What exercises are BEST for biceps growth?

Stick to stable exercises with lots of ROM, that are limited by the target muscle group and that you can load properly. For biceps, this includes Bayesian, Incline, standing curls and occasionally machine curls . You should probably avoid cheat curls, “21s” and compound exercises that aren’t limited by biceps strength if your goal is biceps growth. Read on to find out why.

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Bayesian Curls/Incline Curls

(If you’re wondering WTF a Bayesian Curl is. You can do more shoulder flexion than the video shows, though.)

Bayesian and Incline Curls are both great options for several reasons. Firstly, they allow the biceps to work through a nearly full/full ROM for elbow flexion and through some shoulder flexion ROM, which is another function of the long head of your biceps. Moreover, because the long head inserts at both the elbow and the shoulder, the position at the bottom of an incline curl or Bayesian curl places more of a stretch on the long head, which is growth-inducing. These curl variations also are stable enough, limited by those muscles’ ability to produce force and can be loaded adequately quite easily.

To do a Bayesian curl, set up the cable all the way at the bottom of the station. Grab a single hand handle, turn away from the cable station and pick up the handle. Take a step or two away from the station. Your body should be to the left of the cable station if curling with your right arm and vice versa, such that your arm is in line with the cable station. Start with your elbow as straight as is comfortable, and curl until your elbow is as flexed as possible. Play around with shoulder flexion (i.e. moving your upper arm forwards & upwards as you curl) to see what gives you the best Mind Muscle Connection. You can also do these bilaterally.

For Incline Curls, you usually want to set up the bench at 45 degrees, so that the dumbbells don’t hit the floor when you get a full stretch. Pick up the dumbbells, sit down (alternatively use the reverse order), and curl away. The same technique points apply as for Bayesian Curls.

Interestingly, besides just cutting ROM at the bottom and top, I haven’t seen too many egregious technique mistakes on these – though, to be honest, they aren’t the most complicated exercises.

BB Curls/Standing DB Curl/Cable Curl Variations

Close behind bayesian/incline curls come standing curl variations – whether barbell, dumbbell or cable. There’s a few reasons why these aren’t quite as good as the above, but are still reasonably good options. First, for barbell and cable curls – and, to a lesser degree, for dumbbell curls – one issue is that you won’t achieve as good of a stretch on the long head of the biceps, since, at most, your shoulder extension will be limited to your arms hanging by your sides. Moreover, for cable and barbell curls, the more muscular your quads become, the more pronounced this becomes for both elbow flexion/extension and shoulder flexion/extension ROM. Secondly, because you are performing these variations while standing, there will inevitably be more systemic fatigue (and local fatigue for your core stabilisers etc.) produced than there would be for an incline curl.

Perhaps the best overall dumbbell curl variation for both incline curls and standing dumbbell curls (for biceps growth) is the supinating dumbbell curl. Because your biceps have 3 functions (shoulder flexion, elbow flexion and wrist supination), including supination in a curl variation can work certain areas of the biceps more than other exercises and can also further ensure that the biceps will reach failure before any other muscle group.

What about machines?

In my experience, biceps machines are really hit or miss. Some machines are great, while others either do not allow you to get a full ROM, don’t give you a good MMC, or a combination of the two. If you have access to biceps machines (lucky you!) give them a shot and see if they’re worth your time.

What exercises are no good?

Anything where you use something that isn’t an elbow flexor or shoulder flexor to lift the weight

While there are a few reasons that could make using cheat technique beneficial on certain exercises, I don’t think the reasoning applies to curls. The most compelling reason I can think of is that, for some exercises, cheating during the point/range of the resistance curve that’s the most disparate from your strength curve can allow for a greater stimulus. For instance, in a row, if you cheat the last few inches - which are by far the hardest, which stems from a gap between the resistance curve and strength curve - you could get a lot more reps. This could ostensibly be beneficial by allowing more of your back’s fibers to reach closer to failure and get more stimulus instead of just the ones that are most recruited during the last few inches of the row.

However, there’s a few reasons why I don’t buy into this. First, for curls specifically (at least free weight ones), the resistance curve corresponds to your strength curve pretty closely. More generally, though, there are a lot of other issues with cheating: difficulty tracking progression, large increase in how fatiguing the exercise is, an increased injury risk, etc.

To summarize, if your curl looks like an underhand grip power clean, drop some weight and make the biceps lift the weight.

“21s”

I’m not sure where the idea of doing 21s originated. For those not familiar with this term, 21s is when you do 7 curls of only the bottom half of the full ROM, then 7 curls with only the top half, and finish the set by doing 7 full ROM curls.

I don’t really understand the rationale for this. Research has shown reasonably consistently that full ROM leads to more muscle growth on a whole muscle level. If your goal was to specifically target a region of the biceps, I could MAYBE see value in doing partials.

(Side note: The issue with this would be that you would be guessing about which part of the ROM truly targets which part of the biceps. The closest thing we have as evidence to guide that would be the following: EMG studies, longitudinal studies that measured regional hypertrophy, or plain old biomechanical predictions. Neither of these are particularly good bets, in my opinion. I also don’t think that mind-muscle connection is granular enough to determine regional activation, nor do I think that it would necessarily correlate super well with growth.)

But with 21s, you don’t really get any of that, either. I just really don’t see the point in them. If you have any ideas, I’d be happy to hear them.

A compound exercise that isn’t limited by the biceps

Every now and again, someone will ask me about doing chin-ups or pulldowns for the biceps specifically. While I can see where they’re coming from – chin-ups and pulldowns do take your biceps through a full elbow flexion ROM if done properly – they are rarely limited by the biceps’ ability to flex the elbow. Instead, chin-ups and pulldowns are usually limited by your lats’ ability to extend your shoulder. Thus, I usually don’t recommend those exercises for biceps growth specifically, though they can grow your biceps if you’re short on time – just not as well as an exercise that is limited by the biceps. That being said, if you do feel like biceps limit your performance on an exercise, and it fulfils the other criteria for a good exercise, feel free to do it.

That wraps up the biceps. More muscle group exercise selection articles on the way!

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