's? Any recommedation is appreciated.

[luckyclover]

I personally dont do any exercise that work only the biceps. I try to stick to exercises that incorporate several muscles at once. Cant think of any specific exercise names at the moment but generally changing up my routine periodically has always helped me. So if your been doing the same things over and over maybe you can try some new things.

[spot_skater]

Start doing reverse curls to really hit the brachialis. Also try using more than just your standard barbell or dumb bell curl. Try wider and narrower grips, hammer curls, across the chest curls, preacher curls and spider curls. See what you really feel the most.

When I started hitting them in all these different ways my size went up a good amount.

Worked for me, might want to give it a shot.

[HSP10]

Well, what do you usually do for a bicep workout?

[microrahsheen]

Originally Posted by chadlugo22

I have been working out for a while now, and i can get the pump in and after the gym I want for my biceps, but the size when im not working out is just not there. I work out chest with triceps together, and biceps by themself. What can exercises can I do or what should I workout together to add inches to my bi's? Any recommedation is appreciated.

incline curls should give your bi's something to grow for. Hammer grip and "regular" grip. I think starting off with a little stretch in the muscle helps growth.

Also, turning your wrist so that your palm faces the sky as you move toward the top of the curl will allow you to really contract to the fullest.

[TaurusHorizon]

I have found that doing biceps and triceps in the same day keeps the blood (pump) in the same area longer and it has helped my arms to start growing faster. I have started gaining alot more strength in my arms as well while doing this. Experiment with that and other recomaditions made by other posters and find what works best for you.

[b631]

you will have to do specific exercises to get bigger arms, the best being bb curls, close grip bench, and press downs
the other specific exercise you will have to do are:
back- pullups, deads, rows, etc.
chest- bench, incline etc
shoulder- military press etc.

hitting isolated muscles groups, such as arms works along as you keep some things in mind: tris will not get bigger unless your chest and shoulder grow to accomodate the increased weight and reps you are forcing them to do. your chest and shoulder will have no place to grow unless you widen your back, this also allows for your biceps to grow as they now have the support from the rest of you muscle groups to accomodate the increased weight and resistance you are placing on them.
then you got legs- and although i do not believe squats will make your arms grow directly, when you do squats, and legs you usually push large amounts of weight around. this in turn produces hormones within the body that promotes, and is nessisary for the growth of muscle.

[TaurusHorizon]

Originally Posted by b631

you will have to do specific exercises to get bigger arms, the best being bb curls, close grip bench, and press downs
the other specific exercise you will have to do are:
back- pullups, deads, rows, etc.
chest- bench, incline etc
shoulder- military press etc.

hitting isolated muscles groups, such as arms works along as you keep some things in mind: tris will not get bigger unless your chest and shoulder grow to accomodate the increased weight and reps you are forcing them to do. your chest and shoulder will have no place to grow unless you widen your back, this also allows for your biceps to grow as they now have the support from the rest of you muscle groups to accomodate the increased weight and resistance you are placing on them.
then you got legs- and although i do not believe squats will make your arms grow directly, when you do squats, and legs you usually push large amounts of weight around. this in turn produces hormones within the body that promotes, and is nessisary for the growth of muscle.

yeah, what he said.

[Wolverines21]

Originally Posted by chadlugo22

I have been working out for a while now, and i can get the pump in and after the gym I want for my biceps, but the size when im not working out is just not there. I work out chest with triceps together, and biceps by themself. What can exercises can I do or what should I workout together to add inches to my bi's? Any recommedation is appreciated.

I had that same issue for probably 2 years. I always felt like I had cannons when I worked out but I couldn't fill up the sleeves during the day at all. About two months ago it was suggested that I do reverse curls and hammer curls with my bicep workouts, focusing on getting full extension with every rep (this is crucial). Now, even on my off days, I have fuller biceps. Just a suggestion, it really worked for me.

[Finnegan Bell]

Chinups and less isolation bicep exercises

[BIG GUNNS]

Barbell curls with forced reps dont hesitate in adding weight or doing extra reps after youve gone to faliure have a spotter help you .Preacher curls either str8 bar or ez-curl bar on a 45* angle or one arm dumbbell preachers over a 90* angle.Concentrations to high reps around 12 or untill you have to force then up with your other hand .Either reverse curls or hammer curls .Try super setting any of these exercises from time to time .

