So you want bigger biceps, but dumbbell curls alone aren’t delivering the results you desire? It’s a familiar story.

One possible solution is to add more variation into your biceps workout, something you can do with the help of certified strength coach Melissa Kendter.

She shared with me one of her training tricks for building bigger biceps, the four-in-one biceps curl, a tougher take on 21s.

How To Do The Four-In-One Curl

Pick a pair of fairly light dumbbells and perform 10 dumbbell curls, followed immediately by 10 partial curls from the bottom of the rep to your belly button, pausing at the top of each rep. Next complete 10 more partial reps, this time covering the top half of the rep from the belly button to your shoulders. Finish with 10 more full reps.

Benefits Of The Four-In-One Curl

Progressive overload, or gradually making an exercise more difficult over time, is a tried-and-tested technique for building strength and muscle. So surely you should work on using heavier dumbbells for your next set of curls? This can work, but adding weight to a lift isn’t the only way to make it more challenging—you can also increase the time the muscle is under tension for. 

“It keeps your biceps under tension for 40 reps, since it’s really four exercises in one,” says Kendter. 

She recommends starting with “a weight you know you can keep under tension for a prolonged period.” This will be relatively light, but you should still be prepared for your biceps to feel on fire during the final few reps. Play with a few different weights to find one that works for you, and gradually increase it as your strength increases.

Once you plateau with this routine, try one of these curls workouts, which includes the bodybuilding favorite run-the-rack workout, or graduate to this arm workout plan.

In the ’70s, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s chest and back workout was two hours long. For us mere mortals who don’t have that kind of time to spare, we need faster ways to get a great pump and pack on muscle. 

Enter this “Clang ‘N’ Bang” back and biceps workout from six-time CrossFit Games athlete Dan Bailey. It pairs strength work with a circuit to help you build muscle, strength and power in less than an hour.

Watch Bailey’s Instagram Reel to find out which exercises await you, then warm up and give the session a go for yourself.

Dan Bailey’s “Clang ‘N’ Bang” Workout 

Bailey kicks off with one of the best barbell exercises: the bent-over row. This is performed as a five-sets-of-five-reps strength piece, so go as heavy as you can while maintaining proper form. You should be working hard to perform the last rep of each set.

That will get your back and biceps fired up and more than ready for Bailey’s four-move circuit that targets a number of smaller muscles. The two dumbbell curl variations zero in on your biceps, while the rear delt row and face pull recruit muscles across the upper back as well as the posterior deltoids—the rear heads of your deltoids or shoulder muscles, which play a crucial role in stabilizing the joint. 

By performing these exercises as a 10-8-6-4-2 rep circuit, Bailey accumulates as much volume as a longer bodybuilding session in less time. You’ll still complete 30 reps of each exercise but it’s broken up differently. You’ll also rest less than if you did three sets of 10 with 60-second breaks.

The cumulative effect of Bailey’s straight sets-circuit combo is a comprehensive upper back and biceps session that’s wrapped up, by my estimation, in about 40 minutes.

Building bigger arms is a common goal of gym-goers, but you won’t reach that target by cranking out endless biceps curls. For one, you shouldn’t neglect triceps exercises, and as we discovered when quizzing Nick Mitchell of body transformation specialists Ultimate Performance about biceps workouts, the trick is really to increase overall muscle mass. 

However, that’s no reason to swerve biceps exercises entirely, and curls workouts can leave you with a satisfying pump and an inability to bend your elbow without incurring a significant burning sensation. 

Created by fitness trainer Christian Poulos, this four-move train-till-failure biceps finisher is a fun challenge for your arms – and all you need is a pair of dumbbells. Watch Poulos demonstrate each exercise in the Instagram reel below and turn the sound on to hear his tips.

Pick a weight that allows you to reach failure after around 20 reps of reverse curls. It may take a few sessions to get your weight selection just right, but persevere. Use the same weight for all four moves, but switch to a single dumbbell for the final isometric hold. The final three exercises should be done to failure, meaning you should try to do as many reps as possible until you physically can’t lift the weight any more. 

Complete as many strict reps as possible, keeping your torso stable and trying not to swing the dumbbell by using momentum from your shoulders. Instead, focus on engaging and isolating your biceps during each rep. 

Once you’ve done as many strict curls as you can, though, Poulos says it’s fine to cheat on the final few reps to push your muscles as far as they can go. It’s OK if your torso moves a little during the last few reps, but don’t go overboard.

