How to Get Big Biceps w/out Steroids

[arthunter888]

Is there a certain schedule or routine that you use for strength training (for example: eat this x hours before training, do this while training, eat this x hours after training)?

I eat a small pasta with meatball plate an hour before lifting. Then I find the maximum weight I can curl comfortably, do as many bicep curls as I can, wait a couple minutes, do as many as I can again, etc. (I exhale on the lift/exertion, and inhale on the descent/relaxation). Then I'll go into a sauna for like 40 minutes (just for cleansing), then I get home like an hour after lifting and I eat protein like meat or chicken.

What are your recommended routines?

Also, is there any benefit to lifting again later in the day again when you have restored your energy, or are the muscle fibers too worn already and not worth it?

 

[Scire]

Shower curlz

 

[p-mo]

The biceps are a tiny muscle group- I've only just started targeting them directly as they get plenty of work from all the other exercises in my regieme (rows, cleans, pullups, etc).

The trick to making your biceps look bigger is to ensure that you work your triceps plenty. Big triceps cause the biceps to bulge on top of the tricep.

Really you want to be doing a routine that works all your muscles- doing leg work helps your body release more natural anabolics and will cause your muscles to grow more.

To gain mass (increase the size of your muscles) you need to eat more calories than you expend. That means eating big all day every day. Generally I have a shake before the gym (although your pasta meal will be fine as long as it includes some protein) a shake immediatly after (with some simple carbs) and a big meal an hour afterwards. Ensure you get plenty of protein throughout the day.

In terms of how much you should lift it would depend on how much your eating. I would seriously recomend not doing biceps more than once a week and not lift more than 3-4 times a week until you know what your doing and cat eat as much as is necessary to gain weight. Lots of time in the gym requires lots of extra calories.

 

[arthunter888]

The biceps are a tiny muscle group- I've only just started targeting them directly as they get plenty of work from all the other exercises in my regieme (rows, cleans, pullups, etc).

The trick to making your biceps look bigger is to ensure that you work your triceps plenty. Big triceps cause the biceps to bulge on top of the tricep.

Really you want to be doing a routine that works all your muscles- doing leg work helps your body release more natural anabolics and will cause your muscles to grow more.

To gain mass (increase the size of your muscles) you need to eat more calories than you expend. That means eating big all day every day. Generally I have a shake before the gym (although your pasta meal will be fine as long as it includes some protein) a shake immediatly after (with some simple carbs) and a big meal an hour afterwards. Ensure you get plenty of protein throughout the day.

In terms of how much you should lift it would depend on how much your eating. I would seriously recomend not doing biceps more than once a week and not lift more than 3-4 times a week until you know what your doing and cat eat as much as is necessary to gain weight. Lots of time in the gym requires lots of extra calories.

Great response, very specific the way I like info fed to me:D. My diet is like 80% either chicken or meat (big plates too) every day, and a peanut butter sandwich every morning, so I guess that's adequate protein for my purpose.

Why is it not good to do bicepts more than once a week?

Is there any benefit to doing two bicep sessions in the same day (spaced by 3-4 hours or more)?

Also, bench pressing seems to work the chest more than biceps, so I'm unsure about this, but what would you recommend for triceps?

 

[Scire]

Pull-ups hit the biceps nicely. I also hope you're diet isn't 80% meat. Unless you're trying to trigger ketosis you should be eating some form of carbohydrate, ideally whole grain, to fill your glycogen stores. You'll be lifting far less that you're capable of if you're glycogen stores are empty.

Muesli with milk in the morning is a pretty good way to get some carbs and milk contains every essential amino acid, eggs and peanut butter as good as well. Nuts are amazing.

You absolutely must get some vegetables in your diet, most of the carbs in vegetables are fibre, which you cannot digest, and they contain many known and unknown essential nutrients.

Biceps are shit, do not do bicep curls. Curls are an isolation exercise, you want to be doing compoud lifts, that work several muscles groups at once.

here:
http://stronglifts.com/stronglifts-5x5-beginner-strength-training-program/
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=110916661
http://www.liamrosen.com/fitness.html

 

[p-mo]

Great response, very specific the way I like info fed to me:D. My diet is like 80% either chicken or meat (big plates too) every day, and a peanut butter sandwich every morning, so I guess that's adequate protein for my purpose.

Why is it not good to do bicepts more than once a week?

Is there any benefit to doing two bicep sessions in the same day (spaced by 3-4 hours or more)?

Also, bench pressing seems to work the chest more than biceps, so I'm unsure about this, but what would you recommend for triceps?

Yeah protein is fine but make sure you're getting enough carbs.

Biceps are a small group. They need time to recover. A week allows enough time for rest and growth.

No there's no reason to hit one body part more than once a day.

Your correct bench pressing doesn't work the biceps at all- it works the chest and triceps. I'd recommend chinups and bent over rows for building biceps- but there's no point unless you put in some work on your triceps- your arms will just look odd.

