Do you want Bigger Biceps?

Are your biceps big?! Maybe they are maybe they aren’t. Are they well proportioned with the rest of your body maybe they are not. The question is, do you really know how to workout your biceps or you are just casual about it.

If you are really serious, having fitness goals and among them is improving your biceps strength as well as look, you should consider having a deeper look into that muscle ,understanding its anatomy and how to efficiently working it out to get results you want.

In this blog I will briefly describe biceps anatomy and how to work out your biceps. I will make it as simple as possible.

Two Heads!?

Bicep is a complex muscle, understanding it, will help you understand what you are doing and not just picking up a bar a curl it away...

The bicep has two heads a long and a short one. Different exercises can target those two heads. Not being casual and picking up wisely your exercises to target them will make a difference to your workout routine.

Have you heard of the brachialis?

Not many are aware that working out Brachialis muscle will really improve your biceps aesthetic, strength. It is also called elbow flexor. The brachialis is located under the biceps two heads. So you can imagine that if you have that muscle worked out properly, your biceps will be even bigger and stronger. Neglecting it, will result in that look of something is missing.

So How to target those muscles?!!

Let’s start with the one which is usually overlooked The brachialis.

The following exercises target it :

Cross-body hammer curls 

Dumbbell  hammer curl 

Reverse-grip barbell or EZ bar curls 

Hammer curls with a rope on a low pulley 








Those exercises are perfect to target your brachialis muscle, number of sets and repetitions will depend on your fitness level and workout routine.


Now let's get back to our biceps's two heads. Below I will clarify which exercise works which head of your biceps. Where you are holding the bar plays a role in targeting a specific head of your biceps. For instance if you are doing a normal barbell curl with a wide grip, you are targeting the short head. If you switch it to a narrow grip the focus shift to the long head of your biceps. 
The placement of your elbow plays a role in targeting a specific spot of your biceps.  To target the long head, your elbows should be positioned further back, and to hit the short head, the elbows should be positioned closer to the front.


Incline dumbbell curls



As mentioned above when your elbow is placed behind, you're targeting the long head of your biceps. The exercise above is a good example. You can perform it on incline bench "45 degree" with a dumbbell in each hand. Sit back, lower your arms keeping your palms facing inwards and slowly curl the dumbbells up into the air. Rotate your wrists as you do so and squeeze at the top of the movement. If you prefer, you can perform unilateral curls or one arm at a time.


Preacher curls







Preacher curls are great exercise to hit the short head of your biceps. This exercise can be perform with dumbbell, barbell or cables. You can take a sit on a preacher curl bench, pick for instance a barbell or EZ bar with your elbows firmly on the bench and your arms fully extended, then slowly curl the bar upwards and bring it up towards your lower jaw. You should Squeeze and hold at the top of the exercise for a second or two, slowly lower the weight back down to the starting position. The weight, sets and reps will depend on your fitness level and goals. 

Now you have it and get it. The position of the elbow as well as the grip width play a major role in switching tension from one head of your biceps to the other. I did put more exercises for the Brachialis muscle because it's usually overlook, which compromises your goals. You can do more research on more exercises that target specific head of your biceps as well as The brachialis.