The biceps are arguably the most widely trained muscle because of they ‘show off’ appeal to many bodybuilders. To ensure that your biceps are well trained and developed, you will need to understand the biceps a bit more. With this understanding, you can than choose your exercises to create your best biceps workout for maximal effect. There are many bicep exercises that you can include in your best biceps workout. In this article, we will look at three biceps exercises that you must include in your workout, and the reason behind why they can be so effective to develop your biceps.
1. Barbell Curls
The barbell curl is the old work horse of biceps training that you must include in your best biceps workout. Our bicep muscles are made up of muscle fibers that can be easily activated and recruited for training. They are also generally thick fibers that will grow in good size with substantial stimulation. Hence, the key to developing the biceps is to target the biceps from all angles so that maximal recruitment of fibers occurs for growth. The barbell curl is a basic mass builder of the upper arm that allows for heavy poundage. Grip a barbell using an underhand grip with arms shoulder width apart. Begin the exercise by lifting the barbell towards your chest, keeping the upper arm from elbow onwards fixed at all times. This will isolate the biceps to do the work of lifting alone. When the barbell touches your chest, slowly and deliberately return the barbell to its starting position. Emphasize on resisting the downward motion. This will work the bicep more. For the purpose of building mass, choose a weight that you will fail at 8 repetitions and perform 5 sets of 8 repetitions.
2. Hammer Curls
The Hammer Curl is one exercise in the best bicep workout that will target the contraction of the muscle from a different angle. Grasp a dumbbell each in both hands and keep them by your side as if you are holding the dumbbells as hammer head. You can alternate lifting the dumbbells from each hand or lift both dumbbells together. Lift the dumbbells in a curl like motion. As you lift the dumbbell towards your chest, rotate the dumbbell such that you will end in a position whereby you palm is actually facing you at the peak of the lift. You should rotate the dumbbells maximally. In addition to the usual contraction of a bicep curl, the rotation of the dumbbell in this manner will activate more muscle fibers for contraction. These additional fibers that normally will not be worked will be contracting as well. If you actually analyze your biceps closely during this exercise, you will notice that at the peak of the rotation, the muscles actually contract a little bit more with the rotation. Hammer curls are excellent fiber recruitment exercise for your best biceps workouts.
3. Triple Threat
This is an exercise that makes use of the fact that all muscle fiber do not fatigue at the same time. You must include the Triple Threat in your best bicep workout. You can do this exercise using barbells or dumbbells. Choose three sets of equipment of varying weight. The heaviest set should be a weight whereby you will fail at 8 repetitions only. Start your curls for both arms with the heaviest set, performing your 8 repetitions. As soon as you finish this, quickly drop this set, and pick up the next heaviest set and repeat for another 8 repetitions without resting. Once that is done, complete the last 8 repetitions using the lightest set. Allow no rest again. By the time you complete these 24 repetitions, your biceps will feel as if they will explore anytime. Perform 3-5 sets of the Triple Threat. It is wonderful exercise that can fully stimulate the biceps. When lifting the heaviest set, all the most power fibers will be activated. When these are fatigued, the second heaviest weights will recruit those fibers that are still active. The process continues until all the fibers are activated.
Your best biceps workouts can include any exercise that you would like. The three exercises recommended here will target your biceps from different angles. The barbell curls are good for general mass building. The rotations done in Hammer Curls, recruit seldom use fibers of the biceps. The Triple Threat works all fibers till exhaustion. With these three exercises, you can be sure that your best bicep workout will be successful.