The final exercise is an isometric hold, which is beneficial for muscle growth in the area you’re targeting, as well as being great for improving core strength and stability. Look at our guide to isometric exercises to find out more.

Try Poulos’s finisher after an upper-body workout, or add it to the end of one of the weekly  sessions in our dumbbell workout plan to give your arms some extra stimulus to grow.

How successful your biceps workout is can be judged in several ways. Did you perhaps lift a heavier weight than ever before, or complete more reps? The best measure, however, might be just how hard it is to straighten your arms in the days after your workout.

This intense dumbbell finisher will leave you in no doubt that your biceps have put the work in during your session, and the DOMS it inflicts on your muscles will be felt even by seasoned gym-goers.

Personal trainer Emily Servante, global trainer education manager at Ultimate Performance, tipped us off about this finisher when explaining how effective dumbbells can be in building muscle.

“If your focus is trying to build bigger biceps, try this old-school bodybuilding finisher at the end of your workout, known as ‘running the rack’,” says Servante.

It’s a very simple workout. All you need is access to a dumbbell rack with a wide range of weights and the ability to perform a biceps curl with good form. 

Run The Rack Biceps Finisher

“Start with a relatively light weight and perform five to eight biceps curls per arm,” says Servante. “Replace the weight, rest for 60 seconds, and then repeat the exercise with a slightly heavier weight. Repeat this pattern until you can no longer curl the dumbbell with good form. Trust me, you feel an incredible pump in your arms afterwards!”

Note how far up the rack you get and use that as your target to beat the next time you’re brave enough to try it again at the end of your gym workout. 

If that tickled your fancy and you’re looking for more techniques to make dumbbell curls more challenging, read our guides to drop sets, negative reps and 21s.

The biceps curl is probably one of the first exercises you learned to do at the gym, and for good reason: it’s a simple and effective way to isolate the target muscle. The dumbbell curl is one of the best-known variations of this exercise, but you can use variations such as hammer curls to stimulate well-rounded muscle growth.

A variety of curls is all you really need to build big biceps, although we’re guessing that what you probably really want is bigger arms. That means you need to show your triceps some love and put muscle on all over – something this arms workout plan does very well. 

But when you’re not in the mood to commit to a four-workouts-a-week-for-four-weeks regime and just want a good old-fashioned biceps pump, crank out one of these excellent curls workouts at your gym.

Run The Rack Curls Workout

We were told about this simple but savage workout finisher by Emily Servante, global trainer education manager at Ultimate Performance. It uses an old-school bodybuilding technique called running the rack, and you’ll need a rack loaded with dumbbells to do it. Start with a light weight and perform five to eight biceps curls with both arms, rest for 60 seconds, then repeat with slightly heavier dumbbells. Increase the weight every set until you can curl no more.

Curls Workout To Failure

This is another simple workout that will fatigue your biceps in rapid fashion. The plan is to increase the reps you do while reducing the weight, taking minimal rest and working to failure. Start by performing five biceps curls with a heavy weight, then go on to eight reps with a lighter weight, then 12 reps, reducing the weight again. Then work to failure on your next set.

21s Curls Workout

If you’re not familiar with 21s workouts, they involve doing a mix of partial and full reps for a set of 21 reps. It’s a great way to ensure you’re working the biceps hard throughout every stage of a curl. Curl the dumbbell up halfway for the first seven reps, then do seven reps where you curl it from halfway to your shoulder, before finishing with seven full reps. Perform all 21 reps without any rest. Use a lighter weight than you would normally for a set of biceps curls.

Drop Set Workout

Drop sets are another great way to fully fatigue your biceps in a short space of time. Start by curling a fairly heavy set of dumbbells to failure. Then “drop” to a slightly lighter set of dumbbells and curl to failure again. And then do it again for a total of three drop sets. 

Hendrick Famutimi’s Curls Workout

Hendrick Famutimi, a London-based personal trainer and online coach, has put together a curls-based workout that will help you grow your biceps quickly. It’s made up of three simple dumbbell exercises that will not only target your upper-arm muscles but also strengthen your elbow flexion and improve grip strength, which will help with weightlifting and overall strength.

Take a look at Famutimi’s Instagram post below to see what the exercises are and how to complete them with the correct form.

