Building The Ultimate Bicep
The secret to cultivating the pulsating peaks that are attached to your femurs* is a routine I like to call: Shock and Rest. The first stage of course is the unavoidable Shock portion. Let us take a look at a workout plan that will make your peep squeak arms a thing of the past.
“Bicep Madness” is a workout that I created that requires strict form and balls to the wall intensity.
Part I – The Warm Up = Blood Flow
Utilizing a cambered curl bar perform 4 slow sets of curls with 50% of your one rep max.
Maintain your rep count for each set at 16 for a minimum, preferably 21 reps per set.
Bring the bar to your nose and squeeze your bicep at the top of the positive. Lower the bar excruciatingly slow for a true burn on the negative side of the rep.
Allow yourself 15 seconds of rest between sets.
Remember to flex (squeeze) at the top of the movement, keep the pace steady, and you must emphasize the negative.
Rest a full 60 seconds after the fourth set and move on to Part II,
Part II – 21’s
The “21” is quickly becoming the forgotten movement. Like a long lost tribe in the Central American jungle the 21 is rarely ever seen anymore and some of us have never even heard of it. The 21 is simple but definitely a challenge. The exercise is comprised of a three movement set; 7reps+7reps+7reps= 21 reps.
Load a cambered curl bar with 65% of your one rep max.
The first seven reps consist of a half rep that begins at the rest stage (the bar lying across your thighs) and ends at an imaginary plane or ceiling that exist just below your nipples.
Perform this descending half movement in a slow controlled pace.
The next seven reps is the ascending portion of the set. The starting point is the opposite at this stage. Begin with the weight at your nose and lower the weight slowly with extreme emphasis on the negative. The rep ends atop that imaginary plane, just above your nipples. Squeeze at the top of the movement and maintain strict form.
The final movement of a set of 21’s is the full range motion curl for seven reps. Feel the blood flow and keep strict form.
Rest 30 seconds and perform another set of 21’s.
Rest a minute and move on to Part III.
Part III – Dumbbell Pounding
I utilize 45 pound dumbbells for “Dumbbell Pounding”.
Find your comfort zone poundage for this exercise, 35 pounders or 30’s work well too.
The goal of Dumbbell Pounding is to perform 60 reps of simultaneous curls under 4 minutes all without letting go of the dumbbell or setting the weight down.
I usually perform 12 to 14 reps each set and rest for 15 seconds between sets.
Maniac gripping power and savage overall arm strength is what results from mastering Dumbbell Pounding.
Your biceps will respond to the constant stress by getting a positive swell on.
If you feel strong shoot for 80 reps under a 4 minute limit.
Rest 2 minutes and move on to Part IV.
Part IV – Bread and Butter
Now here is the business end of the workout.
Load the cambered bar with a weight that you can pump out 10 to 12 reps with.
Alternate sets by performing the first set standing and then make the next one a preacher curl.
Keep the rep pace steady and make the negative count.
Aim to perform 6 sets with 55 second of rest between sets.
Rest 2 minutes and move on to Part V.
Part V – The Heavy
You have made it to the end. Now get heavy. Load your faithful cambered curling bar with 90% of your curl max and perform 2 to 3 reps for 4 sets.
Feel your biceps grow.
Rest for a minute…
Part VI – The Cherry On Top and some Rest
I lied the workout isn’t over.
Cap off your pump with one last set of 21’s.
Maintain strict form and concentrate on the negative.
Be sure to take in Whey Protein immediately following this work out.
If your guts can take it try to consume half a gallon of water to hydrate your muscles.
Plenty of water intake is key if you want to grow and get stronger.
Rest is crucial to bicep growth. Three days rest for your biceps should be the minimum.
So train, rest, drink and be diesel.