 

[ranunky]

I think barbell curls are the best for bicep mass. Back to back sets of pronated and supinated curls get a good burn going. Don't forget about the brachialis, it is a stronger elbow flexor than the biceps. Any pulling action where you see the back of your hand uses mainly bracvhialis, palms towards you is mainly biceps. Hit all 3 muscle groups and your arms will pop.

 

[arthunter888]

What would be a good exercise that works both biceps and triceps?

Keep in mind I'm limited to a couple dumbbells for equipment.

 

[Scire]

Triceps and biceps are sort of like a pair; they work on opposite movements. I'm sure there is an actual term for it and a better way to explain it, but you can't really work them both simultaneously.

 

[p-mo]

triceps push out from your body and biceps push towards your body- you cant really work them simultaniously in a single move. And you'll never get "big biceps" with home dumbells. At least get yourself a pull up bar.

 

[failism]

first off, p-mo and scire have given you great advice. More information is needed for specific tips, however. How long have you been lifting for, what is your age, do you get 8 hours of sleep a night, etc. A lot of progress stems from eating and sleeping right.

the basics (which have been covered)

Work compound exercises before isolation exercises - pullups and rows before curls. Prefatigue is a good thing! Not having equipment to do these exercises is a poor excuse, improvise if necessary.

Calorie excess - Every day you should be eating more calories than you are expending. If you're a YAM (young adult male) with a half-way decent metabolism, try for 3000kcal per day to start. Protein is important but carbs and some fats are necessary too. If you can afford fish, awesome, if not, fish oil pills are cheap. Creatine, whey, and fish oil are probably the top 3 bang-for-your-buck supplements. Fish oil reduces inflammation everywhere in your body and is also amazing for brain health.

If you've been training for a while and you've hit a plateau, try doing different set/rep schemas. If you've been doing 4x10 or 3x12 for forever, try mixing it up, you may gain unexpected size. Periodization is useful, and so is taking a week off if you've been at it a while with no results.

Tricep exercises you can do with dumbbells... skullcrushers, single-arm extensions, kickbacks, I dunno. I like military presses myself, even though the triceps are secondary in that exercise. If you don't have a bench, you could try doing pushups with a narrow arm position (palms underneath shoulders instead of wide out). Definitely work out your triceps, your biceps will look stupid if they're the only big part of your body. Also, p-mo made a good point with the leg work. Deadlifts and squats incur the greatest release of HGH since they are the most CNS-intensive, so don't neglect them.

Part of having big arms is genetics. If you have long tendons then you're partially fucked from the get go. If you have short tendons, congrats, your main enemy will be attaining low body fat, which isn't actually that hard. Personally, I use a descending pyramid scheme like you are talking about most of the time. I hate my school gym and only have dumbbells at home so I'll do pullups to start and then hit sets to failure with 40s, then 25s, then 15s-- yes I'm weak. One thing I'm starting since I've been fed up with my small arms (comparative to my torso) is an emphasis on volume. If nothing else works, try hitting your arms with an insane amount of volume for a day or two before allowing complete rest. It is very very important to recover properly both with complete diet and rest though.

 

[p-mo]

+1 on the skullcrushers, single-arm extensions and kickbacks suggestions for working the tris. These exercises don't require a great deal of weight to give a pretty good workout.

 

[KStoner6tb]

Part of having big arms is genetics. If you have long tendons then you're partially fucked from the get go.

I have long tendons. My dad always had a little baseball under his skin even if he didn't work out for years(he had shorter arms kinda like the 2nd example you gave)


All advice given is pretty solid. Just to add a little something(hope it hasn't been said) use the preacher bench to help eliminate cheating. You don't want to be swinging the weight up using your shoulders for the most part. If I don't have someone to spot me, I'll cheat on the last few sans preacher.

When you're doing your work on the preacher bench, focus on squeezing/contracting your bicep as you come up, moving very slow and deliberate. Lower the weight to where you're elbow is almost locked out, but stop just before. I belive the "mind/muscle" relationship with biceps is very important.

I work out biceps one day a week, about 2 normal exercises(3 sets of 10) and one burnout exercise.



edit: ah shit. I just remembered you're using a couple dumbbells at home. So axe the preacher part, and just remember to concentrate on the movement. Don't come all the way up, and don't go all the way down. Both would be letting your bicep rest and we don't want that.

 

[double ewe]

+1 on pretty much everything.

definitely try to go down the rack/to failure (rep to failure, drop weight, rep to failure, repeat). i also really like 21's . . using a barbell, do 7 half-curls legs to waist, 7 half-curls waist to chest, then 7 full curls without rest.

