Top 5 Muscle-Building Biceps Exercises - Build Bigger Biceps Fast

Do you want a big biceps? Of course, who doesn't want to have biceps that stretch his shirtsleeves? If someone asks you to flex your muscles, they don't want you to flex your calves, they want to see how big is your biceps. There are many great professional bodybuilders that are known for big and defined biceps, like Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

Biceps brachii, mostly referred as just biceps, is a two-headed muscle (the short head and the long head) and is connected with the forearm by brachialis and brachioradialis muscles. Biceps exercises usually involve forearm muscles too. 

To add some inches to your arms, and specifically to your biceps, you need to work on gaining more overall muscle mass. You will need to perform more compound exercises than isolation exercises like dumbbell curls, and of course, in order to build muscle, you need to follow a muscle building diet plan.

Check out some tips on how to gain muscle mass:

How to Gain Muscle Mass Fast - Tips for Beginners and Skinny People

Performing some compound exercises will help you to build bigger biceps. Bent-Over Rows, Pull Ups, and Lat Pulldowns are great exercises for building back but also will add size to your biceps.

Check out the list of top 5 muscle-building biceps exercises:

1. Barbell Biceps Curl


Probably the best mass-building movement for biceps and one of the most famous old-school bodybuilding exercises. Arnold Schwarzenegger always loved doing Standing Biceps Curl as the first exercise in his biceps workout.

Perform barbell curls by lowering barbell very slowly, at least four seconds, for better effect on biceps.




2. Dumbbells Preacher Curl


One of the best exercises to add more size to your biceps. Using a preacher bench, sit holding dumbbells in each hand and slowly curl dumbbells toward shoulders and squeeze your biceps on the top of the curl, then return weights back to starting position.

3. Incline Dumbbell Curl


This is probably the best exercise to isolate the long head of the biceps. Lay down on an incline bench with dumbbells in your hands and your hands fully extended and curl dumbbells while keeping your elbows still and slowly return the dumbbells to starting position and you've done a first rep. 




4. Close Grip Chin Up


Best bodyweight movement for building big biceps. This exercise is a great mass builder. Do a chin up with your palms facing you and situated 8-12 cm apart from each other. Tip: Make a 3 seconds pause when you get to the top and slowly return back. 




5. Alternating Hammer Curls


If you are looking to blow up your biceps than hammer curl is an excellent choice. Hammer Curls will help you to build brachialis and brachioradialis muscles which many other variations of curls can't. Working these two muscles is also important if you are looking to build big arms. You can perform Hammer Curls from standing or seating position. Both variations are good. Perform it with 15 reps for each arm. 



I recommend performing all these 5 exercises by using slow contractions and squeezes at the top of the each rep. That is the best way to work your biceps. 


Also, you might like the article about best mass-building triceps exercises:


Best Workout for Bigger Triceps - Build Big Triceps Fast

Workout to Build Bigger Biceps

Biceps brachii, mostly referred only as Biceps, is a two-headed muscle that is placed between shoulder and elbow. Building a big biceps requires many biceps curls exercises. Every exercise that involves some sort of a curl has an effect on a biceps. More correctly, every exercise that involves any sort of pulling will hit your biceps. That means that exercises like Pull Ups, Lat Pulldowns, and Bent-Over Rows that are known as exercises that are building Back muscles, are also working out your biceps.

The biggest mistake that many lifters are making is that they are performing too many arm workouts in a week. Some lifters think that training arms every day will make they biceps to grow. That is just a way to overtraining your arms that will stop your biceps and triceps from growing. 

EXERCISES THAT ARE BEST FOR BUILDING BIG BICEPS:

 1. Chin Ups

Chin Up is a great variation of Pull Up for building biceps. One difference between classic Pull Up and Chin Up is that underhand grip has a better effect on biceps. Pulling yourself to the bar is a great workout for building bigger biceps. Grip a bar with your hands placed shoulder-width apart and your palms facing your head then lift your body up until your chin is higher than the bar.

Tip: Try pausing for five seconds when you pull yourself on the bar then slowly lower your body back.

Chin Ups are better than many weights workouts for building a big biceps. Check out one example of an athlete that build bigger arms with only bodyweight exercises:

Lazar Novovic - Bar Brothers

2. Barbell Curls

Barbell Curl is a great exercise for building biceps strength and size. Barbell Curls will allow you to overload your biceps with more weights than you can with dumbbells. Hold a barbell and in slowly and controlled manner lift it up to your chest and slowly return it back to starting position with your arms fully extended for a better stretch of your biceps. 

You can perform a barbell curl with EZ-bar or standard bar, that doesn't make the difference because it hits your biceps in the same way. 

3. Incline Dumbbell Curls

The third exercise on this list will be Incline Dumbbell Curl. This exercise is one of the best to help prevent momentum lifting manner. Sit on a workout chair at a 45-degree incline and hold the dumbbells at your sides with arms fully extended, then alternate your hands and curl one dumbbell at a time.

4. Concentration Curls

The last exercise to add in your biceps workout is Concentration Curl. Grab a dumbbell, sit on a workout chair and put your elbow on the inside of your knee with arm fully extended. Lift a dumbbell up to your chest while keeping the elbow in the same place. 

That would be my list of exercises that are best for building big biceps, try them out in your next biceps workout and perform them with rep range between 8 -12 which is an ideal rep range for muscle hypertrophy. Focus on performing workouts with proper form and don't use momentum to lift the weights. Don't overload the weights if you can lift it for at least 8 times with a proper form, try lifting the lighter weights until you build up your strength.