Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1127: How to Grow Your Biceps

Episode Date: September 26, 2019

In this episode, Sal, Adam and Justin isolate the bicep, it's function, aesthetics and the best way to train it for maximum growth. Why the bicep flex is the universal “check out my muscle”? (2:3...5) The anatomy of the bicep. (7:44) Why the bicep curl is the easiest exercise to do. (12:20) Ways to train your biceps to respond faster. (14:30) Game-changing moments that altered the way the guys trained their biceps. (16:54) The importance of utilizing full range of motion when training your biceps. (31:25) The proper dosage for bicep growth: The rep ranges, amount of sets & training frequency required. (33:36) The value of BFR (blood flow restriction) training. (39:27) Sal’s ultimate workout to grow your biceps: Exercises, rep ranges, sets, frequency & MORE. (43:02) Adam’s ultimate workout to grow your biceps: Exercises, rep ranges, sets, frequency & MORE. (46:15) Justin’s ‘functional’ workout to grow your biceps: Exercises, rep ranges, sets, frequency & MORE. (51:11) The importance of trigger sessions on your off days. (54:15) Related Links/Products Mentioned September Promotion: MAPS Starter ½ off!! **Code “STARTER50” at checkout** How to Get Big Arms | Mind Pump Media The untold story of the iconic Rosie the Riveter poster Mind Pump 1122: How To Build An Impressive Chest The ONLY Way You Should Be Doing Dumbbell Bicep Curls! Sliding filament theory - Wikipedia How To Do A Pull Up | Banded Pull Up Regression (TRY THIS) Mind Pump TV - YouTube Occlusion Training Guide - Mind Pump How To Use BFR Training To GROW Your Arms (CRAZY PUMP!) Rubberbanditz Resistance Band Set Mind Pump Free Resources  

