Big biceps can make your physique stand out in a bodybuilding competition, and turn heads in the gym. When you start training, your biceps get ample stimulus from big compound exercises such as chinups and rows, and basic biceps moves like barbell and dumbbell curls. However, as you become more advanced, you may find that you need to include different and more rare biceps exercises in your routine to help break through plateaus, keep your training more interesting, and build big arms.
Zottman Curls
Hold a pair of dumbbells at your sides, with a supinated, or palms-forward, grip. Curl the dumbbells up using strict form, until they are level with your upper chest. Pause for a moment in this position, and rotate your wrists so that your palms now face the other way, then slowly lower the dumbbells, and rotate them back to their original position at the bottom. Strength coach Jimmy Pena advises that Zottman curls are ideal if you want to create balanced lower and upper arms, because they involve the forearm muscles more than regular dumbbell curls.
Swiss Ball Omni Curls
Squat down and rest your upper back and triceps on a Swiss ball while holding a pair of dumbbells. Using strict form, curl the dumbbells up to your shoulders and hold them there for a second. Raise your hips off the ground, so that your thighs are parallel to the floor, then roll backward on the ball until you are looking up at the ceiling. Lower the dumbbells slowly for a count of four, then roll back to your starting position for the next rep. Charles Poliquin, owner of the Poliquin Performance Center for elite athletes recommends keeping your wrists bent back slightly throughout the entire exercise to help isolate your biceps.
Thick Grip Curls
Thick grip training is an underrated yet effective method. Trainer Nick Tumminello recommends switching all your regular overhand or underhand barbell curls to thick grip ones. If your gym has a fat bar, you can use this, although you will probably find that these are rare outside of specialiized sports conditioning facilities. If you don't have a fat bar, use a pair of fat grips, or wrap a towel around the bar to provide an extra challenge for your biceps. Try to make at least one exercise in every biceps workout a thick grip one.
Considerations
You can either have a dedicated biceps workout once every five to seven days, or train your biceps along with another muscle group, such as your back, chest or triceps. Start off by adding just one of the rare biceps exercises in per session, until you are confident with the technique, then add in the others. Your biceps are composed predominantly of slow-twitch muscle fibers, so they respond best to training in the eight-to-15 repetition range, for two to five sets. On every biceps exercise you do, focus on squeezing each repetition at the top and lowering the weight slowly.
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