In this workout you’ll be completing between three and five sets of each exercise at a fairly high rep range, so try to pick a weight that feels manageable at first but becomes challenging as you finish. 

Focus on your posture during these exercises, because one of the biggest mistakes people make during curl movements is rolling their shoulders forwards – a bad habit that can strain your upper back. The back-supported biceps curls should help you address this issue. If you can’t lift the dumbbell without compromising your form, it’s a good idea to reduce the weight you’re using in order to avoid injury.

So you want bigger biceps, but turning your training goal into a real-life reality can be a slow and frustrating journey. That won’t be the case if you do this six-move biceps-building session alongside this biceps workout. We’re not going to lie: it’s a tough session that’s going to make your biceps burn and get your heart rate high, but shocking your muscles into growth (rather than trying to coax them) can sometimes be the best strategy to burst through a plateau. Focus on form and quality reps throughout for the best very results.

If you don’t have access to a gym, try this dumbbell biceps workout or biceps workout at home instead.

How To Do This Bigger Biceps Workout

This is a six-move session divided into two straight-set moves followed by two supersets. Do move 1, sticking to the sets, reps and rest shown, then do move 2. Then do moves 3A and 3B as a superset, and the same again for moves 4A and 4B, to work your biceps hard.

Warm up thoroughly with some seated underhand lat pull-downs and standing EZ-bar curls. Start with a very light resistance for a high-rep set, then gradually increase the weight and reduce the reps with each subsequent warm-up set until your muscles feel fully ready for action.

1 Chin-up

Sets 4 Reps 8 Rest 60sec

Why It’s the classic biceps-building bodyweight move.

How Take an underhand grip on the bar with arms straight. With your chest up and abs braced, pull up until your chin reaches the bar. Pause, then lower back down fully.

2 Spider curl

Sets 4 Reps 12 Rest 60sec

Why A twist on preacher curls for a greater range of motion.

How Lean over a preacher bench holding an EZ-bar with a close underhand grip. Start with arms fully straight, then curl the bar up towards your chin. Pause and squeeze at the top, then lower the bar, flexing your triceps at the bottom.

Superset 1

These two moves look very similar, but the slight tweak of adjusting your wrist position significantly changes the emphasis on your muscles. What’s more, the second move is easier, but because you’re already starting to fatigue from the first move, more muscle fibres will be activated and broken down – and that’s what leads to rapid growth.

3A Incline dumbbell biceps curl

Sets 4 Reps 12 Rest 30sec

Why The incline allows a greater movement range.

How Lie on an incline bench holding a dumbbell in each hand with palms facing forward. Raise the weights powerfully without swinging. Pause and squeeze your biceps at the top, then slowly return to the start.

3B Incline hammer curl

Sets 4 Reps 12 Rest 60sec

Why It works your biceps from a new angle and recruits the forearms.

How It’s exactly the same as 3A except your palms face each other for the duration of the set. A neutral grip makes the move slightly easier.

Superset 2

Cable exercises are fantastic for faster biceps development because they maintain tension on your working muscles for the duration of the set. The cable also reduces your ability to “swing” a weight up and down, where momentum does most of the work. This means that your muscle fibres must work even harder.

4A Cable bar curl

Sets 4 Reps 15 Rest 30sec

Why Using a cable keeps tension on your biceps for both the lifting and lowering part of each rep.

How Stand tall in front of the stack holding a straight bar handle with an underhand grip. Raise it towards your chin, pause and squeeze, then lower it.

4B Kneeling overhead cable curl

Sets 4 Reps 15 Rest 60sec

Why A rarely seen yet highly effective curl variation.

How Kneel in front of the weight stack with an underhand grip on a straight bar handle attached to the high pulley. Keeping your chest up, curl the bar back and behind your head. Squeeze your biceps at the top, then reverse the movement back to the start.

You don’t have to be an expert gym-goer to understand how to work your biceps, since pretty much any kind of curl will hit the muscles. However, the best biceps workout feature more than straight biceps curls. Instead, aim to vary the type of curls you perform to hit every part of the muscles from different angles.

This simple three-move workout is designed to help you do exactly that. You can bolt it on to another gym session or do it by itself for a fast lunchtime session. It’s key to focus on form, making sure you’re working the right muscles—don’t get sloppy and use your momentum or other parts of your body to help you lift the weights. Also make sure you take your time with each rep because more time under tensions equals better results. There’s little point in rushing through the sets and getting only half the benefits.

