Bicep's Peak

[iggy]

I have some mass, but need a lot of work on the peak of my bicep
i've heard concentration curls and preacher curls work the peak good, but i wondered what you guys think would be the best exercise for increasing the peak and height.

Here's a shot of my bi's
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa276/DCtheE/biceps.jpg

 

[SaiBoT]

Hammer curls, reverse curls and Zottman curls work mostly on the brachialis and the forearm decreasing the gap between bicep and forearm. On a very developped arm the brachialis resembles a golf ball stuck between the biceps and triceps. A developped brachialis will help push the bicep brachii upward, which improves the so-called "biceps Peak"
__________________

 

[automaticj5]

nice pic -- you look like your hurting yourself... Id take the preacher curl stand like your hovering over it, place your elbows at the bottom of the pad and concentrate and do some curls... being leaned over, your back should have NO involvement whatsoever..

 

[fortunatesun]

Two others that could be worth your time are:

Incline Dumbell Curls- Do them seated on an incline bench.

Cable curls- Use a high cable and strike a front double biceps pose like in your pic. You can hold this pose for a few seconds after every rep to intensify the effect.

I believe with both these exercises it helps to use visualization- focus on the target area of your bi with every rep. It always seemed to get the plane of travel focused on my peaks and get more blood pumped into the area.

 

[goku_kakarot77]

hammer curls will help and reverse grip curls, but alot of the bicep peak is genetics

 

[musketeer]

Fuck me, another biceps peak/shape thread!

Looking at your picture, your biceps will gain 'peak' naturally as you lose BF.

Only bicep exercise I would really advise is close grip chin-up.

PS nice wallpaper ; )

 

[drsketch]

you look like you are about to fucking bite somebody, haha

 

[viciousness]

reverse preacher or standing curls. do them when your finished with everything else. JESUS H CHRIST! thats all i have to say

 

[iggy]

yeah....
so should i do more preacher/concentration/incline db instead of doing 21's every time i do bi's?

 

[musketeer]

Seriously mate, as an example, if you can do about 12 curl grip chins today and in three months time you can do 20 with a 45 around your waist, imagine how much bigger your biceps will be!

 

[SpyWizard]

stop eating salt, that will show the peak.. good job thus far, but you are holding a lot of water..

start by cutting all the salt out of you diet..

 

[iggy]

yeah musketeer, i'm doing back anyway today so the bi's are going to be hit indirectly anyway. last week i did 8 close grip chins my first set. lets see how much i'll get today.

 

[SaiBoT]

yeah musketeer, i'm doing back anyway today so the bi's are going to be hit indirectly anyway. last week i did 8 close grip chins my first set. lets see how much i'll get today.

Those are great, when you start to get good at it add some weight to the waist.

 

[the_alcatraz]

I have some mass, but need a lot of work on the peak of my bicep
i've heard concentration curls and preacher curls work the peak good, but i wondered what you guys think would be the best exercise for increasing the peak and height.

Here's a shot of my bi's
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa276/DCtheE/biceps.jpg

peak has to do with genetics and NOT BF%. Low BF% will show your bis to be vascular and well-defined, but not necessarily have a peak.

There are exercises that can create the illusion of a peak and help build up the peak. You are right on the hammer curls and the concentration curls.

 

[musketeer]

yeah musketeer, i'm doing back anyway today so the bi's are going to be hit indirectly anyway. last week i did 8 close grip chins my first set. lets see how much i'll get today.

As your number of chins is still fairly low (better than average but still not advanced) you could try using the ladder system:

Do one rep and rest about 20 seconds, do two reps, rest 20 secs, 3 reps, rest, 4 reps...

When you fail (probably around 6-7 reps for you right now)

reset and start at one rep again.

A 15 minute chin workout might look like this:

reps per set:
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,6(fail),1,2,3,4,5,5(fail),1,2,3,4,5,5(fail)

that's a total of 74 reps in 15 mins and best thing is you've only done 3 sets to positive failure and the majority of the reps will be perfect.

Do this twice a week and watch your strength rocket next time you test your max limit reps in one set!

 

[the elite addict]

your body fat is very high. id say 20+% get down to 12% and they will look much better

 

[iggy]

yeah....
i need to do more cardio....
bf is at about 22% now.
figured when i move back to college wed ill start bike riding 35 miles every other day and swim laps on other days.
genetically my dad and grandpa both had little biceps but larger tris

 

[iggy]

when i do chins, i do it reps set by set until i complete 25....
is that alright for increasing strength in the lats or should i try another setup for chins
i did nine first set today comparison to eight last week

 

[musketeer]

when i do chins, i do it reps set by set until i complete 25....
is that alright for increasing strength in the lats or should i try another setup for chins
i did nine first set today comparison to eight last week

Sounds good to me too. If you have a plan you like then cool - it's not complicated especially in the early stages.

But do you chin only once a week?