 

[Amebix]

Id have to disagree with the "train a muscle group only once a week" thing. Im actually right now doing 8 sets of pull ups a day 4 days a week, along with front and back lever training 3 days a week, so basically im working my back and arms 7 days a week and seeing excellent gains (in strength). Its all about modulating intensity and frequency. If your doing 7 different bicep exercises totalling 27 sets then yeah maybe once a week will be sufficient, but I really think you can get better gains doing less exercises more frequently, like 3-4x10-12 mon/wed/fri. Chin ups and curls should be enough for a beginner.

And you can actually work biceps and triceps at the same time, damn hard too. They dont just push and pull, but stabilize the elbow when your doing static efforts like ring supports, planche progressions or holding dumbells out at your sides for time.

 

[p-mo]

For strength- yes. For size- you need rest time. Holding dumbells out at your sides only really works your delts and serratus, no?

 

[Amebix]

For strength- yes. For size- you need rest time. Holding dumbells out at your sides only really works your delts and serratus, no?

Your right, I wouldnt recommend training everyday for someone trying to gain muscle, but I think three times a week is more adaquate for a beginner look for strength or size. One of the definining characteristics of a novice is that they can adapt to a hard training stimulis within 48 to 72 hours, which is something that once a week training doesnt take advantage of. For example, have you heard of the starting strength program? Heavy squats 3 times a week along with heavy pressing, deadlifting and cleaning 1/2 times a week and the people on it can see huge muscle gains.

Holding dumbells at your sides works mainly your shoulders, lats, traps, triceps, biceps and forearms if I remember correctly. Its been awhile since I've done them.

 

[failism]

And you can actually work biceps and triceps at the same time, damn hard too. They dont just push and pull, but stabilize the elbow when your doing static efforts like ring supports, planche progressions or holding dumbells out at your sides for time.

Isometric exercises are fantastic for specific applications but they won't make a muscle stronger throughout its ROM (love them myself). Certainly there is the rare exercise that can hit both sides of the arm within a single rep, such as the muscle-up, but these exercises aren't usually something a novice can just jump into, and the inherent difficulty typically means they aren't suited for size development... tis easier just to work on the groups separately I think.

 

[arthunter888]

Thanks for all the great advice, I did not expect to get replies of this number and helpfulness! But I should clarify a few points in case they are pertinent to narrow/focus recommendations..

1) My main goal is size rather than strength. The reason being that my torso (chest, ab-region, and shoulders) is quite built in an athletic muscular kind of way that it makes my arms look tiny. I guess it may have to do with genetics (Italian body-type) but it seems like my chest and shoulders-especially steal all the 'work' away from my arms whenever I exert my upper body resulting in a chest and shoulder 'bulge' (like a wrestler) that overshadows the biceps and arms. I think my chest/shoulders are more naturally muscular than biceps to begin with.

2) I forgot to mention some specifics about my diet & routine. Every weekday, I wake up and immediately eat a peanut butter (generous amount) and jelly sandwich on whole-grain bread. I take this with my daily dose of supplements: Omega-3 fish oil, Vitamin D3, and Multivitamin. Immediately afterward, since I work in a restaurant, I transport about 9 buckets of ice (~21 pounds each) throughout the restaurant and dump them into the bins that are stomach-high. Also, I clean, sweep, mop (pushing hard), use an old 'draggy' vacuum, and carry heavy dish bins into the kitchen, so I get a good workout (during/after these ice/cleaning I get a little workout (endorphin) rush and feel hot. After work, I just sit around aside from a once a week bicep workout followed by a sauna. I play tennis once a week in the summer, but not right now.

3) I have a big appetite so I eat hefty foods that make me feel 'full' like generous plates of pasta with meatballs, chicken sandwiches, burgers, etc, but not overly-greasy.

4) When I do curls, I try to pin my triceps (just above the elbow) to the T-shaped pad on a workout bench so that my shoulders don't over-assist my biceps in lifting the dumbbell. I am sitting with my back straight and arms-pinned^ and I lift slowly from the [just short of elbows straight] to [just short of my forearm pressing into the biceps] range with my palms facing eachother (dumbbells vertical), trying to keep my bicep 'tight' nearly the whole time. I don't count the reps, I just do as many as I can until failure, rest a few minutes, repeat until failure, rest, lift, etc etc until I cannot do more than 2-3 then I go to the sauna for a half hour. I am using 30lbs for each hand as of now. Then I eat big after all this.

If you have any thing to add based on this new info (sorry if a lot) please do. Meanwhile I will look into the recommendations. I appreciate all the input, as I am quite new to the 'science' (as it seems) of weight lifting.

 

[p-mo]

Try and get some tricep work that doesn't use your chest and shoulders to compensate. Skull crushers and kickbacks are a good place to start. Maybe try some different bicep moves. instead of doing all your curls on a bench (I'm guessing you mean like a preacher bench) do some seated curls. Do some chinups- palms facing you. That should push more emphasis onto the bicep rather than the chest or back. Try getting as much protein as possible into yourself. You should be aiming for at least 30g per meal.