Outer Biceps...

[dballistic]

Genetics gave me giant triceps... they grow like nothing else... but my biceps have a hard time catching up.

My inner biceps (facing my torso) seem to develop, but I cant get the outer section to grow, to give it an even "full" look.

What kinds of exercises would you bros recommend I do to torture these bastards into blowing up?

Thanks for any/all help!

-d

 

[Franco]

You can't isolate different heads of the bicep, stop worrying so much. The bicep is small muscle 2-3 sets of barbell curls will be enough, as they get hit indirectly through backwork

My Bi routine is:

2 sets of barbell curls
1 set of hammer curls

 

[Welsh power house]

That dudes right, do 2 light warm up sets with staright bar barbell curls of about 10 reps, then 3 or 4 heavey but strict wroking sets.
followed by either hammer curls or preacher curls, with dumbells.

What ever the curling exercise you do, remember to keep the elbows in by your sides, don't leand back or move the shoulders and squeeze that fucker at the top!!!! then slowly lower the weight, dont just let it drop, imagine doing a reverse pushdown and dont go to full lock out at the bottom, try to keep the stress on those bis!

Good luck, now go and blast those basards into submission!

 

[Robboe]

Hmmm...you realise that genetics have determined your triceps, but don't realise that genetics have given your biceps too. strange.

Love what you've been given.

 

[dballistic]

Thanks for the info. On back days my biceps don't really get much stimulation. I'm really able to get my whole mind-muscle connection down to a point where I able to use my back at 90% during all pulling motions.

I guess I may be overtraining. For some reason the only way I've been able to get a nice full pump out of my biceps is with at least 3-4 exersizes (3 sets per).

Here's been the only routine known to give me a good pump:

Straight bar cable curls 3x10
Alternating seated dumbell curls 3x8
Machine preacher curls 3x10

For some strange reason most of my curls burn out my forearms before they exhaust my biceps.

Should I try pre-exhausting my biceps with quick-burn isolation curls before hitting the heavy straight bar?

 

[JustinM]

if u wanna try to isolate outer...which i think can be done...(actaully it wont really isolate just emphasize) try doing preacher curls with a close grip...like 6 inches apart or so...gl, peace

 

[Robboe]

you can 'emphasise' all you want, but it ain't gonna make that part of the muscle grow more than the other.

dballistic, i know it's psychologically difficult to reduce sets so much, but give it 4 weeks and tell me how damn good it is.

Eventually you'll realise that fewer sets, heavier work much more efficiently and you'll begin to get 'the pump' sooner than you used to.

 

[Nathan]

I agree with Robboe. I had the same problem as you - was doing too many sets for bi's and tri's. I recently reduced the sets to 5-6 (2 exercises) but upped my intensity. I didn't think I could go more intense but there it was - my biceps are more sore the next (and following) days doing fewer sets than they ever were before. Try concentrating less on getting the weight up (to get your reps), and focus more on just squeezing your biceps. You should find that by the end of like 6 sets there would be little hope of you doing another intense set.

 

[dballistic]

Ok ... 2 warmup sets followed by 5-6 sets of strict-form tear-inducing lifts.

So I figure I should keep my rep range to about 6-8?

Thanks for all the help. Hopefully soon I'll be armed with some mean guns to balance out my arms.

 

[Robboe]

Don't set out to do 2 warm up sets. Do as many as it takes, without fatiguing the muscle so much as it will affect your real poundage.

I do a couple of light sets with a rep range between 6-8, gradually building up weight between sets. Then i do 1-2 sets of 1-2 reps with a semi-heavy weight to get the feel for the fact that i'm gonna be holding some heavy-ass weight.

I wouldn't say this is mandatory for all bodyparts though. I DO warm up for chest, back and legs but after doing these primarly targets you may find other muscles already warmed up [e.g. biceps after back, or triceps after chest] so only warm up if you feel you need to, or just to get a 'feel' for the exercise.

By the way, another thing i noticed when i changed to HIT was that after a few weeks, the soreness seems to be less harsh the day after [a good diet can do this] which i find beneficial because it means that muscle soreness doesn't get in the way of other things in my life. just thought i'd mention it because i know a lot of people gauge the intensity of a workout by the soreness they feel the next day. This is not necessarily a good method.