Bicep Exercise and Workout Guide
Table of Contents
Why Bicep Exercises
The Biceps Brachii is an important muscle in the upper arm. It has two heads and functions to flex the forearm at the elbow. The Bicep is also responsible for some supination of the forearm at the elbow. It is important to keep the Bicep strong and healthy because of its role in so many of our activities of daily living.
For instance, lifting your groceries, playing volleyball and doing activities such as gardening, housekeeping and playing with your kids and animals all involve the use of the Biceps. As we age, weak Biceps can mean that we are no longer able to complete many of the activities that we love. This is why developing and maintaining Bicep strength is so important!
Bicep Exercises
Luckily, there are many exercises and movements that we can do to help strengthen and develop the Biceps. Here are some examples of Bicep Exercises below:
Biceps Curl
If you haven’t started to develop your Biceps yet, don’t be fearful of these exercises. Simply start with a low weight, and increase the load as you progress!
Best Bicep Exercises
The Best Bicep Workout is one that targets both heads of the Biceps. Often, many athletes will add on various Biceps exercises to the end of their workout to target the muscle. Out of the list we provided above, the best bicep workout would come from the exercises that truly isolate the Bicep. This includes each curl variation that we mentioned above.
Our favourite Bicep curl variation is the Preacher Curl as it offers more isolation of the Biceps compared to your average curl. In fact, Preacher Curls have so many benefits and variations that we wrote an entire article about it here. If you are looking for bigger Biceps, you absolutely need to perform the Preacher Curl.
Best Bicep Workout
Performing the Biceps curl variations that we provided above are great for building strength and muscle mass in the Biceps. However, if you are not training at the appropriate intensity, you will struggle to see any strength gains. To program the best bicep workout, you first need to identify what your goals are. Are you looking to increase the size of the bicep? Or are you looking to increase endurance in the muscle?
Once you have identified your goal, you can begin to plan the sets, reps and load for your bicep workout. In general, if you are looking for muscle hypertrophy, you should perform 3-5 sets of 7-10 reps. if you are looking to increase muscular endurance, you should perform 2-4 sets of 11+ reps. If you are unsure of how to program your workout to achieve your goals, speak to an exercise professional who can guide you in the right direction!
How to Build Biceps
Learning how to build the biceps is simple. First, you need to ensure that you are performing the correct number of reps and sets to build muscular strength. This can range from 1-5 sets of 2-8 reps with a heavy load. Next, you need to make sure that you are consistently performing biceps exercises throughout the week.
Doing a biceps workout once a week is not enough to build strength in the biceps- you need to be consistent! Finally, to increase muscle mass anywhere in the body, you need to ensure that you are supporting the body with the proper fuel to grow and heal. This also means allowing for adequate rest between biceps workouts.
