Building stronger arms are not as easy as some other body parts. Here are 5 gym hacks for bigger biceps.
The biceps performs two functions: bending the elbow and twisting the forearm. With only those two options, to flex and grow your biceps tends to be dull and it is difficult to do something different than curls. But we are talking about gym hacks for bigger biceps that you probably didn’t know about.
The tips you will see in the video below are brought by Fit Media Channel. They have a successful YouTube channel with over 1.6 million subscribers and with training tips and workouts you can follow along.
5 Gym Hacks for Bigger Biceps
1. Cheat Correctly
Working out your biceps is impossible without doing curls and there is a way you can cheat curls in a positive way for muscle growth.
When you get to exhausting, it is okay to use your entire body to help you bring the barbell (or dumbbell) up during the curl. However, when descending the weights, do it slowly with control.
2. Squeeze
The biceps grow when you squeeze at the top of the movement. Don’t worry about lifting a heavy weight, but rather choose a weight that you can control and squeeze your biceps at the top.
Doing concentration and spider curls is a good way to squeeze your biceps, especially the short head of the biceps.
3. Hit the Long Head
This is the muscle that creates the peak on your biceps. Any exercise where the elbow is behind the body will focus on the long head such as seated dumbbell curl or the drag curl.
If you squeeze your triceps at the bottom of the movement, it will shut off your biceps and make you restart the bicep movement cleanly.
4. Pay Attention to Your Grip
If you grip the barbell too tight, your forearms will be activated. Feel the weight through your pinkie finger as if you are trying to twist the bar up.
Using dumbbells will allow you to actively push through the pinkie finger making you work on your twist and squeezing your biceps at the top of the movement.
Also, try to keep your wrist in a neutral position by not letting it curl in when you are lifting weights.
A last tip for the grip is that a wider grip targets your longer head while the narrow grip activates your short head of the biceps.
5. Remember the Brachialis Muscle
The brachialis sits under the long head of the bicep and it pushes up and out, giving a wider look to your arm.
With hammer curls, utilising a vertical grip, you will be hitting your long head and also the brachialis.
Read More: Gym Hacks for Bigger Legs