Destroying my biceps. What am I doing wrong?

[Xathr]

After I'm done training legs going down the stairs can be a painful experience. When I finish my shoulders and traps routine I can feel the burn by just carrying my gym bag. When I'm done with biceps I only feel that they are pumped for a while.

I have tried different approaches. I usually try to do 5 excercises 4x 10-12 reps. I always include DB curls, DB hammer curls and 21. I try my best to keep good form and quite often I feel some serious burn when I'm finishing my last sets, but in a few minutes the feeling is gone.

This leaves me with the question - is my routine bad or are the mucles just recovering quickly?

[mil1lion]

I dont tend to feel the triceps much either for some reason. My most taxing tricep workout is the narrow grip bench press.

[Ironlife]

Add some good exercises:

Weighted chin ups
Heavy Barbell curls on a olympic bar

Do these heavy and for good reps

[Xathr]

I'd gladly do chin ups, but I'm still a bit too fat to manage those. Perhaps after losing another 20ish pounds I can start doing those.

Actually when I do both DB and BB curls I feel WAY more burn if I do 15ish reps with less weight compared to 10 with more.

[tomsfish]

if you cant do chinups,try close grip palms facing you lat pulldown as heavy as you can.even tho i dont do these for biceps,it feels like my biceps are going to explode for a day and a half.

tom

[terman1]

Not sure what your specific goals are but for some people indirect training with heavy pulling compound lifts such as heavy barbell rows can stimulate more growth than the direct bicep work. And as Ironlife said, try incorporating weighted chin-ups for a while if you're not already doing so and see how that works for you.

[terman1]

Not sure what your specific goals are but for some people indirect training with heavy pulling compound lifts such as heavy barbell rows can stimulate more growth than the direct bicep work. And as Ironlife said, try incorporating weighted chin-ups for a while if you're not already doing so and see how that works for you.

Sorry, missed the part about the chin-ups but try some heavy rows for a while. Every one is different and responds better to different stimulation. Good luck.

[uflcook]

After I'm done training legs going down the stairs can be a painful experience. When I finish my shoulders and traps routine I can feel the burn by just carrying my gym bag. When I'm done with biceps I only feel that they are pumped for a while.

I have tried different approaches. I usually try to do 5 excercises 4x 10-12 reps. I always include DB curls, DB hammer curls and 21. I try my best to keep good form and quite often I feel some serious burn when I'm finishing my last sets, but in a few minutes the feeling is gone.

This leaves me with the question - is my routine bad or are the mucles just recovering quickly?

Switch up your routine, it could be your muscles have become so accustomed to these exercises. Try hammer curls, full bicep curls, try to hit the brachioradialis (the muscle beneath the biceps), try increasing weight, switching reps up, lateral cable curls where you hold your arms straight out holding cables and curl them directly towards your head.

Triceps try adding dips, over the head rope, rope pulldown.

[Tyler2106]

If he says he has a pump "for a while" after lifting biceps doesn't that mean his workout is fine for now?

[ThickAsABrick]

If he says he has a pump "for a while" after lifting biceps doesn't that mean his workout is fine for now?

Most likely, yes.

If he's doing 20 sets of 10-12 reps, he probably doesn't need to be adding more.