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/.

 

[nikkita]

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

Remember that you also use your arms for training other body parts (chest, back, delts).

 

[skinnyfromtoptobottom]

but after biceps workout, i always felt like not having done enough. soreness was gone after 2 days or so (legs were sore for about 5 days, just like my chest). are you really sure that it was too much?

 

[skinnyfromtoptobottom]

yeah ok, my biceps also gets hit when i train my lats and maybe when i do flies (chest). when training my lats, i feel my biceps getting pumped as well, on flies i feel my forearms getting pumped a bit, don't know if also biceps is involved on this one. but when doing shoulders, i don't feel anything in the biceps.

so, assuming i want to mainly work my upper body (chest, shoulders, arms), what can i do?
leave the other stuff out completely and train only those 3 groups?
and then train those 3 groups each twice/3 times a week doing less sets/exercises per training session than when training only once a week?
or what do you think would be most effective.
atm my main goal really is the upper body, nothing else.

 

[needsize]

Then up the intensity during your bicep workout. Take each set to failure, then do a down the rack or drop set on your last set to really fry them. I'm a pretty advanced trainer, been at it for over 10 years and have gained around 75lbs since I started, but 8-10 sets is all I ever need for bi's.

 

[Legion Kreinak2]

Needsize, I have a question about your 5x5 routine for biceps...

I curl 46 lbs with the heavy 5x5... but I can just as easy do 40 lbs for the accessory sets (2x8 - hammers and concentration curls)

I feel the 5x5 should use alot more weight than the accessory sets, but I can't do anything much above 46 without cheating on many of the reps.

How the hell come my biceps don't seem to be moving ANYWHERE?

 

[needsize]

Needsize, I have a question about your 5x5 routine for biceps...

I curl 46 lbs with the heavy 5x5... but I can just as easy do 40 lbs for the accessory sets (2x8 - hammers and concentration curls)

I feel the 5x5 should use alot more weight than the accessory sets, but I can't do anything much above 46 without cheating on many of the reps.

How the hell come my biceps don't seem to be moving ANYWHERE?

I'm not sure what to say. First off, I'm pretty sure hammers dont directly hit biceps, they hit mostly the muscle that runs underneath the bi, cant remember what it's called though, but either way, i am stronger on hammers than most bi exercises.

Are you stale on any other body parts? It could be you moved up in weight too fast and hit a plateau, it's easy to do with bis as percentage wise, any increase works out to be a lot.

 

[Legion Kreinak2]

Alright, should I may drop the weight a good amount (like 35) and then build up again to see if that helps?

Hammers seem relatively easy, compared to regular curls, yeah. What other bi workouts can I do at home? I don't have a preacher attachment so...

By the way, I was curious -- if you gain muscle, and bulk up and such, then cut a bit, lose some of your muscle strength and mass (which is unavoidable) can you maintain that same muscle strength and mass so long as you continue with the same routine, reps/sets/weight and such, eat the same, and generally sleep the same? I was just thinking long term... because I heard that you can't maintain the muscle forever really. Basically, can I bulk only once, cut down to a good amount of muscle, and maintain that for years and such?

 

[needsize]

Legion, try incline dumbell curls, if your bench has an incline that'll work just fine, it's one of my favouites

As for your other question, any mass you gain naturally you should be able to maintain indefinitely as long as you eat and train right. Even mass gained through steroids, contrary to popular belief, can be maintained naturally unless you gain a ton of mass over your natural limit.

 

[Legion Kreinak2]

Nice, dude. I was always worried about that. I was going to be like "I don't wanna go through the constant bulk, cut, bulk, cut..." cycles over and over. I want to be able to stop at a size somewhere, and maintain it by continually doing that same thing I was doing when I stopped making my gains.

Ah, goodshit. It's all coming together. Now to steal money from mommy and daddy, and go buy food. -_- Stupid parents don't feed me right!

 

[m0t03]

Maybe someone else said it, but try drop sets. They fuckin kill my biceps. Although I only do this once every few weeks or so.

Mike

 

[Doch910]

i do 16 total sets for bicepts
and i see amazing growth. I used to do like 10 sets and never saw anything for gains. 16 sets kills them.

 

[DrBones]

do 16 total sets for bicepts
and i see amazing growth. I used to do like 10 sets and never saw anything for gains. 16 sets kills them.

Holy shit.,.. thats a lot of volume for bi's...
How long have you been training?
Are you on gear?

 

[Manu]

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

I do something similar to this program.
I give bigger intervals in the heavier sets but try to go as heavy and intense as i can.
Concerning sore biceps. Only recently (when i started training back and biceps in the same workout) they get sored, but before they were growing without getting sored, so i think it isn't the only indicator.
I think what did more for my biceps were chins and pull ups (behind neck, in front).

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?

I had the same problem and switched to dumbell curls as first exercice. I think they work much better for me. ( i feel more the biceps working). Emphasise the negative movement.
Can you do chins and pull ups?

 

[coolcolj]

i do 16 total sets for biceps
and i see amazing growth. I used to do like 10 sets and never saw anything for gains. 16 sets kills them.

WHy kill when you can mutilate with 32 sets!!!!

 

[louden_swain]

Sixteen sets seems really high for my standards, but if it works for you congratulations!

 

[Just-Lift]

I pulled my bicep 4-5 months ago from overtraining by doing too many sets. I also was doing curls 2-3 times a week. Be careful with the overtraining, the biceps are involved in a lot of upper body movements. It's been torture to see all my gains lost. When it's fully healed it will be one of the best days of my life.

 

[Doch910]

I Have been training hard for about 4 years now. Im not on any steriods andi just train real hard and eat alot of food. I have always been dissapointed with my bicept development, so i just tried something different and it seems to have worked. One thing is that i only go to failure the last 2 sets of the exercise. I do 4 different exercises 4 sets each.

 

[Lift Chief]

Make sure you arent overtraining your bis- they only need a couple of exercises because they are a small muscle group that gets hit hard on back day. Try heavy cheat curls- IMHO that's the best way to build massive bis.