Along with an explanation of how to do each exercise there’s also insight from Greg Burns, a trainer at Embody Fitness, on exactly how the moves will help you build sleeve-busting biceps.

1 Single-arm dumbbell preacher curl

Sets 3 Reps 6-8 each side Rest 90sec

Holding a dumbbell, place the working arm on top of the preacher bench. Slightly rotate your body and slowly lower the dumbbell until your arm is fully stretched, then squeeze your biceps hard to reverse the curl back to the starting position.

Why “The position of the shoulder can influence biceps activity throughout the range of motion,” says Greg Burns, a trainer at Embody Fitness. “For instance, the preacher curl provides greater activation in the first third of the ROM and targets the short head, while the standing curl gives the greatest activation in the final third of the movement and targets the long head. For full stimulation you should train using a variety of exercises with differing points of peak contraction.”

2 Incline dumbbell curl

Sets 3 Reps 8-10 Rest 90sec

Set the bench to an incline of about 60°. With your palms facing forward, initiate the lift by contracting your biceps and curling the weight up. When your forearm is parallel to the floor, hold for one second and flex your biceps hard. Then lower the weight slowly back to the start position. At the bottom, flex your triceps to fully stretch your biceps.

Why “The long head of the biceps crosses the shoulder joint, which means that it’s possible to pre-stretch the muscle in certain exercises to cause higher levels of muscle activation,” says Burns. “Incline dumbbell curls are the perfect example of this. Another trick to stimulate the long head more is to bring your shoulders forward slightly as you reach the top of a curl.”

3 Dumbbell hammer curl

Sets 3 Reps 10-12 Rest 90sec

Hold a dumbbell in each hand, arms by your sides with your palms facing inwards. Keeping your torso completely still, curl the weights up. Lift until your arm is fully flexed, pause briefly and then return to the starting position.

Why “The brachialis muscle is an elbow flexor and due to its position under the biceps it literally pushes the biceps up as it gets bigger, which can create a higher peak on the biceps,” says Burns. “Doing curls with a neutral or ‘hammer’ grip is an excellent way to develop the brachialis. Studies show that the brachialis tends to have more slow-twitch fibers than the biceps, so performing the eccentric portion of the lift slowly increases brachialis activation.”

There are few muscle groups that get as much attention as the biceps. These mirror muscles are a calling card for upper-body strength, even though they make up only 40% of the upper arms. Nevertheless, along with the back muscles, they’re vital for all pulling movements, so including biceps workouts in your exercise routine will boost your overall upper-body strength.

So we asked Alex Gildea, PT and owner of London boutique gym G:Fit, for a home workout that will work on your biceps. As with any routine that homes in on one particular muscle group, this one will cause lactic acid to build up in your biceps as you near the finish line. It will burn, but don’t worry, it won’t last long. Give your arms a shake and try to complete each set to make the most of this biceps workout at home. Good luck.

The Home Biceps Workout

For this workout you will need a pair of medium dumbbells, ideally a weight that allows you to perform 10 to 12 reps of biceps curls. You can also sub in a long resistance band if you don’t have the right weights, and for any moves that are especially tough, you can even lighten the load using household items like tins of beans. If you don’t have this equipment, find a set which suits your budget with our round-ups of the best dumbbells or best resistance bands.

It is made up of three supersets, pairs of exercises designated as 1A and 1B, 2A and 2B, and 3A and 3B below. In each superset, complete all the reps for exercise A, then move on immediately to complete all the reps for exercise B. Once you complete exercise A and B, rest for 30-45 seconds. That’s the first set done. Go back to exercise A to start the second set, and repeat the sequence until all the sets are completed. Then move on to the next superset.

Gildea has given a range of sets, reps and rest times so you can adjust the workout to your ability and increase the difficulty progressively over time. Make a mental note of each workout you complete, then challenge yourself to decrease the rest period, or add an extra rep the next time. If you completed 12 reps last time, add a set, then drop the reps to ten and increase the rest back to 45 seconds at the end of each superset.

1A Renegade row

Sets 2-4 Reps 10-12 each side Rest 0sec

Get into the top of a press-up position, holding a dumbbell in each hand on the floor with your palms facing and feet wide to help you keep your balance. Position the dumbbells so they are directly below your chest and lift one weight towards your armpit, bracing your core to stop your torso rotating. Lower under control, then repeat on the other side.

