Beautiful arms with voluminous muscles have long been considered a symbol of strength, and when entering the gym for the first time, most men strive to pump up their biceps. But sometimes achieving results is not at all easy.
Many men think that in order to build muscular arms, it is enough to simply pick up heavy dumbbells. But in fact, these biceps muscles require special attention. In order not to waste time in the gym, you first need to choose a workout that is suitable for you and take into account several important techniques.
Only then will your hands achieve the desired volume, and you will achieve the envy and admiration of others.
Beautiful, pumped up arms are one of the most desirable parts of the male body for many women. Therefore, for athletes, training and chasing their size has become an unhealthy obsession. Achieving the desired goal is not so difficult in practice.
Are your arm muscles not growing?
Men spend almost hours doing barbell curls and other exercises for the biceps muscles with a determined and stern expression on their faces, just to add at least 1 centimeter to their volume.
Barbell curl
Some people spend a lot of time in a bent position, performing concentrated lifts and watching the process in the mirror, others even lift dumbbells in their hotel room before going to a nightclub while on vacation.
Concentrated dumbbell curls
There are also those who spend more time buying T-shirts than their wives do choosing blouses, in the hope that one of them will make their arms look better and bigger.
Now the big question: if 9 out of 10 guys are obsessed with watching their biceps grow and dedicate so much time to training them, if they use a lot of techniques, such as forced reps, drop sets and the 21 technique, which are proven to be effective by professional bodybuilders , why do they still have nothing to show and their biceps are not growing as they would like?
So, what to do and how to achieve the desired volumes? Let's start working on the mistakes.
Skip the cardio workout
Cardio should be eliminated altogether or limited (as it interferes with the growth of the glutes).
Cardo does not make sense at this stage of training, because cardio should be used when your goal is to burn fat on the body, because any aerobic exercise (cardio) triggers a breakdown reaction (catabolism), and this is what you need if your goal is to burn fat (lose weight ). But!
You’re not losing weight now, but want to pump up your butt, so you need to create a completely opposite reaction - ANABOLISM (anabolism is muscle growth, butt growth).
Catabolism = if the goal is muscle growth = will harm muscle growth. My butt is growing. Understand?
ANABOLISM = GROWTH | CATABOLISM = DESTRUCTION.
CONCLUSION: if you want to effectively grow muscles on your butt, remove cardio training altogether (ideally), or really limit it to a minimum, because... they are harmful and interfere with growth (anabolism).
I know why many girls do cardio and build muscles at the same time. In the hope of losing weight and pumping up your butt at the same time, that is, two birds with one stone. But this is impossible.
Losing weight and growing your butt (muscles) at the same time (as many people want) = impossible. Dot.
When you want to lose weight, you need catabolism (you create it through a proper diet for weight loss, namely a calorie deficit and proper training).
A calorie deficit is when you expend more energy (calories) than you consume.
And when the goal is to grow muscles, you need the opposite = anabolism (you create it through proper nutrition, namely, excess calories and proper training).
A calorie surplus is when you take in more calories than you burn.
I mean, you see, right? There is a lack of kcal (weight loss), there is an excess of kcal (growth).
As you understand, it is impossible to combine these two completely opposite processes into one. Read more about this: “Is it possible to lose weight and gain mass (muscle) at the same time.”
Why biceps don't grow - 6 reasons
Let's look at a few of the most common problems associated with arm training before we move on to a step-by-step program that will take your results to new heights.
Reason #1 - Bigger is not always better
If doing 4 sets is better than 3, then why not do all 10? Or better yet, why not train them all day? The answer is obvious, but it still needs to be repeated: less is better. Especially if you are not genetically inclined to gain muscle.
Reason 1. You consume few calories
Food must be energetically valuable - otherwise the body has nowhere to get the strength to grow muscles, including the buttocks. Girls who go on diets do not always clearly understand that things are slowly and surely moving towards anorexia.
Also, many girls want to lose weight and build up their buttocks at the same time, which is impossible in principle - after all, to lose weight you need a calorie deficit, and to grow muscles - a surplus. That is why you need to either burn fat first and then gain muscle mass, or, if you do not have problems with excess weight, correctly calculate your caloric intake for successful gain.
Calories come from food, and the body spends them not only on tissue growth, but also on breathing, heartbeat, and digestion. Therefore, an adult needs at least 1500 kcal per day just to maintain his current weight. For muscle growth - even more. When this bar is lowered, the body will begin to digest muscle first, and then a little fat. Because of this, the butt can sag or even become flabby, because the muscles under it will lose volume, and the skin cannot quickly tighten.
