how to train bicepsfor mass correctly?

[skinnyfromtoptobottom]

Hi.
In the last 7 months, my whole body developed pretty well. the only part that didn't develop that good is my biceps. my shoulders became so big that my biceps looks like nothing.
i don't know, maybe i've been doing wrong on my biceps or why didn't it develop so good? when i was training biceps, i always felt my forearms being involved very seriously. after a few sets, they were so blown and "lame" that i could hardly do a full biceps curl movement without any weights. i'm not sure if it were just the forearms, maybe also the lower end of the biceps, but i didn't feel anything in my upper biceps part.
so was i doing wrong?
how should i do my reps? should i do them very slowly and take a 2sec break when my arms are curled? or should i do the reps fast (which is the only possibility when training with lots of weights)? should i maybe lean on a wall so that i can't use my back? how should i hold my arms (on barbell curls)? straight down?
theres so many things involved in doing the reps correctly...can someone maybe explain all the aspects of gaining mass in the WHOLE biceps (especially thickness)? i just don't understand why my biceps didn't develop. all other body parts developed pretty well!

 

[Legion Kreinak2]

Well, if you eat enough, and work to failure and take 1m30s rest periods or so (working in the 8-10 rep range) I believe your biceps should get alot of stimulation from that.

What was your biceps routine? How often did you train them?

Just stress the eccentric (negative) phase of the curl, and go really slow. That seems to target biceps alot for me.

 

[needsize]

I'm a firm believer that heavy free weight exercises are your best bet for mass. There are only 3 exercises that I generally use, standing barbell or dumbell curls, incline dumbell curls, and preacher curls. I also disagree that rest periods need to be really short when training arms. If I'm doing really heavy bicep curls, I'll wait 3-4 minutes if I have to so I'm ready for my next set. As the workout goes on I'll cut rest periods down, but I take the rest when I need it.

This approach has worked great for me, when I started training my arms were just under 12", this is basically the only approach that I have used along the way, and they are 18 1/2" cold now, and still growing

 

[skinnyfromtoptobottom]

first off: the reason for my biceps not developing that good can't be eating because if i hadn't eaten enough, how should my other body parts have developed?

what i did was:
train biceps (like all other parts) once a week:
-standing barbell curls 5x
-sitting alternating dumbell curls 5x
-preacher curls 5x

i did 5 sets in the 5-8 rep range (fast movement). sometimes some cheating with my back (only on the last reps).


should i do more sets/exercises?
or should i even train it more often? if yes, how often, and how many sets/exercises per training session?

 

[Legion Kreinak2]

Some people just aren't blessed with good biceps, man... I mean, have your lifts increased at all?

 

[skinnyfromtoptobottom]

well, when i started out 7months ago, i did 12lbs dumbell curls on both hands (15-20 reps), that's it. that time i was very skinny.
before i broke my arm (2months ago), i did 70lbs barbell curls 6-12 reps.
now, i do ~25lbs dumbell curls 8-12 reps with my left arm only (right arm broken).

if i compare my strength increase of my biceps to my other body parts, it's nothing serious.
e.g.: bench press i started out at ~40lbs, before i broke my arm, i was at 135.
leg presses i started out at 3weights (machine), before i broke my arm i was at 14 weights which equals about 450lbs.
i don't know why my legs develop that great. i must be training them very well, because after leg workout, i can hardly walk anymore and i'm trembling as fuck...
this is not the case on biceps.

 

[DrBones]

I'm a big fan of needsizes 5x5 program for bis..... I think you need to try to fry all the fast twitch, intermediate, and slow twitch fibres in your biceps for them to grow.

Try doing something like
3-5 sets of 5 barbell curls with the most weight you can to fry your fast twitch fibres

Followed by 2-3 sets of something in the 8-10 rep range to murder your intermediate and slow twitch fibres...

Then I usually follow it up with something with EXTREMELY slow concentrics and extremely slow eccentric movements... doing like 2 sets of 10-12 reps... go for a huge pump... maybe doing preacher curls... I usually go to failure on this...

See how that works for you... I just started using a program similar to this recently... it sounds good in theory.. we'll see how it does when i put it to use!

Thanks

 

[needsize]

If I'm reading that right, you do 15 sets for biceps? If so, theres your problem, that is waaaay too many. I never go over 10 sets, generally around 8 or so sets in a normal workout. Biceps are a small muscle and wil overtrain quickly if you do too many sets

 

[skinnyfromtoptobottom]

how can i overtrain my biceps if i give it 1 week to regenerate? that's gotta be enough.

 

[rjl296]

1 week is not gonna be enough. by that logic you could do 50 sets, as long as you take a week .... youll be okay. which obviously is not true. cut yourt sets in half, maybe drop an exercise. my biceps get hit fairly hard from back, so i do only 5-6 sets per week. a good rule is to start with a coupla sets per exercise, and then work up to 3-4. needsize is right, pick 2 free weight exercises 3 sets and work from there/.