Effective Biceps Exercises – One of my Favorites

Biceps don’t do too much for your vertical, but who doesn’t like guns?  This is one of my favorite new biceps exercises paired with several others you can start getting some massive guns.

As you can see it’s a preacher curl.  But the preacher curl has one problem, the upright position loses all muscle tension.  So with a heavy dumbell and a strong elastic band you can make the upright position have greater tension and allow this exercise to work your entire bicep, especially the peak!

The accommodating resistance also makes the lift progressively harder, instead of progressively easier, and so the muscle tension is not only constant, but get’s harder through the range of motion, rather than getting easier.

Dead weight without the elastic get’s lighter as it is moved.  The inertia of the moving weight makes the weight easier to continue moving.  The elastic band combats that.

I like to superset this one with upright rows, and as you can see the upright row bar is also attached to an elastic band. Double friggin whammy!

Next I like to move to a position of arms over head, then to a position of arms angled behind your body.  This works both heads of the bicep and build full, peaked biceps.

Sets and rep?   Well, if you’re going for big muscles warm up (2 – 3 sets of lower weight to 8 reps), then go progressively heavier for 3 sets until you reach a 1, 3, or 6 rep max (a new record!).  Then move to some type of high-volume, muscle-pumping-to-failure set.  This can be a pyramid set, where you reduce the weight until you can’t do anymore, and then you just hold the weight in static position until your bicep explodes. 

The above method will maximize sarcomeric and sarcoplasmic hypertrophy (there are 2 kinds of muscle growth!) in the same session.

Nutrition post workout is very important (as is nutrition at all times!).  Start with some simple sugars like juice and/or a bannana, add some complex carbs like a granola bar, then add fast absorbing protein (whey 30 grams), and a handful of almonds. 

If you like this exercise please repost it on your Facebook.  If enough people share I’ll show you one of my newest vertical training exercises.  One that will be in Jump Manual 2.0!