You should also not forget about the consumption of clean water - an adult needs about 33 ml per kg of body weight per day.
Solution: increase your daily calorie intake. It is important not only to increase caloric intake, but also to maintain the correct ratio of BZHU. Of course, it is better to consult a professional (nutritionist or personal trainer) for the correct preparation of your diet.
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Now is not the time to torture your biceps. Remember: the goal of every strength training session is to outperform the previous one. If you've added an extra pound or rep to one biceps exercise, it's time to take it to the next level.
Reason #2 - The appearance of your hands after training is more important, not during it
This problem is related to problem #1, and primarily affects those who are obsessed with biceps exercises.
With prolonged exercise, even with not very heavy weights, the muscles swell and increase in size, which attracts the attention of many gym goers. This attention creates a feeling of satisfaction and the knowledge that you are doing something useful, but it is deceptive. Blood in the muscles must be retained as long as possible, otherwise muscle growth will not occur. Therefore, if you train with weights that do not overload the muscles and emphasize strength gains, muscle size will quickly return to normal.
Reason #3 - Lack of training to increase overall strength
Some big guys don't even train their arms! They focus on enlarging the chest, back and shoulders. You say, “what kind of biceps growth are we talking about here?” But believe me, if you just focus on increasing the weight: deadlifts, push-ups and pull-ups, your biceps will grow proportionately.
Reason #4 - Using the same exercises
Once they have learned how to pump up their biceps with one exercise or another, many athletes continue to perform the same movements for years.
You can bet by saying that every professional bodybuilder will give a beginner two simple biceps exercises to build huge muscles - barbell and dumbbell curls. According to professionals, these lifts have built more huge arms than any other exercise in the world.
This is a solid foundation for creating a training program, but remember that professional bodybuilders take steroids and therefore have excellent response to almost all the exercises they do. You and I, in order to get the desired biceps, will have to be sophisticated.
As long as you increase the weight and reps to achieve ideal form, your arms should continue to grow. The goal is to perform 50kg barbell curls and 23kg dumbbell curls in a few slow sets without swinging your body.
When you are training to perform 50kg barbell lifts, try holding the barbell in two ways. You'll have to lower your normal biceps lifting weight a little, but stick with the following options until you're lifting your target weight.
- Close-grip barbell curls: Here you target the outer biceps by turning your elbows outward and using a very close grip.
Close-grip barbell curls
- Wide Grip: Engage your inner biceps by gripping the barbell with a very wide grip and turning your elbows toward your body (keeping them stationary).
Wide grip barbell raises
- Reverse Grip: Engage the brachialis and brachioradialis muscles by performing reverse grip raises.
Reverse grip barbell lift
- Or good old fashioned hammer lifts.
Hammer grip dumbbell lift
Reason No. 5 - Insufficient load on the muscles
Knowing what needs to be pumped up, many do not know how to pump up biceps and do not distinguish between the concepts of isolation and regular exercises. They don't know how to make their muscles work and get tired. Instead, what you see in the gym is a lot of swinging, impulse, and sloppy lifting with weights being moved by any part of the body other than the one they actually want to work.
Use a load progression
Remember: load progression can only be used when you are already performing the necessary exercises perfectly correctly + you feel the working muscle, every repetition, contraction, every approach.
That is, the progression is used only after stage No. 1.
In stage #1 = where you are preparing for muscle growth (stage #2) = no progression is used.
As I already said, if you don’t know how to perform the exercises correctly, technically, as it should, you will only harm yourself, the chances of injury are high, so you can’t do this.
Progression is used already at stage No. 2. All. Dot.
Stage No. 2 is muscle growth (in this case, the gluteal muscles) = and without progression of the load, there can be no talk of muscle growth (in this case, the gluteal muscles), because progression from the word means progress. There is no progress - you understand - there is no growth of the buttocks.
Read everything from A to Z about load progression in the main article: “Load progression.”
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Meanwhile, to pump up your biceps, you need to maintain constant tension in the muscles, this means that you should never give the muscles the opportunity to rest. The bar must be constantly in motion, without stopping at the top or bottom point.
Focus on squeezing the bar and don't let your biceps relax until the set is over. Your muscles will cry, but you will be relentless.
Reason No. 6 - Insufficient clearance
Ignoring restorative techniques can cost you and reduce your results. The easiest way is to add a few stretching exercises after the workout.
For example, add stretching while standing or sitting.
