Guys worry about biceps for as long as they are training to gain muscle, after all it looks better when wearing a t-shirt. Depending how big you want to get them there are certain fundamentals at play. Do you have skinny arms? Are they flabby?
How many sets and reps?
Devise your workout plan into 5 days, in order to grow more mass for a couple of months try doing just biceps and or triceps on a Monday. This means you are purely concentrating on this muscle group. Nothing else. Obviously the rest of your week will also incorporate using biceps, but not at the same concentration levels. Also a good idea is to vary the type of bicep exercise you are performing. Try some of these out:
1 Single Arm Cable Curls
Perform 1-3 sets (beginner to advanced) and repeat to failure. You simply pick up the cable with the pulley grip and perform full lifts with no swinging! Concentrate on squeezing at the top. Ideally you want to do 3 sets, the final set should be the heaviest and hardest. All reps should be to failure 8-12 reps is a good amount. x 3 then move onto another exercise.
2 Concentration Curls
While being seated, place the dumbbell between your leg pick it up and rest the elbow (supported) across the thigh area. Go about curling the DB and across the set vary the curl technique to use outer curl, hammer curls and a mix, so you work more fibers in the muscle.
3 Incline Curls
These are good due to a good deep stretch (tear) in the muscle fibers. Perform 1-3 sets (beginner to advanced)
4 Cheat Techniques
This is following roughly the same exercises as before but only doing a max of 3-4 reps, the first rep should be as heavy as you can go while using good form. Then each subsequent rep you lower to weight by about 20% until you can perform only 3 or 4 reps. You might need a partner to help you lift the last one or two.
Diet Examples
You need to increase protein in your diet to build lean muscle. A typical diet for a body builder might be:
- Granola, yoghurt, bluberry breakfast
- Protein shake (40g)
- Small meal such as tuna, skinless chicken etc.
- Amino acid complex and small snacks: fruit, nuts, berries, hummus, baked beans, cans of fish
- Pre-workout drink
- Workout
- Protein (20-40g)
- Small to medium sized meal
- Small snack/meal
- Bed + Gaba
Load up on protein, drink half before (20g) and half after. A hour after this eat a 10-12 oz steak with salad. Ideally you need to eat 1g -2g of protein per kg of body weight. You might consider a pre-workout drink a nitric oxide supplement and a after workout drink. These will be a mix of both essential and non essential aminos. How big you want your arms and big they will go will depend on diet, technique, rest, genetics. If you have big arms but aren’t ripped, then you need to do cardio. Consider fat-loss/high-intensity-interval-training-hiit”>HIIT. For increasing bicep size you also need to life more weight each time (ideally). Obviously there will be a ceiling, but then you can change technique and or exercise to trick your muscles into anabolic growth. Also vary workouts will work more minuscule muscle fibers in the arm.
