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Hard work and
proper biceps training technique will bring out the full
potential of biceps muscle, but not every bodybuilder has the same
degree of potential. Some bodybuilders have longer biceps muscle, some
shorter; some with a higher or lower peak; some that develop enormous
thickness and others that do not.
One curl
movement training is not enough to work the entire biceps muscle. The biceps not only
lift and curl the arm, they also rotate the wrist. Lifting with a bar
produces biceps mass, but it locks the wrists and keeps them from
moving. So we always include a number of dumbbell training that let us
twist the wrist to the outside as we lift the weight, giving us a more
complete biceps contraction. Training with dumbbells, we are able to get
a better brachialis development at the elbow, and that creates a much
sharper separation between the biceps and triceps muscle in a rear
double-biceps pose.
Biceps length
is also important. Many people do reverse curls as a forearm training,
but we have noticed this training also increases the apparent biceps
length. The biceps muscle should extend all the way down almost to the elbow
and then swoop into a full and powerful looking curve.
We like to
change our hand position as much as possible when doing curls in order
to completely stimulate all the different areas of the biceps. The
barbell curl locks the hand, the dumbbell curl lets you rotate the hand,
the reverse curl brings the hand up in a palm down position, and lifting
a dumbbell with the thumb on top, a kind of hammer curl, hits the
brachialis directly and is necessary for complete biceps development. We
add variety to our biceps training by using different kinds of
bodybuilding equipment
- the arm blaster, a straight bar, an e-z curl bar, a preacher bench, a
prone bench, barbells, dumbbells, cables and machines. Again, the major
mistake in biceps training is lack of a full movement. There is probably
no body part in which training for a full range of motion is so
important. You will restrict the range of motion if you do things like
lifting your elbows up or holding them too far back and therefore not
getting a wide enough arc in the biceps training.
Some
bodybuilders don't want to lower the weight to full extension, with
their arms locked out, because they can't lift as much weight that way.
But they forget that it is this lower area of the range of motion that
creates the real thickness in the lower biceps and makes the biceps muscle
appear to come right out of the forearm - an important look when you do
poses with your arms extended. This part of the muscle also rolls up and
helps create height when you flex.
You see
bodybuilders locking out their arms on curls, but then they ruin the
movement by not doing a strict curling motion right from the beginning.
Instead, they lift the weight up, using a little shoulders and some
back, so the first few inches of the movement are wasted because the
biceps are simply not involved.
Another
mistake is to bring the weight all the way up and then neglect to flex
and contract the biceps muscle. When the weight is up at your chin, the bones
and joints are taking most of the strain. To keep the muscle working,
you have to really flex it hard or it remains soft because you are not
keeping it under stress. You are never going to have a full, hard and
thick biceps with which to impress judges if you get lazy at the top of
your biceps training.
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