Biceps!!

[Modern Savage]

Hi any one got any ideas for exercises for helping me increase the size of my arms? Bicep curls and tricep dips are not working. I have no trouble putting on muscle anywhere else. Legs/chest etc. Even in the army I had trouble with this!!!

Thanks for any help.

[AndreaReina]

Martin Berkhan of Leangains says he got most of his bicep size from chin-ups. Check out this post on his blog. On the same post it shows a minimalist routine, only compound movements. Pushups and bench press were what would work the triceps. What kind of training do you do? You should be going high weight, low reps for maximal strength gains, which should eventually translate to size.

[Intruderjim]

According to Arnold, the greatest of all time, doing heavy barbell curl is the way to go for mass.  Strict form is very important.  I see lots of people in the gym that come every day and still look the same because they are working out sloppy, just going through the routine.  Part of what makes the exercise work is a full range of motion and using your mind to visualize your bicep growing as you exercise.  Another good exercise is the concentration curl.  it is better to start or finish with this as well as incorporating cheat curls with the barbell or dumbell for that last few reps beyond what you could have done without cheating.  Keep adding weight as well but do it progressively or you'll have a setback from injury.  Another key is refueling after training with high quality protein and there are many good suggestions on the caveman plan but the most benefit is realized in the first 30 minutes after training.

If you can, purchase the encyclopedia of modern bodybuilding by Arnold.  It will tell you everything you could ever need or want to know about training with weights for bodybuilding or just to look better.  Another good book is the Paleo diet for athletes by Joe Friel.  It permits the caveman to use supplements while training and after training but recommends everything that is good with forraging (fruits, vegetables and lean protein) at all other times.  Good luck.

[Tony Bondioli]

Isolation exercises are the way to go for booby-building, but for functional strength and athleticism, learn to train your body as a whole unit.  I understand the desire to look good, but if you develop the function (ability), the form (a nice looking body) will follow.  Various types of pull-ups are the way to go.

Google images of Mark Sisson or Jon Hinds to see what Tarzan would look like if he were real.  You don't need to be any bigger than that.

[Alden]

Hi any one got any ideas for exercises for helping me increase the size of my arms? Bicep curls and tricep dips are not working. I have no trouble putting on muscle anywhere else. Legs/chest etc. Even in the army I had trouble with this!!!

Thanks for any help.

Hey fellow, you do have proper diet and have some exercise like picking up dumble's and some exercise like these to make your bicep and make them curling ever...

[Rossy]

Preacher curls (Biceps) - isolates everything and pyramid sets - boom boom arms will fill the room!!!!!!

Dips, either seated (weighted) or on parallel bars - Closed grip bench press - tricep pushdown with rope!!!!

Am showing more muscle mass with these exercises.

[JohnnyC]

when i do my biceps i do a excersice called 7's best with a barbell but dumbells work also, you basically start with the weight on your thigh and bring it up only to your waist or 90 degrees 7 times then from there go from your waist up to your chest 7 times then do 7 full flexes from your thighs to your chest its a killer but does the trick it also gives you fuller biceps as in stretched down to your elbow joint. have fun !

[Alex Good]

 Ever tried a hammer curl?

[JohnnyC]

hammer curls are awesome too

[NbergAnimal]

this is the program that worked for me, i dont the exactly how much my arms grew, but doing this really made a noticable difference:

Triceps: Close grip bench press(increase weight each set) , dips (with weight increasing each set), skull crushers (increasing weight each set)
 and then finish it off with the killer, rope pushdowns (when you di this start at a weight where you can only get 12 reps, then once you hit the 12th rep, decrease the weight by half and do 20 reps, this is called a drop set and it really shockes the muscle and gives a good burn) do the drop set 3 times.

Biceps: barbell curls (increasing weight each  set), hammer curls (increasing weight each set), reverse grip curls (increasing weight each set), finsih off back at the barbell, with no weight or with very light weight, do a 3 sets of 21's, meaning for the first 7 reps you go from full arm extention to 90 degrees, then for the second 7 reps you go from 90 degrees to full flexion, then for the final 7 reps do 7 full curls. Trust me after that your biceps will be toast, i know mine are everytime.

Give this a try and hopefully it helps you like it helps me. and feel free on bicep days to go with weighted chin ups in replace of either the barbell curls or the 21's jsut to keep mixing things up

[Mantus]

All of these things here are great, and I think it's true that if you just keep going at it you will make gains regardless, but something that worked for me on my pectorals and my biceps was something Pavel Tsatsouline called "capillarization" (it's in his 'Beyond Bodybuilding' manual).

Briefly, the reason you gain size and power (through intentional exercise) so quickly with your legs, for example, is that you use them every day, all  the time:
Your muscles are in high demand from walking, running, and the rest.  As a result, the amount of blood-flow to every little inch of your leg muscles (and thus oxygen and nutrition) is immense. Any extra demand for oxygen or healing is quickly and easily met, leading to easy growth.

It follows that if you want to increase the power and size of a muscle, you must allow your body to open up all of those blood vessels.
This is all based on the assumption that you don't use your arms all the time in your job.


In order to increase my pecs, i undertook a regime of hourly press ups for two weeks. I did it for only two weeks because I didn't want them to become too accustomed to endurance lifting - I was after max power. The idea was to use them like the legs: constantly.

I then alternated with two weeks of high weight low rep bench-press sets, then two weeks back on the press ups, then two weeks power...8 weeks.
I noticed the difference in the way my shirts hang, and I am making rapid gains in the chest department without having to stick to that regime anymore.

If you are after the endurance-strength you could kick the power-lifting fortnightly segments out, I'm sure.

These principals apply to any muscle you in your body.

Finally, pull-ups would do the trick for biceps, plus its a compound exercise!