I did 3 sets of ten on Sat
The routine I outlined above, today
And in a few days time I'll be doing a one set to max hoping to do 20+

Every workout I tend to do Push, Pull and Squat/Dead variation with at least one power/ speed move in there.

My workout today was:

Powerclean: 5, 5, 5, 3, 3, 2, 2 last two sets with 244lbs

Chins: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,6(fail),1,2,3,4,5,5(fail),1,2,3,4,5, 5(fail)
resting 15 seconds between sets

Bench press: 20, 10, 5, 5, 5, 5 (last set with 244lbs)

I'm out running tomorrow morning so I didn't want to fry my legs, but tomorrow evening I'll do:

Snatch: 5, 5, 5, 3, 3, 2, 2 last two sets with 155lbs

Military Press: 15, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 last set with 185lbs

Backsquat: 10, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 last set with ~300lbs

Incline situp: 2 x 15-20

Next day will be a light run and the day after should be:

Split Jerk (light): 5, 5, 5, 2, 2, 2, 2 last two sets with 185lbs

Chins: MAX ONE SET

Dips: 3 x 10

Front Squat: 10, 5, 5, 3, 3, 3, 3 last three sets with 225lbs

Rarely are sets taken to absolute positive failure, and the workouts are brief enough to not completely exhaust me. I'm sometimes sore (usually only DOMS two days after and not too sore to stop me going heavy on the different exercises) and if it's too much then I'll avoid the area completely.

I recently had to take two months off (because of a back injury - non-lifting injury!) so I'm building back up again slowly, so that explains the mediocre weights. Strangely my deadlift is still over 450lbs for reps.

The idea is that I'm building functional strength and coordination by using the olympic moves and by working out each muscle group at least 3 x per week, in the average year I'll be working them 150 times as opposed to HIT once a week where you only get 50 workouts per muscle group. Also I'm not sore in a different part of the body all of the time - when I did once a week legs I couldn't hardly walk for 4 days - and nor should I have been able to with leg extensions, squats, leg press and leg curls and hack squat all to failure!
My body is in proportion because there are no isolation exercises and even though I've not done an bicep curl or tricep extension in months, my long arms are a hair under 17 inches with clearly defined horseshoe and round full bicep.

 

[iggy]

so you do kind of like a 5x5?
i'd like to get into that but i'm pretty sure i'm going to try the omega project. anyways thanks for all of the advice guys, i hope all of us overcome our weak points!

 

[Dave949]

I know it is not the answer you would like to hear.... but you can do all the concentration, preacher and hammer curls till your balls fall off..... if you do not have the genetics for a biceps peak.... it simply ain`t gonna happen.

Having said that, my choice would be seated incline curls to bring out your biceps peak potential to its genetic max.

Peace

 

[enigma4dub]

so you do kind of like a 5x5?
i'd like to get into that but i'm pretty sure i'm going to try the omega project. anyways thanks for all of the advice guys, i hope all of us overcome our weak points!

he uses sound training principles which are the basis of 5x5. sound principles are the foundation for any "routine". a more appropriate phrase for routine is simply a period in time.

 

[dabuffguy]

IMO, getting all crazy with these 20 different types of curls is insane. Just do 1 or 2 different ones. If you want some bicep mass, curls aren't gona get you there. that fast. Lifting heavy is where you get the mass. BB rows, squats and deadlifts. YES, squats and deadlifts will make your arms bigger. Your body will respond better for growth to deadlifts better than anything else, because you can lift the most weight with that excercise. Your arms will get much stronger and thicker by doing them than 1 billion sets of curls and tri extensions of various kinds. That's not to say bicep curls don't have their place, cuz they do.

Your bicep will not change shape. They are naturally the shape they are. Doing different angles of curls, etc will only develop the bicep further. You can't grow a peak on your arm if your BI's are natural flat. It doesnt happen.

Having said that, 90% of people will have a "peak" if there biceps are well developed, and they are fairly lean.

 

[iggy]

hopefully years of heavy rows, deadlifts, chins, and squats will do the trick along with a little bicep isolation work

 

[dabuffguy]

hopefully years of heavy rows, deadlifts, chins, and squats will do the trick along with a little bicep isolation work

That's the ticket. The curls are the addition to the heavy lifting.

Sometimes it does bother me when people say, "oh just focus on bench, squats, deads and rows." Duh, obviously you gotta do those, and they are the staple of your workout. Make sure you expend all of your energy doing the main stuff. Throwing in some curls, extensions to finish off will always give that extra touch at the end.

As long as you get those heavy compound excercises in, you are good to go.

On the polar opposite, i laugh inside at the guys with 14" arms that spend all day doing curls and extensions just dreaming of having thick 18" arms. They'll never get there doing that. sometimes I want to tell them why they aren't seeing the progress they want, but then, people dont want a pompous know-it-all telling them what to do. Although I'm not like that, people get that impression when someone tries to tell someone else how to lift. So, let them learn on their own.