Needing some bicep help
I'm sure everyone here knows that unless you are a genetic freak, there is usually a muscle or two that really kick your ass. Mine has always been biceps. They are my weakest area and by far the hardest to gain size. I have read, and researched, and tried almost everything. I'm stuck at about 18-19" upper arms, and am dying to break 20". Triceps are big, strong, and full, so the key to that 20 has to be in the biceps. Flexed, I have a pretty good peak, but just hanging down, and relaxed, Im definitely lacking the width and fullness when you look straight on. Here, id like to get help on anything that would be unconventional knowledge. Maybe some personal tricks y'all have learned over time, or some of the more taboo-ish training methods like blood restriction. Again, I have tried all the Traditional ways possible and have played with rep ranges, super sets and anything else that is considered normal. This has also been plaguing me for 10 or so years so time and dedication is certainly not the problem. Y'all please throw me some good crazy shit to make em grow!
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Try to make a routine that hits both heads of the muscle and the brachialis and implement an exercise for each head everytime you train arms. For example:
heavy barbell curls for overall mass
preacher curls for inner bicep head
incline curls for outer bicep head
hammer curls for brachalis
I have the same problem! Big powerful triceps but flat biceps.
Include negative reps in your workout for biceps once per week! Trust me!
basskiller89I'd probably just keep doing whatever got you from 15-19 inches brother, plateaus and placebos can be tricky. You may want to ease off training arms and give them sufficient time and hormones to grow
I've always had issues with developing my arms, until recently: this is what I do, maybe it will help you too.
Biceps is really the key for great looking arms from the front. You can have huge triceps, but if your biceps is small, the arm will not look great from this angle. This was my problem number one, so I focused on training biceps in the following way:
Trained 3 x per week (they recover quickly, at least for me) no heavy weight business, high training frequency + heavy weights = fucked connective tissue. I would never train the biceps if it was still sore, I'd just postpone the biceps training an extra day.
I would start my workout with light dumbbell work (somewhere in the range of 15 reps with 2-3 reps shy from failure). I would do 2 sets of that.
Then I would do 2 sets of cable work (again, unilateral) between 15-20 reps with 1-2 reps away from failure.
And to finish this off - myo-reps with ez bar. Use a weight you can do at least 18-20 reps with. Then in the first set use full ROM, work till you're 1 rep away from failure. Then put the bar down, take 4-5 deep breaths, pick it up again and do as many reps as you can, but cut off 10% ROM from the top and 10% from the bottom - this sort of resembles the metabolic strain produced by blood restricted flow training. Once you can't do any more reps, put it down again, few breaths, pick up the weights. Once I can't do more than 3 reps, I finish as everything past that would likely produce too much muscle damage (with the 3x week frequency) and wouldn't probably make me grow more muscle tissue.
here is my weakpoint strategy for arms
https://www.eroids.com/forum/training-nutrition-diet/workout-exercise/ge...
It's all in the grip, keep in mind there is about 9 different grips to work biceps as well as triceps.
JayD718When I'm training biceps, I like to do my exercises nice and slowly. And, when I get to the peak contraction of the exercise, I'll hold and give my biceps a good strong squeeze for 2 seconds. Actually, count it out slowly, 1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi. Also, be sure to bring the weights down nice and slowly, so you really feel the resistance. Don't just let the weights fall! It's also important to be sure to train both heads of your biceps, so you develop a nice full bicep.
Cables are also a great method for training your biceps as well. I find that you can hit your biceps from many different angles using cables, and give your biceps a nice squeeze all the way up, and all the way down. Cables can really help you to hit each head of your biceps.
Lastly, be sure to train hard, rest, and eat!
The key is less is more. What I’ve learned in most cases not all people over train there biceps, hit them super heavy and hard 1 time a week that’s it eat and eat and eat some more. Because the other days your working out your using them indirectly so there still getting hit
A 19 inch arm is massive. Most guys will never have a 20 inch arm. Mike Mentzer arms in contest condition were 18.5 inches. Give it hell but I’m f you have 19 inch arms and are 15% or under commend yourself.
Cable everything. Really feel and hold the flexing muscle. Make the mind muscle connection as strong as possible. Use heavy weight but the convenience of the cable allows for quick dropsets for maximum overload to failure.
Also as the lads say, row row row your boat. Heavy back deads, rows, Tbars and even chins will help with this as well.
This is definitely excellent advice. Guys around me are always asking for fitness or training tips. I always preach excercising the brain. A strong mind will take you far in this game. Be it the mind/muscle connection during training or the minds ability to hold fast on a diet or routine, without the brain being fully on board, you've already set yourself up to fail. Also I'm gonna be sure to implement the quick drop sets. Thanks man!
Isometric chin ups till failure lol
honestly for me the heavy back workouts help and i never do heavy curls.. for me personally one thing that really helped my bis was high rep supersets.. a warm up to get some blood in there, then right to the heaviest weight i can get for 8 to 10 then like 5 drops to failure.. helped me alot.. good luck brother i feel your pain im dealing with stubborn calves as we speak lol
Haha those calves are a bitch for most. I thank genetics and my parents for the legs, and all my boys hate me for it! I have to wear long pants at work so I'll wear ankle weights all day. You'd be amazed how much an extra pound or 2 will help. It does a good bit for the upper legs too, but it really gets those calves to pop.
My "key" for a big biceps are the very heavy back workouts. t-bars, reverse pulldowns, barbell rowing, dumbbell rowing and so on!
For biceps I do only alternating dumbbell curls and straigt barbell curls or scott curls.
I'll definitely have to step up my back workouts and see what that does. Where biceps are hard for me, back/lats come easy. Having said that, my back workouts definitely lack the intensity of the other groups because that size and strength comes easy. I'll take that up a notch and see where that gets me. Thanks man!
I’ve tried BFR and it will give you one hell of a pump. Are you doing lighter weights high reps and sets? I normally will spend 50-60 min on Just biceps. I do 5-6 sets of 20-30 reps on all exercises. And 5-6 different exercise, I’m sitting right at 20” and of course don’t forget your tri’s like you said, I work my Tri’s on chest day. I move my hands around on dumbells and the barbell changing position and how I hold them.
My schedule is chest/tri, back/bi,legs/shoulders. Then repeat. The first time through the week is light weight, high reps (anywhere from 20-50, usually to failure) the second time through is high weight, low rep (usually 12 or less) then Saturday I hit whatever I feel like needs a little extra which always includes a 3rd round of biceps. Would you recommend dropping the heavy bicep work for another high rep day?
Days off i find help me after I have trained the lagging part.
Days off meaning avoiding that muscle or muscle group, or completely off from any training?
Full day off brother so the muscle is not worked at all but repairing and a shit load of negative training,which not sure if your familiar with but here is a link just in case.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-jHUdq060vE