If the triceps determine the aesthetic strength of the arms, the biceps are the foundation on which to amplify the beauty and strength of the arms.
Schwarzenegger once said, "My interest used to be in how to maintain perfect body proportions, and once, at the age of 15, i stripped naked and stood in front of a mirror looking at myself naked in the mirror, and i realised that to achieve perfect body proportions, i would have to have a pair of 20-inch thick arms to match the rest of my body!" (20 inches is also 50.8cm of arm circumference)
When we look at the arms from the side, the high peaks of the muscles make the side lines more striking, but the peaks of the biceps are always a weakness for many people. How can we better target the width and height of the biceps (short and long head)?
Let's look at a deconstructed diagram of the biceps, as follows: You can clearly see that the two muscles are in the same position, except that the muscle bundles start and end at different points, both ending in one position, so that the two muscles help each other out but at the same time constrain each other.
If you want to work on the height of the biceps, which is the peak of the muscle, then that means you need to focus on the long head of the biceps, and conversely if you want to work on the width of the biceps, then you need to focus on the short head.
If you want to work on the width of the biceps, you need to focus on the short head.
This requires us to use the difference in the starting point of the two muscle bundles to adjust the position of the big arm in order to strengthen the stimulation of one muscle bundle relative to the other!
I. Training for the long head of the biceps
Let's look at the movements applied to the actual training.
Focusing on the long head (crest) of our biceps first of all, let's be clear, if you want to maximise the stimulation of your muscles, you need to train them in a position of maximum physiological stretch, as is the case with all muscles, and to get the long head of the biceps in a position of maximum physiological contraction is to move the big arm towards the back of the body, you can try it when you straighten your arm backwards, is the biceps is pulled to its maximum length? It is in the maximum contracted position, especially with the arm at the back of the body.
When you train in this way we have the following common movements: Supine dumbbell curl, rope standing single arm curl and barbell elbow curl, let's look at them in turn.
1. Supine dumbbell curl
The large arms are on the back side of the body, and the curl is the long head of the biceps that can be pulled to its longest length, the best position to stimulate the long head, but of course for this type of movement, we have to focus on the centrifugal contraction part, which is the part of the arm that is lowered.
2. Rope standing single arm curl
With your upper arm fixed and perpendicular to the ground, reach back behind your body with your lower arm and slowly bend the handle until your forearm touches your biceps, remembering to keep your upper arm fixed and only move your lower arm.
3. Barbell drag curl
The same thing applies, with the big arm at the back of the body, extend your big arm back as you bend, i have explained this move in detail.
Ii. Training for the short head of the biceps
As we have said before, the two muscle bundles of the biceps help each other while at the same time constraining each other, so that when the long head is not in a good position, the short head is also the most effective time to stimulate.
It just so happens that this position is the large arm anterior extension, which means that the arm is kept as far forward of the body as possible for the short head, looking at the movements.
1. Dumbbell arm curl
If you want to stimulate the short head better, you can bend and externally rotate the lower arm at the same time, which will better increase the stimulation of the short head, see the picture below, which is also an external rotation of the lower arm.
2. Spider bends
The spider curl is also a great way to stimulate the short head of the biceps, and can be performed with dumbbells or barbells, so trying multiple machines will give you a different training experience.
The above movements exercise the long head when you can focus more on some centrifugal devolution phase of the feeling, the short head is the feeling of centripetal contraction curls, join the peak contraction 1-2s, of course both apply is the best, in addition to training when the brain always think of focusing on stimulating touch a part, always think of that part, to establish a good neural connection is also an effective way to improve training efficiency.
The last thing i would like to say about the training arrangements for the biceps is that once we understand their characteristics and the corresponding stimulation angles, we have to arrange the training in a targeted way, following a few principles.
For example, if you want to improve the long head of the biceps, you should first arrange the elbow curl, and arrange the compound movements in the first place.
The biceps are placed in the follow-up exercises of the larger muscle groups, such as your back training today, the two are complementary, after the back training, to a few groups of training for the biceps, so as to save time at the same time, but also to maximize the stimulation of the biceps.
