Iron Forge Gym, Unit 1, Forge Works, Mill Lane, Alton, Hampshire, GU34 2QG

5 Best Bicep Exercises

Top 5 Bicep Exercises

Want to get bigger arms this autumn? Try incorporating these 5 bicep exercises into your routine.

  •  EZ BAR STANDING CURL with back to wall (against swiss ball or med ball)

    • Use a shoulder-width or closer supinated grip. Go heavy on this exercise. Allow a little ‘body english’ as does not have to be perfectly strict but try not to swing the bar up with too much momentum. You will find that the med ball / swiss ball prevents you from heaving the weight and leaning back. As you reach the top of the curl, raise your elbows up slightly to finish the movement. Hold and squeeze the bicep at the top of each rep. For variety, occasionally throw in a fat grip EZ BAR bar.  – Perform 3-5 sets of 6-8 reps.

  • SEATED INCLINE CURL

    • The focus of these should be maximising the stretch in the bicep at the bottom of the exercise. Set up an incline bench on anything from a 60-45º angle. Lean back into the bench and perform your curls concenrating on staying fully supinated. A litle tip for these is to lower fully to extension and then at the bottom, contract your tricep (the antagonist muscle group) to fully stretch the bicep. – Perform 3 sets of 8-12 reps and use a 4-1-1-0 tempo.

  • SEATED HAMMER CURL

    • This exercise is taken from John Meadows. He performs these sat on a lat pulldown machine facing away from the cable and use the pads of the lat pull down to pres your triceps against. This stops you from cheating and keeps a great stress on the brachialis and bracioradialis muscles.  – Perform 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps

  • FAT GRIP EZ BAR REVERSE CURLS

    • In the quest for bigger arms you should not neglect your forearms and wrist extensors and the reverse curl will work the brachioradialis very effectively. I prefer higher reps on this exercise as the focus is on smaller muscles which are suited to muscular endurance rather than explosive movement.  – 2-3 sets of 12-20 reps.  If you have especially small hands then stick to a regular EZ bar.

  • SINGLE ARM CABLE CURLS

    • These are great for getting a pump at the end of the bicep workout. Whilst the two handed version of this exercise is fine I prefer the single arm option because its easier to concentrate on the contraction of the muscle when just focussing on one arm at a time.  Standing facing away from the cable machine and move forward enough so that at the bottom of the rep you still feel the tension on the cable. Perform 1-2 sets of 20-30 reps.