How to Make Your Biceps Bigger

There’s nothing that can shatter your confidence more than having twig leg arms. Trust me, I’ve been there, and I know exactly how it feels, but the good news is I grow in your arms into big sleeve-hugging biceps as possible. You need to get smarter with how you train them. There are five techniques in particular that the latest science suggests can help speed up biceps growth dramatically. Today, I’ll share those and how to make your biceps bigger and grow faster.

Techniques: 1

The first technique has to do with your back training. Whenever you train your back with exercises such as rows, lat pull-downs, or pull-ups, your biceps will be heavily involved. Because of this, some people say that’s all you need to grow your biceps. A 2021 study put this theory to the test. They compared the growth of the biceps from dumbbell rows versus dumbbell curls. After eight, although the dumbbell rows did lead to significant growth of the biceps, dumbbell curls led to over double the growth.

These findings mean two things: One, you will still experience a lot of your biceps growth from your big back exercises. So, don’t overlook their importance for big arms. Get stronger with your back training, and your biceps will grow as well. To maximize biceps growth, it’s important to train them directly with one to two exercises after you’re back training.

This is especially true because, as we’ll explain in the next tip, back exercises have a downside when it comes to biceps growth. That said, it’s important to pick the right bicep exercises. Recent evidence suggests that certain bicep exercises may be better options.

Techniques: 2

One of the most exciting areas of recent research has to do with something called stretch-mediated hypertrophy. To explain what this fancy term means, let’s take a look at a recent 2021 paper. Researchers had two groups of subjects perform the preacher curl twice a week. But, either only the bottom half or the top half of the curl. After five weeks, they assess the growth in the biceps. The subjects who performed only the bottom half of the curl experienced almost three times the biceps growth as those who only performed the top half.

The reason for this seems to be the result of a powerful muscle-building stimulus that happens when a muscle is fully stretched under load, such as at the bottom position of a bicep curl. Now, although I will admit this study design does have its flaws, the findings are consistent with other similar studies on the biceps as well as with research on other muscle groups like the hamstrings. As for how to apply this to speed up your biceps growth, there are three things you can do.

First, you need to use a full range of motion on all your bicep exercises, especially at the bottom position. This means fully extending your arm at the bottom position to get a full stretch on your biceps each rep.

Next, you should choose bicep exercises that challenge the biceps the most when it’s in a fully stretched position. This is especially important because it’s something that the back exercises we mentioned earlier just can’t do. The best options here are the slight incline dumbbell curl and the behind-the-body cable curl.

Lastly, for an even more powerful muscle-building stimulus, after your last set of these exercises. Once you’ve reached failure or are very close to it, perform half reps of just the bottom part of the curl. This will allow you to push past your normal point to failure and will further prioritize this all-important sully-stretched position.

Techniques: 3

The next tip has to do with your workout volume. There’s a good chance that as long as you don’t overdo it, a small increase in your weekly bicep volume will be met with faster gains. Illustrating this phenomenon is a 2015 paper, on a subject, all trained in three tasks per week but were split into groups that performed a weekly total of either three sets of nine or 15 sets of bicep curls. After six months of this, there is a clear response relationship with 15 bicep sets per week providing the most bicep gains. However, you don’t want to overdo this, especially if you’re a beginner.

My recommendation is to use 15 sets of direct bicep training as more of a limit. Instead of jumping straight to that, take a look at how many weekly bicep sets you’re doing right now and add a couple of sets to that. If you don’t feel overworked and your performance stays higher than great. Keep doing that increased volume, and in the future, consider increasing it even further to see if it helps speed up your gain.

I would, however, recommend splitting these sets out so you’re not doing it all in one session. This could, for example, look like three sets of two bicep exercises on one day during the week and then another three sets of two bicep exercises on another day during the week.

Techniques: 4

That said, as you perform mid-sets, it’s important to apply the next tip if you want to experience the most growth:

Arnold Schwarzenegger: I think the biggest mistake is that you go to the gym and you go through the motion, but you don’t have your mind inside the muscle.

Old-school bodybuilders have long preached the benefits of feeling your muscles working as you train. It was not until fairly recently, in a 2018 paper, that this method was put to the test.

Research had one group of subjects perform the bicep curl while focusing on squeezing the biceps and feeling the muscle work. The other group was simply instructed to lift the weight. After eight weeks of this, the group that focused on feeling their biceps working experienced almost double the bicep gains. To apply this method to potentially speed up your bicep gains whenever you do curls, try to really feel your biceps doing the work. It can help to think about pulling the bar or dumbbell into your body rather than just lifting the weight.

However, as you apply this tip, it’s important that you don’t end up sabotaging your biceps in the process.

Techniques: 5

This process leads me to my final tip: For a muscle to grow, you need to continuously challenge it with more than it’s used to. Sounds simple, but most people don’t do this when they’re treating the biceps. They forget about this concept completely and only focus on getting a good pump. Instead of forcing your biceps to grow week after week, pick two to three bicep exercises that you’ll stick to week after week. Here are a few that I recommend based on what we talked about earlier.

Then, whenever you do a workout, write down how much weight you used and how many reps you used. Use these numbers as a goal to beat during your next workout by trying to do one to two more reps than you did last time or add a little bit more weight.

Compared to your big compound exercises, progression with your bicep exercises will be slow. But focus on tracking your progress and making small improvements week after week, and over time you’ll notice a huge difference in your biceps growth.

Apply these five techniques, and you’ll notice faster biceps growth almost immediately. But, guys, it’s important that you take the same size-based, detailed approach to every single muscle you train, not just your biceps.