If you want to build big biceps you don’t necessarily have to always focus on lifting heavy weight. In this video, I’m going to give you a complete biceps workout that you can do with lighter weights than you normally lift and still get massive growth in your biceps. This entire workout will take under 6 minutes if you are willing to trade in workout length for intensity and effort.
SEATED BARBELL CURL
It starts in an odd position to do a barbell curl, sitting down. The seated barbell curl provides you with two distinct advantages when doing it versus a traditional standing barbell curl. Both have to do with the limited range of motion in the bottom 20 degrees of the lift. First, when you are sitting and you take away that first portion of the movement, you are decreasing the amount of cheat and sway that you use to lift the bar.
STANDING BARBELL CURL
This forces the biceps to do more of the work and decreases the contribution of the front delts to the lift. This should allow your arms to get a better stimulus from the exercise when they are most fresh. You want to take this first set to failure and immediately stand up and perform a drop set to failure again. The standing position allows you to get that full range of motion at the bottom of the curl and take advantage of some of that momentum to keep the set going through failure and push the metabolic fatigue even further into the hypertrophy zone.
THE BRACHIORADIALIS
From here, you strip off 10 pounds from each end of the bar and repeat the process again. The second major benefit of the seated barbell curl is an anatomical one. When you take away the first twenty degrees of the range of motion on the curl you decrease the contribution of the brachioradialis from the exercise. This smaller muscle lies distal to the biceps and is often first to fire when it comes to getting the bar through the sticking point of the exercise.
The problem with this is that this muscle is also likely to first fatigue, which would shortcut the efforts of the very muscle that you’re trying to develop. Instead, save it for the second half of the combo so that it can add to the strength of the overall exercise, especially when the biceps is fatigued and can benefit from the additional help.
DROP SETS
Finish out with one more drop set combination – this time with just the bar – and try to complete this entire 3 set drop set in under 3 minutes. One of the most valuable elements of this workout is the condensed time period in which you are supposed to complete it. This demands that much more work is being done by the biceps than it may be accustomed to – yet another stimulus for growth.
STRICT CURLS → CHEAT CURLS
The second and final half of the biceps workout occurs with an EZ Curl bar up against the wall. The strict curl into cheat curl is one of the greatest and most powerful biceps building exercises you can do. To perform the strict curl, make sure that you keep the back of your head, upper back and butt up against the wall at all times. Resist the urge to let any of them release from the wall in order to swing the weight up. Go to failure and then step away from the wall to perform one more drop set to failure, this time using momentum.
CONCLUSION
Do this in three drop sets like you did the seated barbell curl and your biceps should be fried. This is an amazing way to torch your arms in just under 6 minutes and feel as if you have been training them for an hour. Remember, you don’t have to train long if you’re willing to train hard.
If you’re looking for a complete program that helps you to build big biceps without having to use heavy weights all the time, you can head to athleanx.com and check out the programs that I have available. Start training like an athlete and build an amazing body in the new year by following the step by step plans.
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Jeff Cavaliere M.S.P.T, CSCS
Jeff Cavaliere is a Physical Therapist, Strength Coach and creator of the ATHLEAN-X Training Programs and ATHLEAN-Rx Supplements. He has a Masters in Physical Therapy (MSPT) and has worked as Head Physical Therapist for the New York Mets, as well as training many elite professional athletes in Major League Baseball, NFL, MMA and professional wrestling. His programs produce “next level” achievements in muscle size, strength and performance for professional athletes and anyone looking to build a muscular athletic physique.
