Somewhat of a bicep dilemma

[Daran]

I work my body parts equally and for all of them I get decent gains, except for one... my biceps.
They're lagging behind everything, and push barely above the weight I did 3 months ago.

I don't overemphasize training them, I just do the normal stuff, dumbell curls, barbell curls, preacher (for brachi's) etc.

My triceps are stronger, as are my shoulders, I also do compound lifts like benching, squats and deadlifts.

Does anybody have any experience with this or can give any info as to what i'm doing wrong?

My current lifting regime:

Mon:

Flat Barbell Bench 5x5
Dips 3x(as much as I can do)
Deadlifts 5x5

Tues:

Leg Press 3x10
Squats 5x5
Calf Extension 1x75

Wed:

Dumbell Curls 5x5
Tricep Pulldowns 5x10
Shoulder Press 5x8-6
Closed Grip Bench Press 3x10
Side Lat Raises 3x10
Seated Dip 3x10
Preacher Curl 3x5

(Repeat, rest sunday)

 

[SouthernLord]

No Chin ups or pull ups? My bis really started to grow as I included chin/pull ups more often and progressed to the point of adding extra weight to the movements. Sometime I will do chins/pulls twice in a week. Start Monday out with three to five sets of chins doing one rep shy of failure. On Wednesday include three to five sets of one arm DB rows done heavy for higher rep sets. Do this for a while and I promise you will see an improvement in your arm size and grip strength. Your lats and upper back will blow up too. Are you actually squatting and DLing twice a week in that program? If so, wow...

 

[SouthernLord]

I work my body parts equally and for all of them I get decent gains, except for one... my biceps.
They're lagging behind everything, and push barely above the weight I did 3 months ago.

I don't overemphasize training them, I just do the normal stuff, dumbell curls, barbell curls, preacher (for brachi's) etc.

My triceps are stronger, as are my shoulders, I also do compound lifts like benching, squats and deadlifts.

Does anybody have any experience with this or can give any info as to what i'm doing wrong?

My current lifting regime:

Mon:

Flat Barbell Bench 5x5
Dips 3x(as much as I can do)
Deadlifts 5x5

Tues:

Leg Press 3x10
Squats 5x5
Calf Extension 1x75

Wed:

Dumbell Curls 5x5
Tricep Pulldowns 5x10
Shoulder Press 5x8-6
Closed Grip Bench Press 3x10
Side Lat Raises 3x10
Seated Dip 3x10
Preacher Curl 3x5

(Repeat, rest sunday)

The more I look at you program the more I don't like it... I would do this instead..

Day 1
Chins/pulls 5x1 rep shy of failure
Dips (hopefully with added weight) 4x6 or 5x5
DLs 4x6 or 5x5
2 isolation exercise (Bis,tris,abds,calves, etc)

Day 2
Squat 4x6 or 5x5
BB Bench 4x6 or 5x5
DB rows (heavy) 5x6-15
2 iso exercises

Day 3
Lunges 4x6 or 5x5
Chins/pulls 5x1 rep shy of failure
Incline DBs 4x6 or 5x5
2 iso exercises

I would take one day of rest or do cardio between each lifting day. If your diet is in check you will grow from this type of no BS training. If you notice, every muscle group is being worked 3+ times a week, but the total volume is not too excessive. It is too bad a lot more guys don't train using a total body split. I feel this is the best way for a non geared bodybuilder to train.

 

[fortunatesun]

There's two things I notice:

Try increasing your rep range to 8-10. 5 is a good strength builder but smaller muscle groups sometimes don't respond as well. This should get you better mass by increasing reps which can in turn help you build strength if that's your goal.

Patience. You're making progress everywhere else. Squat/DL/Bench is the core of your workout. It's not unusual for a bodypart to take a little longer to fire up. 3 months isn't all that long. Make a list of 4-5 biceps exercises and experiment with them whenever you have some energy at the end of your workout.

 

[captainahole]

Keep with your bi sets and add strips to them. It will make em grow.

 

[Daran]

The more I look at you program the more I don't like it... I would do this instead..

Day 1
Chins/pulls 5x1 rep shy of failure
Dips (hopefully with added weight) 4x6 or 5x5
DLs 4x6 or 5x5
2 isolation exercise (Bis,tris,abds,calves, etc)

Day 2
Squat 4x6 or 5x5
BB Bench 4x6 or 5x5
DB rows (heavy) 5x6-15
2 iso exercises

Day 3
Lunges 4x6 or 5x5
Chins/pulls 5x1 rep shy of failure
Incline DBs 4x6 or 5x5
2 iso exercises

I would take one day of rest or do cardio between each lifting day. If your diet is in check you will grow from this type of no BS training. If you notice, every muscle group is being worked 3+ times a week, but the total volume is not too excessive. It is too bad a lot more guys don't train using a total body split. I feel this is the best way for a non geared bodybuilder to train.

Hm, I like this.
I suppose I could incorporate some of this into my workout.
I need to switch it up anyway, and for the record I've been working out for about 7 months now, although I've just started eating enough the last month and a half.

