Building Massive Biceps : Exercise Selection

 

The best arm workouts should be made up of bicep and tricep compound sets starting with those movements that deliver the best pump and finishing with an aggressive stretching movement.

A good approach is to start with movements that afford the use of heavier weights to pump the muscles full of blood. Suitable movements include barbell and alternate dumbbell curls for the biceps and skullcrushers and pushdowns for the triceps. Note that compound movements like dips or close grip bench presses are unsuitable for alternating with bicep movements due to the heavy anterior deltoid contribution required by both.

For more advanced bodybuilders who's elbows are particularly 'sensitive' (ie smashed to pieces) you might want to start by pre-exhausting the arms with lighter, peak contraction, isolation movements - such as dumbbell concentration curls alternated with 2 arm dumbbell kickbacks. Once pumped and fatigued you can then move to your heavier compound movements.

Finally, finish with stretch position movements. The biceps are stretched when the elbow is extended (ie the arm is straight), the hands are pronated (rotated inward) and the upper arm is drawn back behind the body. As such, Incline Dumbell Curls are the only exercise that puts any sort of load on the biceps in a stretched position.

The triceps are stretched when the upper arm is raised upward and the elbow is fully flexed (ie bent). As such, any overhead extension using either a barbell, dumbbell(s) or cable will do.

 

👉 Building Massive Biceps : Basic Training Principles
👉 Building Massive Biceps : Pro Observations
👉 Building Massive Biceps : Lessons from SEO's
👉 Building Massive Biceps : Training the Arms
👉 Building Massive Biceps : Arm Workout Structure
👉 Building Massive Biceps : Training Splits
👉 Building Massive Biceps : Exercise Selection
👉 Building Massive Biceps : Exploiting Exercises' Unique Attributes
👉 Building Massive Biceps : Rep Schemes
👉 Building Massive Biceps : A Word on Diet