how to grow big biceps

Next, we want to ensure that the weekly volume we do has the right variety of exercises to build your biceps. We want to do this so that it helps:

• Ensure that we are targeting both the short and long head of the biceps adequately
• Train the biceps through different strength curves to maximally stimulate all of the various regions and fibres of the biceps
• Better prevent us from overuse injuries and the wear and tear that would accumulate very quickly if we packed a ton of volume into just a couple of repetitive movements.

To simplify this, here are 5 biceps exercises that do just that. And provide a good variety of stimulus on the biceps for the reasons I’ve noted down.

• Incline dumbbell curl (emphasizes long head and challenges the peak contraction of the biceps the most)
• Dumbbell preacher curls (emphasizes short head and challenges the stretched position of the biceps the most)
• Barbell curl (for heavier loads and challenges the mid-range of the biceps the most)
• Cable curls (provides constant tension to biceps)
• Standing dumbbell curl (emphasizes supination function of biceps)

Simply distribute 4 or 5 of these movements and/or similar variations of them into your weekly biceps workouts as needed. And then as previously explained, gradually increase the sets you devote to each of these exercises throughout the weeks to accumulate more and more weekly biceps volume.

Exercise Order

Next, we want to manipulate the order of our workouts to again favor the growth of our biceps. Multiple papers have shown that lifters get better strength gains in exercises that are done early in a session, with a trend for better growth in those exercises as well. Which makes sense.

After a back workout, for example, by the time I’m done with those back movements I can barely shake my post-workout protein. Let alone have enough energy to then hammer out some biceps work! So, during whatever workouts that you’re throwing your biceps exercises into, move them to the beginning of the workout when you’re fresh in order to further prioritize them.

Nutrition

Lastly, is nutrition. Ideally, if you want to maximize your recovery and growth throughout these 8 weeks, you’ll want to be eating at a slight calorie surplus. It is possible to grow muscle while in a calorie deficit. But it’s much more difficult to do - and will be slower since protein synthesis reduces significantly whenever we’re in a deficit.

So unless you’d still really like to prioritize fat loss throughout these 8 weeks, stick with a small calorie surplus. Or, at least enough calories such that you’re recovering and progressing well throughout the weeks. And of course, even more importantly is we want to ensure that we’re intaking enough protein throughout this period by having at least around 0.8-1g of protein per lb of our bodyweight. Otherwise, we’ll be sabotaging much of the effort that’s going into our workouts.  

Build Big Biceps Action Plan

And that’s basically all there is to it. Look forward to a bigger, more impressive biceps peak! For your convenience, I’ve combined all of this information into a free 8-week biceps workout routine template that you can download and incorporate into your routine right away. It’ll breakdown exactly:

• How to set up your workout split
• What biceps exercises to use AND
• How to progress them throughout the 8 weeks with more volume

To grab a copy of this:

    how to grow big biceps