1B Biceps curl with rotation

Sets 2-4 Reps 10-12 Rest 30-45sec

Stand holding the dumbbells by your sides with your palms facing your legs. Take a deep breath and as you exhale, curl the weights up towards your shoulders, rotating your palms so they face your chest. Squeeze your biceps hard, then lower slowly to the start position.

2A Supinated-grip bent-over row

Sets 2-4 Reps 10-12 Rest 0sec

Stand holding the dumbbells by your sides with your palms facing forwards. Engage your core and hinge forwards at your hips, sticking your bum out slightly to flatten and protect your back. Retract your shoulder blades to engage the muscles in your upper back. Keeping your palms facing forwards, lift the weights up to your ribs, pause, then lower under control.

2B Single-arm concentration curl

Sets 2-4 Reps 10-12 each side Rest 30-45sec

You’ve probably seen this classic bodybuilder exercise in the movies. Sit in a chair holding a dumbbell in your right hand with your right elbow resting on the inside of your right knee to keep it stationary. Curl the weight up, pause, then lower under control. Do all the reps on one side, then switch. This one’s tough so focus on form – and use a lighter weight if you have one available.

3A Hammer curl

Sets 2-4 Reps 10-12 Rest 0sec

Hammer curls strip away the rotation from standard biceps curls to target the deeper biceps brachialis muscles. Stand holding the dumbbells by your sides with your palms facing your legs. Keep your palms facing each other and elbows tucked in to your sides throughout as you raise the weights towards your shoulders, then lower under control.

3B Single dumbbell biceps curl

Sets 2-4 Reps Until failure Rest 30-45sec

Going to failure with this move after a set of hammer curls is known as a drop set. Set one dumbbell aside and hold the remaining dumbbell at each end so your palms face each other. Keep your elbows tucked in close to your sides, and curl the weight up towards your shoulders, then down to full extension. Repeat until failure.

• Home Workouts And Workout Plans For All Levels
• The Biceps Exercises You Need To Get Bigger Biceps
• The Simplest (And Most Effective!) Dumbbell Biceps Workout You Can Find

Biceps Workout Tips

Feel like your arms are gonna blow? Use these technique tweaks from Alex Gildea so you can make the most of this biceps workout.

Alternate Sides

Work one arm at a time with the biceps curl, hammer curl and bent-over row. It will halve the weight you lift each rep and give your central nervous system a bit of a breather.

Use Cheat Reps

The lowering, or eccentric part, of each exercise is where you get the most returns. So if you can’t muster the strength to get the weight to the top of the move, use “cheat reps”, where you generate momentum using your back or legs.

Pace Yourself

The supersets are designed to be done back to back but if your biceps are screaming for a time out, rest for 30-45 seconds between each set.

Stretch At The End

Your biceps deserve a warm-down after a workout as much as your legs do after a run. Once finished, give your biceps and forearms a gentle stretch to aid recovery and help avoid cramping when you get back to your keyboard.

If your arms are more like noodles than prime beef, change all that with rest-pause supersets – a fast and efficient method to balloon your biceps. Rest-pause is a practice advocated by Christian Thibaudeau, the man who gets the world’s leading bodybuilders and CrossFitters in superhero shape.

To make your muscles grow you need to do exercises that put your muscle fibres under tension for long enough that they break down, then rebuild bigger to cope with the workload. You could do this by setting up camp by the weights rack, but you’ve got bigger fish to fry (which in fact would be a good source of post-workout protein).

Instead, this rest-pause workout exaggerates the time under tension, helping you achieve complete muscle stimulation with only two sets per exercise and only two moves per muscle group. In PT parlance, that’s more bang for your buck.

Be mindful, however, that the rest-pause technique is an advanced muscle growth technique and is therefore very taxing on your body’s central nervous system. While it’s fine in moderation, overstressing the central nervous system means you risk not recovering properly from exercise – hindering your biceps-building progress.

How It Works

Lift a weight until you get to the point of momentary failure, like the final rep on ten biceps curls with reasonably heavy dumbbells. Set the weights down for 15 seconds, then pick them up and do as many reps as you can until that same point of failure. Put the weights again, then do one final set to failure. Instead of total fatigue, you get to the point of momentary failure multiple times in one set, allowing you to work more muscle fibres.

