Getting Bigger Biceps

Don't work the biceps too often. Despite what many will tell you, the biceps do not necessarily need a ton of work to get big. They're one of the smallest and most fragile muscles in your musculature. If your biceps aren't exploding like you'd like them to be, there are two possible or likely problems: the first is that you're training wrong, and the second is that you're training too much, which is really only a different aspect of the first problem. Remember that sufficient rest is essential for the development of really killer biceps.

Work them thoroughly enough. Squeeze at the top of each repetition. This will engage more muscle fibers. More muscle fibers engaged will mean that more hypertrophy is likely to occur... within the right circumstances. More on that in a moment. Be sure to go through the full range of motion of the exercise, whatever the exercise is. If it is a bicep curl, go all the way down. Don't wuss out on yourself now. That's right. If it's a chinup, go all the way up. If it's a row, don't fudge the movement by lowering your chest and just using the momentum to slam the bar into it. That's not right, and it won't get you the results you want.

Create a good environment for growing good muscle mass. Eat enough. Be sure to get enough protein. The best protein you can use for the purposes of building muscle mass is casein protein. Casein protein is a sort of protein found in milk; it is slowly digested over several hours, constantly delivering, in that time, a flow of amino acids to the muscles that are so hungry for them. Casein protein is likely a large part of the reason that people who tell you to drink milk if you want to get huge tell you so. Casein is known to aid in the growth of muscle. Be sure that the rest of your nutrition is sound. Get enough vitamin A in your diet; vitamin A is important in the body's producing of testosterone. Get enough cholesterol in your diet; cholesterol is a precursor to testosterone. Remember that dietary cholesterol does not necessarily affect serum (blood) cholesterol. Cholesterol can help you get bigger arms and huge biceps! It may be advisable to slam down a few eggs in the morning. Perhaps even raw. Alternatively, try a protein shake.

Train right. Don't come whining to me or anyone else if you don't have big biceps after months of hard work and it comes out that you've been training like a little girl the whole time. Real biceps, like any other real muscle, require real work. You've got to work hard, but also work smart. Include a lot of variety in your workouts. Things to consider are: dumbbell bicep curls, barbbell bicep curls, hammer curls, preacher curls, drag curls, barbell bent-over rows, reverse-grip barbell bent-over rows (a rather obscure exercise that can really put a beating on the biceps--you might find you like it!), weighted chinups (or, if you can't manage them yet, try unweighted chinups.), and more. Even deadlifts engage the biceps to some degree, especially with the double underhand grip. You will want to work in the 6 to 12 rep range; it is known that the most hypertrophy occurs in this range. However, you will definitely want to include a variety of rep ranges. If you want to hit as much hypertrophy as possible, you will want to get both sarcoplasmic and myofibrilar hypertrophy, which are achieved with different rep ranges. It is also advisable to include some very high rep work, such as 20 or more chinups, at the end of a workout.

You may also want to incorporate some more advanced techniques such as negative reps. In negative reps, you use a weight higher than what you normally can lift, and you only perform the lowering half of the motion in a very controlled, slow motion. This can be used as a finisher to a normal workout, or it can be used as a workout all its own. Negative reps can be used to acclimate the body to working with a much higher weight, strengthening the tendons and ligaments and providing some more weight under which the bone can grow denser; they might also be used to get the very most out of the recruitment of muscle fibers, which can help you grow even faster.

With the right knowledge, you can be the proud owner of some of the biggest and sexiest biceps in town.