Experienced weight lifters consider biceps to be among the so-called "beach muscles." The muscle on the front of your arm earned the nickname because it is one of the most often flexed muscles in the human body. People everywhere use the bicep as a measuring stick for their muscle definition. In order to build massive biceps, you have to target both of the muscles that make up the larger group from several different angles and at different levels of intensity. By mixing up sets and reps as well as the angle at which the muscle is worked, you can develop the massive biceps that many people desire.
Anatomy
Your biceps muscle is actually made up of two muscles: the biceps brachii and the brachialis. These muscles are responsible for the flexion of the elbow. The biceps brachii is the wide, massive muscle that is most associated with the bicep, while the brachialis is long and thin and is most often isolated at the beginning of the flexion movement. As you continue to flex, the brachii takes over the major effort in the movement. What this means in your workout is that in order to hit both muscles, you must complete the full range of motion.
Barbell Curls
The barbell curl -- the original biceps training movement -- is straightforward and simple. You can modify the angle of the focus by moving your hands in or out slightly or changing the path of the bar. Barbell curls are a great movement for the overall strengthening of the biceps, and if you can only choose one exercise to do, this is the one you should choose for its overall benefit. A more popular movement using an EZCurl bar allows the palms to face slightly in, but the last few degrees of rotation of the wrist prevents total isolation of the biceps. The exercise can be a bulk building movement at high weight and low reps, or a definition movement when the reps are higher.
Hammer Curls
A popular exercise for developing the high peak of the bicep, hammer curls are performed with dumbbells while the palms face each other. Hammer curls have a place in any bicep building program, but for a single exercise, hammer curls are not all-inclusive. The partial supination of the wrists again prevents total isolation of the biceps. Your forearms are involved in the movement and often prevent you from using the kind of weight necessary for overloading the bicep because the forearm muscles will fail first.
Preacher Curls
The preacher curl was originally done using an EZCurl bar. A pad is angled at about 45 degrees and you sit on the backside of the pad, fitting the top of the pad into your armpits so that the biceps are isolated as you extend your arms down the pad. Because of the position of your upper body, your shoulders cannot be activated. In recent years lifters have used smaller barbells to complete the rotation of the wrist to fully isolate the biceps. An even more recent development is single-arm dumbbell preacher curls, which can be done on a preacher curl machine, or from the back of an incline bench press. As isolation movements go, you will be hard-pressed to find a better exercise.
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