 

[SouthernLord]

Hm, I like this.
I suppose I could incorporate some of this into my workout.
I need to switch it up anyway, and for the record I've been working out for about 7 months now, although I've just started eating enough the last month and a half.

This is very similar to the way I am training now, and I am growing like a weed. A lot of guys will tell you to use a low volume one body part per week split, but I feel something special happens when the frequency of muscle worked is increased. If you notice... You are hitting your legs with a quad dominant, a posterior chain dominant, and a single leg dominant movement on each day. Also you are backing up all your pressing motions with pulling motions with most being done on the same plane of movement. Most programs have way more pressing than pushing, and this can lead to a lot of muscle imbalances and posture problems. Oh yeah... This program looks a lot easier on paper than it actually.

 

[tropo]

I work my body parts equally and for all of them I get decent gains, except for one... my biceps.
They're lagging behind everything, and push barely above the weight I did 3 months ago.

I don't overemphasize training them, I just do the normal stuff, dumbell curls, barbell curls, preacher (for brachi's) etc.

My triceps are stronger, as are my shoulders, I also do compound lifts like benching, squats and deadlifts.

Does anybody have any experience with this or can give any info as to what i'm doing wrong?

My current lifting regime:

Mon:

Flat Barbell Bench 5x5
Dips 3x(as much as I can do)
Deadlifts 5x5

Tues:

Leg Press 3x10
Squats 5x5
Calf Extension 1x75

Wed:

Dumbell Curls 5x5
Tricep Pulldowns 5x10
Shoulder Press 5x8-6
Closed Grip Bench Press 3x10
Side Lat Raises 3x10
Seated Dip 3x10
Preacher Curl 3x5

(Repeat, rest sunday)

It's no wonder your triceps are much stronger. You're doing no pulling movements at all. No pulldowns, chins, rows...nothing.

You're getting plenty of tricep work with bench, presses and dips plus your isolation movements.

Heavy pulling movements will work your biceps hard.

The next problem is you're doing bicep isolation movements as though they're power movements with low reps. Why do you do only 5 reps for biceps? Even with your isolation tricep work you're doing 10 reps per set.

It must be difficult to do quality dumbbel curls with a 5 rep weight. You're probably just doing a modified dumbbell clean. Start to think about pumping some blood into the biceps and getting a burn with sets of 10 - 15 reps.

If you add a few pulling movements such as Lat pulldown and rows of some type you'll be getting your heavy bicep work done.

A lot of people will advocate chins, but few people can do quality progressive training with them because of bad form (swinging and other quirky movements) and being too weak to get sufficient quality reps. They are also hard on the elbows if you use a forward grip. If you're a heavy guy I would start with a comprehensive pulldown routine.

 

[NJL52]

This thread.....just.....wow.....

Do a 3x5 and stop looking at abercrombie adds...my biceps grow just fine and I haven't done a curl in over a year.

Some of you realy need to figure out what the hell your talking about before you give advice. It's good to try to help, but if you don't know how to, then stick with learning.

 

[tropo]

This thread.....just.....wow.....

Do a 3x5 and stop looking at abercrombie adds...my biceps grow just fine and I haven't done a curl in over a year.

Some of you realy need to figure out what the hell your talking about before you give advice. It's good to try to help, but if you don't know how to, then stick with learning.

I have no idea which advice you're rubbishing on here, but considering you're replying straight after my post perhaps you don't like my advice.

If you have a problem with any advice, you should discuss specifically what you don't agree with and why.

3x5 and don't curl...that's very good advice.

 

[Daran]

It's no wonder your triceps are much stronger. You're doing no pulling movements at all. No pulldowns, chins, rows...nothing.

You're getting plenty of tricep work with bench, presses and dips plus your isolation movements.

Heavy pulling movements will work your biceps hard.

The next problem is you're doing bicep isolation movements as though they're power movements with low reps. Why do you do only 5 reps for biceps? Even with your isolation tricep work you're doing 10 reps per set.

It must be difficult to do quality dumbbel curls with a 5 rep weight. You're probably just doing a modified dumbbell clean. Start to think about pumping some blood into the biceps and getting a burn with sets of 10 - 15 reps.

If you add a few pulling movements such as Lat pulldown and rows of some type you'll be getting your heavy bicep work done.

A lot of people will advocate chins, but few people can do quality progressive training with them because of bad form (swinging and other quirky movements) and being too weak to get sufficient quality reps. They are also hard on the elbows if you use a forward grip. If you're a heavy guy I would start with a comprehensive pulldown routine.

The low reps are due to, well.. I can't really do more than 6-7 reps with the 25 pound dumbells for the curls, so yeah.
I appreciate your advice.

 

[tropo]

The low reps are due to, well.. I can't really do more than 6-7 reps with the 25 pound dumbells for the curls, so yeah.
I appreciate your advice.

You could do a few lighter, higher rep sets leading up to your final set at 25 lbs. In a lot of gyms the jump in dumbbell weights is not gradual enough. It would really help if you could get 22.5 lb dumbbells. My gym is really bad for that, jumping 20 then 30, 40 and upwards in 10 lb jumps per dumbbell which makes for 20 lbs if you're using both arms together.