For most men undertaking a new exercise regimen, the biceps are a key area of focus. No matter whether you’re a complete novice to exercising regularly or a veteran of your local gym, there’s not many muscle groups that respond better to regular exercise. If you’re looking to fine-tune the biceps element of your fitness routine or you’re a newbie in need of some initial pointers, consider these five effective biceps exercises that will enhance strength, encourage muscle growth and deliver impressive toning results in no time at all.
Drag Curl
This biceps building basic is a great one to start you off. To begin, grab a hold of a barbell. Make sure you’re gripping the barbell with your palms forward-facing. You also want to make sure your elbows are as close as possible to your torso area and back. Take note of this stance as it’s your starting position. Breathe out, curling the barbell upwards as you go, ensuring elbows are kept to your back while you continue to drag the barbell upwards. At all times, keep the barbell in contact with your torso region.
Zottman Curls
This go-to curl is great for targeting multiple muscle areas at once. To perfect it, simply make sure you’re rotating from a regular underhand grip, arriving at an overhand one when you reach the mid-point of the curl. You’ll be exercising three distinct biceps muscles with this one, including the brachia, brachioradialis and brachialis. This curl will also serve to strengthen your forearms. Pace yourself with this one, giving yourself anywhere up to 5 seconds to lower the weights in your grip.
Plate Pinch Curls
Here’s another straightforward one. To kick off, take a weight plate in each of your hands, tightening onto them with a pinch grip. From there, allow your arms to hang in a full extended position at the front of you. The plates should now be placed immediately in front of your thigh region. Now, pinch down with some force to keep the plates in your hands from moving, while also curling the plates in an upward direction. Your goal is to move the plates until they are lying to the front of your shoulders. And that’s it.
Supine Curl
For this one, you’ll need to lie down on a flat surface (a bench is ideal) with your face pointing upwards. For this, you’ll also need to be holding one dumbbell in each of your arms, placed directly atop your thighs. Next, you want to aim to move the dumbbells to your sides, with your arms maintaining an extended position. Your palms need to be faced toward your thigh at all times. This is otherwise known as maintaining neutral grip. Once you’ve practised and perfected that, you’ve the supine curl mastered.
Preacher Curl
This exercise is ideal for attaining your dreams of beefed-up biceps. A preacher bench is a perquisite for this exercise. To start, sit atop the bench and perform some adjustments so the height so that your armpits are meeting the very top of the sloping section of the bench. Ensure you’re holding the weight with an underhand grip (or your palms faced up) and that your arms remain extended. Your upper arms need to be resting upon the bench. From this point, curl the weight you’re holding upward, maintaining contact between your upper arm and the bench surface. Continue until your forearms are in a vertical position. When you’ve achieved the summit of the curl, give yourself time to pause for a moment. After that, begin to slowly lower the weight, doing so until you find your arms fully extended. Count to three slowly while you lower the weight to get the timing and precision perfect.