Biceps workout
Below is an example of a 4-week program with an emphasis on hand development. The goal of our biceps workout is to keep oxygen out of the muscles, thereby causing a surge of anabolic hormones that promote muscle growth. For training, choose a slower pace: 3-0-3 or 4-0-4.
Notice the simple structure of the training program. This training is great for those who lift heavy weights. The total volume is probably low for someone who is used to a traditional split program and has extensive bodybuilding experience.
The program is based on the principle of priority for the first workout. Note that your priority muscles are worked at the beginning of this biceps workout and at the beginning of the week. This doesn't happen by accident. We intentionally give our arms the opportunity to train when they are at their “hottest” times—at the beginning of the week and at the start of training.
Train the muscle frequently (at least 2-3 times a week)
I recommend training your buttocks = at least 2 times a week (for example, Mon and Fri).
For the intermediate and advanced stages, it is possible 3 times a week (Mon, Wed, Fri or Tue, Thu, Sat).
Why is this so? The fact is that the acceleration of protein synthesis and the release of various anabolic factors (testosterone, growth hormone, etc.) are very closely tied to strength training.
Protein synthesis accelerates in the muscle (working muscle) within two days.
Accordingly, this is the most effective time for buttock growth.
Accordingly, 2, the more often you load a muscle = the faster protein synthesis will be in this muscle. Accordingly, 3, this will allow you to ensure effective growth of the desired muscle (butt).
All this is confirmed information according to the experiments carried out in 2020.
But! Unfortunately, there is no exact data (experiments) that two or three workouts per muscle group per week are better for maximum effective muscle growth.
However, there is accurate data (experiments) confirming that 2 workouts per week for the same muscle group work much better than 1 (as for many people).
CONCLUSION: train the same muscle group (in this case, buttocks) = need, min, 2 times/week.
Workout A
Bent-over dumbbell row
- 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps
- Body part: Middle back Equipment: Dumbbells
Pull-ups
- 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps
- Body Part: Lat Equipment: Bodyweight
Wide grip barbell curls
- 3 sets of 6-8 reps
- Body part: Biceps Equipment: Barbell
Shrugs with a barbell
- 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps
- Body part: Trapeze Equipment: Barbell
Deadlift with a barbell on straight legs
- 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps
- Body part: Hamstrings Equipment: Barbell
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Focus on increasing your overall strength in the second pull workout, when your biceps are not yet fatigued. Pay attention to the movement at a slow speed. Many anabolic hormones are released when muscles are under constant tension. The pace is set in such a way that you will be forced to work more slowly and with more effort.
Workout B
Bench press on an incline bench
- 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps
- Body part: Chest Equipment: Barbell
Standing Dumbbell Overhead Press
- 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps
- Body part: Shoulders Equipment: Dumbbells
Close grip bench press
- 3 sets of 6-8 reps
- Body part: Triceps Equipment: Barbell
Seated lateral raises with dumbbells
- 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps
- Body part: Shoulders Equipment: Dumbbells
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On a pull day, 4-0-2 means: 4 seconds to release the weight, 0 second pause at the bottom, and 2 seconds to pull the weight. On a bench day, 4-0-2 means 4 seconds to lower the weight, 0 seconds pause at the bottom, and 2 seconds to press.
Fuad Abid
- How do your hands grow?
I can’t say that my hands are my strength. I started training with my arms at 32 cm.
— What mistakes did you make at the very beginning of hand training?
I didn't bother to understand the anatomy of the biceps and triceps bands, so I didn't know how the different exercises worked. As a result, I did a lot of stupid work, loaded the same bunch with exercises, and left others without any work at all.
— What helped you make a breakthrough?
Self-education. I started reading the literature and asking questions. As a result, I stopped training biceps and triceps together with large muscle groups. I dedicated an entire training day to my arms and it immediately increased the intensity of the training. Previously, I loaded the biceps after the back and it was a clear hack. I mechanically finished off set after set without feeling my biceps. Well, now I’ve figured out exactly how to bomb different beams and I feel not only the work of the muscle itself, but even the work of a separate beam.
In addition, I discovered that my hands grow well from negativity. So now I perform the last third set of any exercise with an emphasis on the negative phase. In fact, I always do three sets per exercise for biceps and triceps. But this does not mean that I train monotonously. I discovered that you need to train your arms cyclically. I load my arms for two weeks, doing 8-10 reps per set, and then reduce the working weights and do sets of 10-12 reps for two weeks. Then I return to the beginning of the cycle. In any case, hands need variety. Some people change the exercises, but personally this method does not suit me. When I do the same exercise for a long time, I concentrate on it better and better.