[TroJon]

I would say the same thing here really, but asking about bicep size and giving tricep answers is really, in my opinion, missing the question a bit too much.

I would personally say heavy (for yourself/individual) barbell curls with forced reps - i.e start cheating a little to finish in the later sets, and heavy preacher curls, really brought out my biceps from what they were before. That pic is old in my avatar

[xtaskforcetommy]

i just did my BI's last night.. also i only work one body part a day and i try not to keep the same plan for to long but heres what i did which gave me a awsome pump.. i change my work out a little every week but for the most part this is what i do norm

*str8 bar curl wide grip 3x12 work my way up to 115
superseted with standing 40lbs dbell curls till u cant move ur arms
then i did incline hammer curls 3x10 worked way up to 50lbs bdells
superset standing 35lbs dbells curls till you cant move your arms
then i did ez bar curl 3x10 worked up 95
superset of chin ups as many as u can
finish w Concentration Curls worked up to 40 3x8
did not superset on this

* you can do wide or close grip. chnaging the grip will change what angle u hit the BI'S.. wide is more the inner bi and close is more the outter bi

oh ya and flex at the top of each

[JustinLloyd]

Lol...now that is a true "bicep day"

I dont mean that as a good thing btw

[jaredmt]

i've seen people at about your height and weight and they had pretty good biceps

I get the feeling you are not doing your bicep exercises correctly. make sure you keep your form and dont swing the weights up. try to use only bicep muscles and dont use any momentum. u can avoid using momentum by just bringing the barbell/dumbell up slowly and making sure your elbows stay in place

[chodan9]

I dont have a bicep day but I did rework my schedule so that I have a dedicated arm day. I do back/bi's on monday chest tris on teusday then on friday I just do arms.
The reason being my arms were lagging behind the rest of me. adding that day seemed to do the trick. I am starting to get a bit of growth in the arms where there had been a stall out.
I also included a dip/pullup superset in that day

[thailegacy]

Originally Posted by chadlugo22

I have been working out for a while now, and i can get the pump in and after the gym I want for my biceps, but the size when im not working out is just not there. I work out chest with triceps together, and biceps by themself. What can exercises can I do or what should I workout together to add inches to my bi's? Any recommedation is appreciated.

keep saying it soo much.. tricep make 2/3 the whole size of your arms, mean bicep are smaller, for bicep working them out 1 day a week is best make sure you do them last do compounds first since they are more taxing and important.. then do a quick triset, and you should be fine, if u work em 2 times a week is ok but not ideal. also dont spend more tham 15 minutes on them i say 10 minute...doing 28 set of curls wont help, and remember that your body wont grow one part bigger unless you work your whole body, yeah squats will help you to get bigger arms, and eating every 3 hours will help in your quest

[spot_skater]

Originally Posted by JustinLloyd

Lol...now that is a true "bicep day"

I dont mean that as a good thing btw

Why not? I have a day I dedicate solely to arms.

Reverse curls and hammer curls HEAVY!) are what helped me out, bro. Since they're such a small muscle group you can hit them like 3x/week if you want. I hit them lightly on back day, started to hit them again on my sunday legs day, and blast the **** out of them on my bicep/tricep day.

FWIW I'm less than 145 lbs and have 15" arms. No fatceps.

[d_k]

Originally Posted by spot_skater

Why not? I have a day I dedicate solely to arms.

Reverse curls and hammer curls HEAVY!) are what helped me out, bro. Since they're such a small muscle group you can hit them like 3x/week if you want. I hit them lightly on back day, started to hit them again on my sunday legs day, and blast the **** out of them on my bicep/tricep day.

FWIW I'm less than 145 lbs and have 15" arms. No fatceps.

just ignore most of the advice given on here, its usually people parroting things... if you're a bodybuilder, having an arms day helps alot... I work my arms twice a week too... 6 sets for bi's/tri's on chest and back day respectively and then 20 sets a piece of arms day... can't say its hurt their growth

crossbody hammer curls FTW btw, I like em much better than reg hammer curls

[Who?]

