You will never enjoy huge biceps if you do not follow the 10 rules below.

You might have dreamed of huge biceps even when you were as big as Tom Thumb. The biceps are a main muscle group. People who know nothing about bodybuilding will start barbell bending for biceps if you tell them to start growing muscles. There are some lucky men and women who rather effortlessly manage to build up big and well-shaped biceps. You can tell that almost any heavy exercise for biceps they do leads to enlarging their muscle size. Well, I am not as happy and it is highly probable you are not either since you are reading this article.

Personally I don’t take advice from people whose muscles grow easily no matter what efforts they have made for that. I believe it is just as useless as asking Shaquille O’Neil how I can grow more than 2 meters tall. I prefer to focus on people who have had to really work hard and learn every single trick from books to achieve hypertrophy in such a stubborn muscle group. They must know what is useful and what not after so many practical training.
Guess what? I am one who has had to become expert in training for biceps because mine were falling behind in comparison to the rest of my body since my first day in the gym, and were a great challenge for years after. However, for the past twenty years I have definitely learned which specific things are to be done or not to be done and it is advisable for the average bodybuilder to take this advice if they want to have good biceps. If you have been tempted to save yourselves the trouble of years of workouts and pain, read the following 10 rules for growing huge muscles.
1. Use weight that your biceps can easily handle
A little logical thinking should make it clear that if your biceps are not loaded, they will not get the incentive needed for growth and will not become bigger. Yet logic often evaporates in the face of the silly ego in the macho atmosphere of the gym. It’s a common sight – young men trying to push out a barbell weighing 20 or even 40 kilos or dumbbells of 30 to 45 kilos. They make such great efforts that they bend their backs and try to help themselves with their thighs. Throwing weights and screaming might be making them feel like King Kongs but I have always insisted that the proof is in the arms. How many of these people have biceps that are in proportion to the weights they are using? Judging by those I have watched in the gyms, the answer does not exceed 5 percent.
This training style is ineffective mainly because of the fact that it does not give the muscle of the biceps enough time under tension. The repetitions are performed too quickly and the stress is set mainly on the joints, the connective tissue, the front deltoid and the lower back, while the biceps get only a small part of it. There is time and place for cheating but this comes at the end of the series when you have lost your fitness but nevertheless wish to prolong the series. Cheating all the time – like many other people – you rob your muscles of their chances to grow because you do not load them enough. It might seem ironic to you that you can work out more effectively with a smaller weight – but it is true. It does not matter what weight you are using so long as it stimulates growth, and bad shape cannot meet that important requirement.

2. Contract the muscle so that you “squeeze” it at the end of each repetition
It is not enough simply to use good form in bending for biceps, showing the correct body mechanisms like holding the elbows near the torso and controlling the speed at which you do the repetitions. To draw maximum stimulation for your biceps in barbell bending, you should also make conscious efforts to contract your muscles at the end of each repetition at least for a second. It means the bar, the dumbbell, the lever of the machine or whatever you are working out with, stops moving at that moment because you deliberately “squeeze” the muscle. You might see some professional bodybuilders, like Ronnie Coleman for example, using the method of prolonged pumping and never applying the principle of contraction at the end of the repetition.  Do not let be deluded by the thought it will produce results with you as well. “Squeezing” the muscle is a basic element both in prolonging the time spent under pressure, and increasing the intensity. It also improves the “thought-muscle” connection. Some call it working potential of the nerve, which allows you to “switch on” as many muscle fibers in the biceps as you can.

3. Do not work your biceps after your back
Since the 60s the training scheme “back and biceps” has been very popular among the bodybuilders. The idea behind this combination is that since the biceps take part in almost all exercises for back like dead lift, pullups, rowing, it is quite logical to work them on the same day. However, I find it a big mistake. The workouts for back are exhausting – second in difficulty, effort and volume only after the workouts for legs. This is because the back is a complex muscle structure that can be loaded at many different angles. For advanced bodybuilders it is not uncommon to do two or more kinds of rowing, two or more kinds of pullups or standing cable rows and bending the shoulders and all this in one training session.  This is a lot of work. And after all this would you want to load your biceps? “They are already warmed up” you tell yourself, “so it is not necessary to work for them so hard.”
Warmed up? Why not try fully exhausted? You will not have to work for them so hard? No, you will not be able to work so hard because they are already fit for nothing. If you cannot work a certain muscle with the intensity and load it needs, it will never have the opportunity to grow.  So if you work the biceps after the back, your efforts are doomed to failure. In fact you’d do wiser not to work for biceps the day before and the day after your training for back. Otherwise you limit the recovery period of your biceps. Try to have a good rest of 48 to 72 hours between the training for back and biceps.

4. Limit the volume of your training
It is true that professional bodybuilders like Lee Priest work out for biceps in great volume - 20 to 25 series per training. You might be like him and your body might react well under such a great training volume, but if you have followed this way for a certain period of time without results, it is possible that you have overloaded your biceps with great volume training, which doesn’t give them enough opportunity for recovery before the next training session. It has been accepted as a rule that you must cut the number of series for this relatively small and simple muscle group to 9 to 12. This means three series of three or four movements in three series each. But the fact remains that all exercises for biceps are some variation of barbell bending. How many different kinds of bending do you think you must perform? Do not waist time and energy. Load your biceps fast and well. You should be able to do a full workout for biceps within 20 to 30 minutes, as you need to have short rests between muscle groups like the back and the legs.

5. Give up straight bar bending if it doesn’t work for you
I have never felt I have loaded my biceps well when I do the bending with a straight bar. This just doesn’t seem to work for me. Yet, for many years I persisted in doing it because all the others loved it and praised it as the best exercise for growing muscle mass. But this exercise destroyed my wrists and I wasn’t able to use big enough weights.
Michael Gundil, who writes for IRON MAN, described something called “vulgus”, which had to do with how straight your forearms look into the mirror when hanging beside your body, palms turned to the front. If they fall vertically, straight bar bending is suitable for you. The further to the front of your body your forearms are, the wiser it is to work out with dumbbells, curved barbells and cable handles. 
Having read that I dashed to the mirror and, as I had suspected, my vulgus was clearly seen. If the situation is the same with you, do not do straight bar bending. If it wricks your wrists, because your hands by nature cannot rotate as much, you will not be able to use as great weights as your biceps need to feel they are loaded. Besides, the amplitude of movement will be limited and you will get small results. It might seem to you that the people with the biggest arms do the Olympic bending for biceps with a straight bar or its shorter version but the rest of the training bodybuilders assure us that straight barbell bending can even hamper the growth of your biceps.

You will never enjoy huge Biceps if - part II