With plenty of rest and a healthy post-workout serving of high-quality protein and carbohydrates you’ll get bigger and stronger. The rest-pause sets (moves 2A, 2B, 3A and 3B) are sandwiched between a tough biceps-focused lift to flood your body with muscle-building hormones and a high-rep triceps-targeting finisher for a final challenge.

Directions

Do five sets of move 1. Then, for moves 2A, 2B, 3A and 3B, pick a weight that allows you to reach about ten reps before failure, then rest for 15 seconds. Do the exercise again, aiming for around eight reps, then rest for 15 seconds. Finally do one more set, aiming for around six reps, then rest. That’s a complete set. If you feel you can do more reps, do, but increase the weight next time.

Keep your tempo for each move smooth and controlled to keep the muscles under tension, going lighter than usual if needed. After the final set of 3B, move on to the 100-rep finisher. Time yourself and aim to do this quicker the next time you take it on.

This form of training can take its toll so only do this workout twice a week, resting for 36-48 hours between sessions, or you’ll lose all function in your arms (or at least the DOMS will be savage).

RECOMMENDED: How to Get Bigger Arms

1 Towel-grip chin-up

Sets 5 Reps 5 Rest 45sec

Loop a gym towel over a pull-up bar and grip it tightly with both hands. Pull your chest up to your hands and lower slowly back to the start. This method is a great test of your grip and will help strengthen and grow all the muscles in your forearms.

RECOMMENDED: How To Do a Perfect Pull-Up

2A Dumbbell biceps curl

Sets 2 (rest-pause) Rest 60sec

Hold dumbbells by your sides with your palms facing forwards. Keeping your elbows close to your sides and without leaning back, curl the weights up to your chest. Squeeze your biceps hard, then lower them slowly. For the last rest-pause mini-set cheat the weights to the top of the lift with momentum or drop one weight and use two hands to get the dumbbell to the top before lowering with one. Repeat on both sides.

2B Dip

Sets 2 (rest-pause) Rest 60sec

Grip the bars or handles with your arms locked out and stay upright to target your triceps. Bend your arms to lower until your hands are level with your chest, then press back up powerfully.

3A Cable reverse curl

Sets 2 (rest-pause) Rest 60sec

Set the cable at its lowest point. Hold the bar attachment with your palms facing down and stand so it’s at thigh level. Keeping your elbows close to your body, curl the bar up until it’s level with the top of your chest, then lower under control.

3B Cable triceps extension

Sets 2 (rest-pause) Rest 60sec

Set the cable at its highest point. Hold the ends of the rope attachment with your arms bent above your head and turn away from the cable station, taking a big step forward on one foot. Leaning forwards and keeping your upper arms static, extend your arms to target your triceps.

4 Press-up

Sets As many as needed Reps 100

With your hands shoulder-width apart and body in line, bend your arms to lower your chest until it’s just off the floor, then drive back up until your arms are straight. Aim to complete these 100 reps as fast as you can, resting as needed.

 In This Series 

• Introduction

1 Rowing machine

Why Start with five to ten minutes on a rowing machine. This will warm up all your muscles, including your biceps, back and core, so you will be ready for your workout and less likely to suffer strains.

How Keep your back straight and your core engaged. Start the row by pushing with your legs and draw the handle into your abdomen

2 Chin-up

Sets 2 Reps 5-10

Why Chin-ups will target your biceps with support from other muscle groups such as your back. It will also fire up your body’s muscle-growing hormones. If you can’t do ten chin-ups, do as many as you can manage.

How Grasp the bar with an underhand grip and pull up until your chin is over the bar. Lower slowly without swinging.

3 EZ-bar biceps curl

Sets 4 Reps 8-10

Why This is where you pile the weight onto your biceps for maximum muscle growth. The EZ-bar allows you to use heavy weights and the shape of the bar places your hands at an angle that doesn’t put unnecessary strain on your wrists or elbows.

How Keep your back upright and your elbows tucked into your sides as you raise the bar. Take three seconds to lower the bar to the start. Use your full range of motion and don’t rock your body for momentum.

4 Unilateral preacher curls

Sets 2 Reps 10-12 each arm

Why To finish, this move will isolate your biceps to take them to absolute exhaustion. By using dumb-bells and the preacher bench, your biceps get the minimum assistance from other muscle groups.