What rep ranges do ya'll use for bi's?

[spot_skater]

Originally Posted by d_k

just ignore most of the advice given on here, its usually people parroting things... if you're a bodybuilder, having an arms day helps alot... I work my arms twice a week too... 6 sets for bi's/tri's on chest and back day respectively and then 20 sets a piece of arms day... can't say its hurt their growth

crossbody hammer curls FTW btw, I like em much better than reg hammer curls

Hell yeah dude, I call them across the chest curls, though (whatever floats your boat, though!). We have a pretty similar routine it sounds like, I'm gonna check out your journal when I get a chance, but I'll sub it right now (have a biology exam to study for) so I can look at it when I have free time.

Originally Posted by Who?

What rep ranges do ya'll use for bi's?

Right now I'm trying to stay in the 10-15 rep range. Hopefully that will make the muscles a little bit denser/harder looking, as opposed to swollen.

Normally when trying to put on size I keep it in the 5-8 range.

I'm trying to lower my BF%, though

This is just what has been working for me, though. I also don't follow any cookie cutter routines that other people use, I try to do new things every once in a while and if I happen to see some growth, I'll stick with it and/or put a little variation into my workouts based on what I have found to work with my body.

Good luck man.

It seems like you need to do some experimentation, though. Don't be afraid to try new exercises.

[stealth_swimmer]

Originally Posted by b631

you will have to do specific exercises to get bigger arms, the best being bb curls, close grip bench, and press downs
the other specific exercise you will have to do are:
back- pullups, deads, rows, etc.
chest- bench, incline etc
shoulder- military press etc.

hitting isolated muscles groups, such as arms works along as you keep some things in mind: tris will not get bigger unless your chest and shoulder grow to accomodate the increased weight and reps you are forcing them to do. your chest and shoulder will have no place to grow unless you widen your back, this also allows for your biceps to grow as they now have the support from the rest of you muscle groups to accomodate the increased weight and resistance you are placing on them.
then you got legs- and although i do not believe squats will make your arms grow directly, when you do squats, and legs you usually push large amounts of weight around. this in turn produces hormones within the body that promotes, and is nessisary for the growth of muscle.

Well I totally disagree with that. You're basically saying that working your chest will help your triceps grow....I don't know of any way to test that so I can only go from experience.

And in my experience, i used to do lots of bench and military press...but my triceps were terrible, but when I started training them on their own day all by themselves, they got better. And got LOTS better when I started doing dips.

For some reason they never got anything out of close grip bench. So I work with dips as the heavy mass builder and also skullcrushers and some cable movement. Then I'll do a "finishing exercise"

but basically, dips are the only press that I do for triceps. Everything else is an extension, which helps bring out that sweep. And if you're bodybuilding, then that area is of HIGH importance.

Another example was that when I was a beginner and had come off of working just biceps for 3 months or so(yeah talk about noob,lol) I decided to train my back and delts for 3 months and did nothing but barbell rows and military presses.

My back and delts got bigger, but when I went back to incorporating biceps, they were smaller and weaker.

So what I'm saying is that working muscles all on their own is what gives them good development.

FOR SOME PPL...others use almost all compounds and get the best results. It's hard to make blanket statements about these things.

But I agree that BB curls are the best mass-builder for biceps.

Originally Posted by d_k

just ignore most of the advice given on here, its usually people parroting things... if you're a bodybuilder, having an arms day helps alot... I work my arms twice a week too... 6 sets for bi's/tri's on chest and back day respectively and then 20 sets a piece of arms day... can't say its hurt their growth

crossbody hammer curls FTW btw, I like em much better than reg hammer curls

They emphasize different areas. But yea for a better contraction, I love cross-body hammers. They give you such a great squeeze that I think it's almost impossible for anyone not to get a pump from them,lol. Especially if they're used as the second exercise in the workout (by that time the blood is flowing better and the biceps are ready to take up more blood).


On a side note, for any ppl who don't know how a pump feels in their biceps, I recommend EZ curls in the 6-12 rep range followed up by cross-body hammer curls. That'll be killer, in a good way.