— How do you pump your triceps?
I am convinced that it is not the exercises themselves that work, but the right combination of them. You do the first exercise and it should sharpen the impact of the second even more. Not every combination of exercises works this way. I start bombing my triceps with French presses until failure, and then immediately do narrow bench presses. I start with 80 kg for 12-15 repetitions, then increase the weight and do 6-8 repetitions. Then comes the downward press with a cable handle and one-arm overhead extension with a dumbbell.
— How do you pump your biceps?
The most important thing here is to do lifts only with a straight bar. A curved bar is absolutely not suitable because it does not provide load to the most massive internal beam. You need to equally fanatically “inflate” the muscle that lies under the biceps. Personally, I do hammer and standing raises with a reverse grip until I completely pass out.
Workout C
Close-grip barbell curls
- 3-4 sets of 4-8 reps
- Body part: Biceps Equipment: Barbell
Reverse grip pull-ups
- 3-4 sets of 4-8 reps
- Body Part: Lat Equipment: Bodyweight
Bent-over barbell row
- 3-4 sets of 4-8 reps
- Body Part: Press Equipment: Barbell
Shrugs with a barbell while sitting
- 3-4 sets of 4-8 reps
- Body part: Trapeze Equipment: Barbell
Deadlift on a block
- 3-4 sets of 4-8 reps
- Body Part: Quadriceps Equipment: Block
Single leg barbell squats
- 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps
- Body part: Quadriceps Equipment: Barbell
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Focus on increasing the weight for each exercise over the next four weeks while maintaining your rep range and number of sets. There is no need to increase their number; concentrate on increasing the weight without changing the pace and other training conditions.
Workout D
Dips
- 3-4 sets of 4-8 reps
- Body part: Triceps Equipment: Body weight
Incline Dumbbell Press
- 3-4 sets of 4-8 reps
- Body part: Chest Equipment: Dumbbells
Seated barbell press
- 3-4 sets of 4-8 reps
- Body part: Shoulders Equipment: Barbell
Barbell calf raise
- 3-4 sets of 4-8 reps
- Body part: Calves Equipment: Barbell
Squats
- 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps
- Body part: Quadriceps Equipment: Barbell
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Aim to gain an additional 2.5kg in weight over the next 5 weeks, this should add at least 2cm to your arm size. Stick with this workout program for another 5 weeks and you'll have a couple more inches added to your biceps for a total of about 10 weeks.
However, if you always do explosive training for your biceps, they will become tired while training your back muscles, and such efforts will not bring results. This is another reason to use lighter weights in your biceps exercises.
Try this or other barbell training programs and create an ideal and proportional body.
At one time, the famous Edith Piaf said that if a man has beautiful hands, then he cannot be ugly inside. A man's hands cannot lie. To look impressive in any clothes and catch women's glances, it is enough to devote time to proper training and exercises.
Taking sports supplements will help you increase your strength - Whey protein, Creatine, Bca, Arginine and Testobooster. This sports nutrition is specially designed to improve bodybuilding results. Just add it to your diet and go ahead to conquer new heights:
| Whey Protein | The most popular supplement for muscle growth, the source of this protein is whey. |
| Creatine | Allows you to increase your strength and ensure the flow of creatine phosphate to the muscles. |
| BCAAs | Allows muscle fibers to recover faster and also provides building material for the growth of lean muscle mass |
| Arginine | By flushing lactate out of muscle fiber, it improves performance during training. Acts as a nitrogen donor before muscle growth. |
| Dough booster | Increases the production of your own testosterone, which is necessary for the growth and development of muscle muscles, as well as increasing strength indicators. |
Create a calorie surplus (proper nutrition for muscle growth)
Nutrition accounts for about 60% of success in muscle growth (including butts).
That’s why we need to organize the diet as efficiently as possible: products (B+F+U+V), their quantity, proper use, distribution and much more...
NUTRITION is the most important aspect of muscle growth, thanks to nutrition we get THREE things:
- MATERIAL for muscle building (protein, proteins)
- ENERGY for work and construction (carbohydrates)
- MATERIAL for the construction of hormones (fats)
- WATER (life without water is impossible, just like muscle growth).
Each of the components is vital for any person to function fully, and each of the components is essential for success in muscle growth (including buttocks).
If there is a deficiency (lack) of at least one component = you can forget about muscle growth.
Well, now, we will briefly discuss each of the components in order.