How Tuck the top of the pad beneath your armpit. Keep your upper arm pressed against the pad and use your full range of motion for the curl.

5 Biceps stretch

Why After your workout, do a few minutes of light exercise to help flush the lactic acid out of your muscles, then stretch your biceps to help them recover.

How Press your arms out to the sides and turn your thumbs downwards to feel the stretch in your biceps.

If you thought that hitting the gym for a few simple biceps curls would take care of all upper-arm business, you may be in for a shock. The biceps are made up of several components, so it takes several exercises to work the various strands properly. In fact, if you neglect to tackle this muscle group from several different angles you can find yourself with some odd strength imbalances, which will make you more vulnerable to injury.
 
How to do this workout
Workout 1 and Workout 2 are designed as two separate workouts, which you should do on different days in your schedule. Leave two to three days between each one to give your biceps muscles time to recover. You can add these workouts into a longer gym session or just keep it short and focus on the three exercises in each. Warm up for the workouts with five minutes on a rowing machine and some press-ups. Rest for two to three minutes between exercises.

Workout 1

E-Z bar curl

Use the modified barbell to maximise your growth potential.

Sets 4  Reps 8

Target biceps brachii 

Why it works: This classic compound move hits the arms but gives the front shoulder and core muscles supporting roles to help you lift as much weight as possible. The design of the E-Z bar saves strain on your wrists, too.

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent.
• Hold an E-Z bar in an underhand grip with your arms extended and then curl the bar up towards your chest, keeping your elbows in to your sides.

2. Unilateral hammer-grip preacher curl

Sets 3  Reps 8

Target brachioradialis, biceps brachii

Why it works: You won’t often see people using the preacher bench for this but it’s perfect for isolating the brachioradialis muscle, which is otherwise tricky. This will balance out its strength with the biceps brachii.

• Sit at a preacher curl bench with one arm extended across the pad, palm facing inward.
• Hold your torso and head still as you curl the dumbbell up towards your chin, keeping your palm facing to the side.

3. Narrow-grip cable curl

Sets 3  Reps 8

Target biceps brachii

Why it works: This helps give you even size gains. This move targets the inner, shorter head of the biceps brachii and adds a lowering element to maximise growth potential. 

• Stand at a cable stack with the pulley set to a low position.
• Grip a short bar with your hands close together.
• Curl the handle up towards your chest, keeping the elbows in, and hold the contraction at the top of the move before lowering slowly under tension and repeating.

Workout 2

1. Close hammer-grip pull-down

Sets 4  Reps 8

Target biceps, lats, core

Why it works: By leaning back you take the strain off your lats and place it on your biceps. But the lats, core and upper back are still heavily involved, which lets you move the maximum load and prompts major muscle growth.

• Sit at a lat pull-down machine and attach a hammer grip to the cable.
• Hold the grip with your palms facing in, straighten your torso and lock it in this position. Then lean back slightly.
• Keep your elbows tucked in to your sides and pull the handle to your chest, making sure your arms are the only part of you that moves.

2. Standing wall curl

Reps 8  Sets 3

Target biceps brachii

Why it works: The problem with most standing curls is that momentum rather than muscle often moves the weight. With your elbows against the wall this can’t happen and the effort is focused directly on the biceps brachii.

• Stand with your back to a wall and your feet shoulder-width apart.
• Hold your arms down by your sides with your palms facing in.
• Curl the dumbbells upwards, rotating your wrists so that your palms face up.
• Make sure your elbows don’t move forward. Pause at the top of the move.
• Lower under control and repeat.

3. Reverse E-Z bar curl

Sets 3  Reps 8

Target brachioradialis, brachialis, biceps brachii
 
Why it works: In the real world you’re more likely to pull things up towards you with an overhand grip. This exercise replicates that movement, placing emphasis on the brachioradialis and making the forearm and upper arm work together.

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your knees slightly bent.
• Hold an E-Z bar with an overhand grip.
• Brace your core and curl the bar up towards your chest.
• Pause, then lower it under control and repeat.

Biceps stretch

Biceps stretch

Reps 3

Do this stretch to keep your biceps flexible.

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and draw your arms straight back at shoulder-height as far as possible, palms facing the floor. 
• Now rotate your wrists so that your thumbs point down. 
• Hold for ten to 20 seconds unless you are about to exercise, in which case hold for three to five.