Biceps

Scooby's Home Bodybuilding Workouts

Biceps Workout

Barbell Curls If you have a barbell, this is a great basic mass builder. Form is key on this, most folks at the gym use terrible form. Here is how to do it correctly. Your elbows are pinned to your sides, the do not move one bit. Nothing moves except your your forearms, your back, legs, head are all completely motionless. If you have to swing or bounce then you are using way too much weight.
	starting position. Arms down along sides, elbows pinned to your sides. Slowly exhale and raise the bar all the way to the top in a slow motion. It should take at least a count of "one one thousand, two one thousand" for you to get them up.
	mid position.
	top position. No resting here, keep it moving. Slowly lower the barbell back down to the starting position while inhaling. Again you should take at least two seconds to get them back down.
	Video Clip showing proper form of the barbell curl

Dumbbell Curls (thumbs up) An excellent bicep exercise if you have dumbbells. Form is key on this, most folks at the gym use terrible form. Here is how to do it correctly. Your elbows are pinned to your sides, the do not move one bit. Nothing moves except your your forearms, your back, legs, head are all completely motionless. If you have to swing or bounce then you are using way too much weight.
	starting position. Arms down along sides, elbows pinned, thumbs up. Slowly exhale and raise both weights at the same time all the way to the top in a slow motion. It should take at least a count of "one one thousand, two one thousand" for you to get them up.
	ending position. Note that elbows are in exactly the same position. Now slowly lower the weights back down to the starting position while inhaling. Again you should take at least two seconds to get them back down.
	Video Clip showing proper form of the hammer curl.

Dumbbell Curls (palms up) Another excellent bicep exercise if you have dumbbells. Form is key on this, most folks at the gym use terrible form. Here is how to do it correctly. Your elbows are pinned to your sides, the do not move one bit. Nothing moves except your your forearms, your back, legs, head are all completely motionless. If you have to swing or bounce then you are using way too much weight.
	starting position. Arms down along sides, elbows pinned, palms up. Slowly exhale and raise both weights at the same time all the way to the top in a slow motion. It should take at least a count of "one one thousand, two one thousand" for you to get them up.
	ending position. Note that elbows are in exactly the same position. Now slowly lower the weights back down to the starting position while inhaling. Again you should take at least two seconds to get them back down.
	Video Clip showing proper form of the dumbbell curl

"Twenty Ones" This are a popular training method and are so named because you do twenty-one reps per set. I really like them because its a welcome break from heavy weight low rep training and it gives an amazing pump. The trick in doing these is to choose a weight light enough so you can do twenty-one reps with good form. If you are having to swing and arch like a banana to get the last few reps then you need to lower the weight. I like doing these standing with a barbell but you could use dumbbells instead if you wanted. Grasp the bar with the palms facing up when doing this exercise.
	The first seven reps go from the resting position to the horizontal position and back down.

	... without any rest ...
	The next seven reps start with the forearms horizontal and end with the bar in the top position. This is a bit easier and it lets you rest up a bit for what is to come ...

	... without any rest ...
	The last seven reps do full barbell curls from the lower position all the way to the upper position. Pay close attention to your form doing these last seven reps, move the bar slowly and deliberately attempting to do 2s down and 2s up. These last seven reps are killer! If you find that you cant use good form to the very end then drop the weight on your next set.

Video coming shortly

Reverse Curls These are great to do at the end of your arm workout for a great bicep pump and a great forearm workout - shaving or brushing your teeth is tough after doing these! This exercise is done with the palms facing down as indicated with the red arrow in the below photo. This exercise is much more difficult to do than with the palms up so dont use a lot of weight, start with about 35% of what you can do with the palms up. These can be done either standing, as the photos below show, or using a preacher bench as shown in the video below. If you have tendonitis in your elbow, dont do these because it puts a lot of stress on the elbow. I suggest doing these at the end of your arm workout when your biceps are good and weak, that way, even though the bicep is stronger than the forearm they are both worked out evenly.
	Starting position, note the overhand grip making the palms face down.
	Raise the bar slowly and steadily - yikes what a forearm pump.
	Video clip showing proper form of the reverse curl.

Biceps on a Pull-up Bar

If all you have is a pull-up bar, you can get a good bicep workout by doing underhand pull-ups as shown here.

Here is a short video clip showing proper form for underhand grip pullups. In this video I also show how to do kinetic negatives, note that this is not recommended if you have any joint or back problems.

Start hanging from the bar with a shoulder width underhand grip. Without swinging or jerking, slowly pull yourself up to the bar then lower yourself slowly. If you cant do this using good form then cheat by helping yourself up by putting your foot on a chair or having a partner spot you. Since this works your lats a bit too, you should do this exercise on the same day that you do lats if you are going to do this. If you have a dumbbell set I would skip this exercise and do the above barbell exercises.

Here is a video of a complete 45 minute arm workout (biceps and triceps).