*The bicep is attached to the humerus, not the femurs. Just wanted to make sure you were paying attention. 😉
That looks like it hurts with the veins popping out like that what happens when you stop training to those muscles?
two words. Muscle memory.
now that is a workout… i assume there are a couple days between workouts. and legs the following day or core…
The femur is the leg bone. The bicep is attached to the humerus.
Thanks for that. I think he was testing to see if peeps were actually paying attention. lol.
This is in response to “Hood Workout” -(love that name)
Three days rest for your biceps. Legs the following day is exactly what I do. Follow the leg day with a core/ back/ shoulders day. Rest a day completely. And then return on day four to bombard your arms.
Peace.
So that’s how you get the arm vein huh?
Thanks for the reply. I would hate to see someone try to max out on bench right after doing something like this… I think that resting is key if you are doing concentrated exercises like this.
Personally, that bicep looks roided 😉
Either that or heavy supplements/large veined dude…
Those are some crazy biceps, and 21’s are the best excercize ever!
Yes, yes they are. Learned about them in high school from Coach Fred. That dude was jacked up.
They sound easy, until you realize you have 7 more to go… I learned about them from a friend that played highschool football. They are one of the workouts that you feel as you are doing them, right after you do them, and a bit later in the day as well.
Hmm, so is it safe to say it’s derived from football?
it looks like a heavy iron hammer.
Your biceps are not attached to your femurs. The femur is the large bone in the upper leg.
Yeah Chris, you are right.
Heh heh.
My arms are tired just reading that workout.
I had forgotten 21’s.. whew.. back in my hay-day.
Thanks.
Biceps on femurs? My, what interesting anatomy you have! 😉
Nice post.
I think he is a mutant. LOL.
I wish my biceps would grow. They just stay the same size 🙁 .It’s getting really annoying because my triceps are going up while my biceps stay the same size. Eh. I guess I have to try new workouts or eat more 😀
Are you targeting the biceps or doing anything special for them to grow? The pics on your site do not disproportionate (that is a big word).
I personally have not curled in months. I am focusing on multijoint exercises.
Im in.
shall we meet at the gym?
Word up!
JAjJA seems like not all oof us read the whole article since at the end it explains the femur thing nice post will comeback againg for more
jeezzz – that is your biceps 🙂 ?
Thanks for posting. This seems like a pretty intense, but good and effective workout for the biceps.
Great site Israel. I’m really impressed with your progress and determination to succeed.I’ve used an arms workout similar to yours that I posted on my site called The Ultimate Bicep Exercises. Your readers may want to check it out.
Nick, I did see that. Those are some good exercises to incorporate into a bicep workout. Chin ups, I love.
I think that looks like overtraining. I guess it depends on your current level, but if you do that any more than once every 4-5 days that is not doing good for your body. I did something like that on a bench press workout, and developed pretty severe pain for a number of weeks. Be careful if you try that workout.
Can’t handle it!? Just kidding, he is right. This workout is advanced and should be treated as such.
Haha Israel, I was in decent shape but ended up doing this as a workout (definitely too much on the shoulders/elbows):
250 x 5
225 x 8
205 x 10
185 x 12
165 x 14
145 x 16
125 x 18
105 x 24
85 x 31
65 x 44
45 x 61
That’s weight x reps – ended up being over 240 reps in a bench press workout and took a full body ice bath immediately afterwards. I couldn’t lift my arms to drink — Bounced back and did a max competition 2 weeks later 🙂
Wow, that’s a lot of reps. I wouldnt do that too often though. Maybe as a once a month or every two months system shocker.
The bicep doesn’t look natural at all. I’m also wondering what happens to body builders as they get old and lose the ability to lift?
I don’t think they lose the ability to lift, it’s more maybe the ability to lift heavy?
Thanks for your information.
That is a massive bicep, I don’t know if I want mine to be quite that big.
Nice bicep dude.
i did this workout. it was extremely intense. and my muscles are really sore.
but it feels good.
Wouldn’t this bad not so good for you if you want to grow I thought it was better to have less sets but quality over quantity.