The biceps is a relatively small muscle, but for some reason it is most often demonstrated by athletes in power sports, posing in front of spectators and cameras, or boxers, having won a difficult fight. It is in the biceps that unscrupulous would-be athletes and freaks from bodybuilding most often put synthol injections. Think Greg Valentino. Therefore, I decided to start a series of articles on the best exercises for developing various muscles with biceps. Since both heads of the biceps are connected at the bottom by one tendon, I will not write heresy, which many sports publications sin, about a separate pumping or the predominant work of long or short heads in a particular exercise. I will also not give very dubious statements about pumping the lower, middle or upper parts of the biceps. It is impossible to pump up separately any of the heads or parts of the biceps. Its shape is determined by our genetics.

The biceps work in many exercises for the latissimus dorsi. They can be called basic for the development of biceps. These are bent-over rows, pull-ups, pull-ups, pull-ups, and similar exercises. Since the working weights in these exercises can be quite large, the biceps in them get a very decent load. Especially when they are performed with a supinated grip. However, according to the author’s deep conviction, the development of such small muscles as biceps requires mainly isolated work. We will not talk now about the “anabolic response”, about the benefits of squats for the development of biceps, etc. For maximum development of the biceps, you need to train the biceps themselves first of all. Well, do not forget that the volume of the arm is set not only by the biceps, but also by the triceps and shoulder muscle. We’ll talk about their development some other time, but now we’ll look at the top ten exercises for developing biceps specifically. We will not dwell on the technique for performing each of them, we will only give a brief description of them.

The exercises are given in random order, which does not mean that one or another exercise is better than another.

1. Alternate lifting of dumbbells for biceps with supination while standing. Starting position: standing, dumbbells are in hands freely lowered on the sides, palms are turned to the body. In turn, we bend our arms with dumbbells, while turning them palms up. Options: simultaneous lifting of dumbbells, lifting of dumbbells with an initially supinated grip.

2. Lifting the bar for biceps while standing.
Starting position: standing, the bar is in lowered hands, the grip is supinated. Bending your arms at the elbows, with the effort of the biceps we raise the barbell up to the level of the top of the chest. Nothing much depends on the width of the grip, the load will not be redistributed to any bundles, so take the barbell with the most comfortable grip for you. Implementation options: lifting the bar with a curved neck, lifting the handle of the lower block. In the case of working on blocks, it should be noted that, unlike free weights, here the load is distributed evenly over the entire amplitude, which is important for the maximum development of any muscle groups.

3. Pulling the bar along the torso while standing.
Starting position: the same as in the previous exercise. Bending the arms at the elbows and pulling them back, we stretch the bar along the torso up as much as possible. Unlike the previous exercise, in which the bar moves in an arc, here the bar moves up and down in a straight line. In this exercise, in addition to the biceps, deltoids and back muscles are included in the work, but the biceps also have enough work. Since two joints are involved here, the elbow and shoulder, the exercise can be classified as basic. Execution options: broach of the handle of the lower block.

4. Bending the arms with a barbell on the Scott bench.
Starting position: sitting on the Scott bench, the barbell is in straightened arms, the upper part of the hands lies on the music stand, the armpits rest against its fold. Bending your elbows, raise the barbell up. Variants of execution: lifting the bar with a curved neck, lifting the handle of the lower block, bending the arms with the barbell from the back of the Scott bench.

5. Unilateral bending with a dumbbell on the Scott bench.
Starting position: sitting on the Scott bench, the dumbbell is in one of the hands. We perform a given number of lifts with this hand, then we shift the dumbbell to the other hand and perform the same lifts. When performing exercises with dumbbells, we clearly fix the load that falls on each arm and is equal to the weight of the dumbbell being lifted. Unlike a barbell, when one hand can pull the other along, taking on most of the load. As a result, when working only with a barbell, one of the hands can constantly underperform and lag behind in its development from another.

6. Concentrated bending of the arms with a sitting dumbbell.
Starting position: sitting on a bench, the dumbbell is in the hand lowered down, the elbow rests on the inside of the thigh, the grip is supinated. Bending the arm at the elbow, raise the dumbbell up a given number of times. Then, we do the same with the second hand. The author’s favorite exercise for biceps.

7. Concentrated bending of the arms with a dumbbell while standing in an inclination. Starting position: standing, the torso is tilted, the dumbbell is in a freely lowered hand. Bending the arm at the elbow, raise the dumbbell up. Then we perform this exercise with the other hand. Execution options: concentrated bending with the handle of the lower block.

8. Lifting dumbbells for biceps, sitting on an incline bench.
Starting position: sitting on an inclined bench, the body is reclined on the back of the bench, the dumbbells are in the hands lowered down. Bending your arms at the elbows, raise them up. Dumbbell raises can be performed both alternately and simultaneously with both hands. The main mistake during this exercise is to bring the elbows up, which reduces the load in the upper part of the amplitude. The exercise can be performed with both supination and initially supinated grip.

9. Lifting dumbbells for biceps, lying on an inclined bench face down. Starting position: lying on an inclined bench face down, dumbbells are in freely lowered hands. Bending the arms at the elbows, alternately or simultaneously, with a supinated or neutral grip, followed by supination, raise the dumbbells up. Often performed as a superset with the previous exercise.

10. Arm curls on the upper blocks in the crossover.
Starting position: standing in the center of the simulator, the handles of the upper blocks are in the arms extended to the sides. With the effort of the biceps, bending the arms at the elbows, we bring these handles to the ears. The upper parts of the arms during this exercise should remain motionless. Options: sitting on a bench, unilateral bending, alternate bending.

Naturally, the whole range of exercises for biceps is not limited to this ten. You can add more than a dozen different exercises and their variations. Here are the most often, according to the author, exercises used by athletes in their training.

You should not do all of these at once in one workout. exercises. For such a small muscle group as the biceps, 12-15 working approaches per workout will be enough. That is, say, three exercises of 4-5 working approaches each will be enough. At the next workout, you can remove some of the exercises, add some. After all, the secret of success lies in the variability of the training.