Almost all guys want them, but not all guys know how to possess them. I am not a big proponent of isolation or bodybuilding style routines and that even means for the most famous muscle of them all, the biceps. Whenever someone says, “Show me your muscle”, they really mean, show me your biceps.
Too many guys train their biceps in an isolated manner. This might mean preacher curls, cable curls, arm blaster curls or bent over curls to name a few. These exercises might give you a nice pump, but that’s about it. The reason? The biceps cross two joints, not one. Most trainees assume that the biceps just cross the elbow joint, but this is simply not true. The biceps muscle also crosses the shoulder joint.
Lets backtrack here a minute. Whenever you train a muscle, you want to work with the joints that the muscle crosses (the distal and proximal attachments). Now, the biceps can often be the weakest link in the chain when training the back muscles. And, far too many people rely on the biceps for their pulling movements such as dumbbell rows, pull ups, bent over rows and so on.
The best two biceps exercises that I have found are fat grip barbell curls with hands supinated. I perform these by flexing at the elbow and as the weight comes up, we add in shoulder flexion so now we have flexion at both joints the biceps crosses. This is great for function and cosmetics. The second bicep builder and king of biceps movements in my opinion is the chin up. This requires more strength than the barbell curl and it is more effective because you are moving the entire body through space. Anytime you move the body through space, the exercise is much more effective because it will stress the nervous system, proprioception and stimulation more. I am convinced this is one of the reasons why gymnasts are so jacked up. They move the body through an entire three-dimensional plane and they are constantly challenging their balance, which means their muscles are forced to work more efficiently together.
I am not a big proponent of giving arms their own day or more than a few exercises. They get pushed hard enough in the big compound moves. But when you do add biceps in, stick with these two exercises and I can guarantee you will experience phenomenal growth and you will make that weak link that much stronger, enabling you to pull more weight. Show me your muscle now boy!