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mite, ob-mite, up with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. So this episode, we know a lot of you guys are gonna love this episode because it talks about your favorite body part, biceps. In fact, when somebody tells you to flex your muscle, what muscle do you instinctively flex? Yep, it's your biceps. So this episode's all about bicep training.
Starting point is 00:00:30 Now, a lot of people think the biceps are simple. It just curls the arm, like how complex can it get? Believe it or not, there's much more to training the biceps than just flexing the elbow. Elbow positioning and where you feel the tension of the exercise makes a big difference. So, in this episode, we go through all of it. We go through the anatomy and function of the bicep. We talk about why it's important to develop and work your biceps, even if you're an
Starting point is 00:00:54 athlete and you don't care about having nice looking arms. It's actually quite functional to have well developed biceps. And then, towards the end of this episode episode we give you a full bicep workout for free So Adam Justin and myself put the whole workout together for you So it's all here in this episode so we know you're gonna you're gonna you're gonna go away with some tangible Stuff you can apply to your training also we have a free guide that talks about training your arms And gives you more information. You can find that at mindpumpfree.com. We know you're going to love this episode.
Starting point is 00:01:30 But before it starts, I want to let everybody know that Maps Starter is 50% off. Now, Maps Starter is the workout program. It's a full body workout program for beginners and people who haven't worked out in a long time. If you want to get all the benefits of resistance training, you know, building muscle, burning body fat, sculpting your body, but you've never done it before. You haven't done it for a long time.
Starting point is 00:01:53 Map starter is the perfect program to follow. Here's the best part. You don't need a gym. All you need are dumbbells and a stability ball or a fizzial ball. That's it. And you can do the whole workout. So again, it's 50% off. Also makes a great gift if you're advanced, but you have family members or friends who
Starting point is 00:02:11 you'd like to encourage lift weights, but they don't know where to get going or where to get started. Get them map starter as a gift. It really shows that you care about them. So here's how you get the discount. Go to mapsstarter.com that's MAPS STAR TER.com and use the code starter50 STAR TER50 with no space for the discount. I'm excited about this episode, but I want to do it a little bit different and Justin,
Starting point is 00:02:39 I think you should run this one. I mean, I'm actually excited about this one, you guys. This is definitely in my wheelhouse Yeah, as you say, right? Yeah Wheelhouse It's very frequent in my in my activities. I love it. Yeah, no, it's something that we we do get asked us a lot And it is one of our more popular guides that get downloaded in our in our mind pump free calm it downloaded in our mind pump free.com is, you know, talking about arms
Starting point is 00:03:05 and how to build, in press of arm specifically, the biceps. Well, check this out. If I say to you right now, show me your muscle. What muscle do you instinctively flat? Yeah, your biceps. Be careful with that. Sometimes you might get something else.
Starting point is 00:03:20 But it's almost, what do you house do you get? It's almost always the bicep. It's just a does a cat. Some people are creative, but yeah, I see you're going with it. Justin does a cat flex. Yeah, but it's true. It's like the muscle of all the muscles of the body. You can ask a little kid.
Starting point is 00:03:36 Why is that? Is there history behind that? What came up with the, why is the bicep flex the universal check out my muscle? I have no idea. It's probably because it's the most well-known flex. You know what I'm saying? Back in the day, if you go back to the strength sports, if you look at the history of strength sports.
Starting point is 00:03:55 You know what? Actually, I bet you that was the universal first flexing pose. If we go back to original bodybuilding, I would think that's the first original pose. That's right, because if you go back to like original bodybuilding, I would think that that's like the first original post. That's right. Cause if you go all the way back, strong men used to perform feats of strength. And what they would do is they do things like lift a horse or lift andvils and things like that. And demonstrate a lot of propaganda where they're rolling up their sleeves and they're showing their arms off too. So yes, yes.
Starting point is 00:04:22 And strong men used to be just strong. And the way they looked at it matter, oftentimes they were fat, they were kind of overweight and beefy. Then you had this new class of strong man, like Eugene Sandout being one of the more well-known strong man. He's actually the guy that's the statue for Mr. Olympia is Eugene Sandout. And here is this guy. He was 180 something pounds. He had a six pack and he looked like for all intents and purposes what a body builder would kind of look like. Of course, he was back in the day
Starting point is 00:04:52 when they were natural and whatnot, but he looked very different. And people would show up to see his feats of strength, but people would also like to just look at him because he looked, he wasn't this big fat, strong man. Yeah, he actually bronzed his body, I believe. Did he? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:05:08 I don't know about that. Where did you hear that? I saw a documentary about that. Oh, really? You were going to talk, you were tan his body? No, like they did a cast of his body and then, oh, I think you might be right. And they bronzed it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you might be right.
Starting point is 00:05:20 So, so that was kind of the first, like, glimmer into like, you know, that people appreciated the body just for, just for, it's muscle the way it looked. Well, when Doug Googles him right away, the first pose that popped up was his standing double bicep pose. That's it. That's what I was just going to say. So then bodybuilding competitions kind of popped on, you know, under the scene. So he was first, right? Yeah, and they would, the bodybuilding contests used to have a strength feat, and then they they would get on and then they'd stand there and flex and that's one of the first flexes, what's that? That arms up, double bicep, flex. And so that became synonymous with show me your muscle.
Starting point is 00:05:54 Obviously we have a lot of muscles in the whole body. Look at that dumbbell, that thing's ridiculous. Yes, massive. Now do you think it's partially too, because you open up, you expose yourself, so you can see chest, you can see abs, and then you're also flexing your bicep. Because it's weird to me that we would,
Starting point is 00:06:09 at one point, choose one of the smallest muscles on your body to show off, like look at me on muscular. Yeah, I mean, or is that why? Because it's the smallest muscle and you've developed it to look decently soft. Well, it's your arm, and think about that. Yeah, muscular arms demonstrate strength in arms
Starting point is 00:06:27 Typically or what shows if you're if you're a guy for example, you know, you can wear pants all the time But you know everyone's not gonna wear short sleeves and people are gonna see your arms and having muscular arms Demonstrates that you probably work out having well-developed biceps tends to show that. And so when people say, show me your muscle, because of the history of it and the fact that it kind of demonstrates that you maybe you work out whatever. And it's less intrusive than like, show me your abs, you gotta pull your shirt up or whatever. It's just a very easy pose.
Starting point is 00:06:57 And then you're right, Justin, there's that old poster of, what was her name, the Rosie the Riveter? Rosie the Riveter. The, you know, Rosie the Riveter? I don't. You'll recognize the poster. This is when we can do it, you know, kind of when all, like it was World War II, I believe, right?
Starting point is 00:07:14 Yeah, and so all the men were off to war, a lot of men were off to war, and women had were called to the workforce. Oh, yes. Yeah, and it's her rolling up her sleeve and kind of doing the bicep flex. I didn't know she had a name with those as the character. Yeah, no, that was the name of it. And it's a very popular. Is she a real person or is that just a commercial character? No, it was a character. Okay, I kind of like uncle Sam. Yeah, I mean, exactly. Got it.
Starting point is 00:07:35 Exactly. Got it. So the bicep kind of demands, you know, it exemplifies that. So it's a very popular muscle to train. Let's talk about the anatomy a little bit in the function of the bicep before we get into that. I think that's important. We don't need to go too deep in the weeds, but it's not a lot going on. Yeah, well, I mean, actually what's interesting about that. The flexion to the elbow.
Starting point is 00:07:54 Exactly. Like that's the main function, right? It's to flex the arm or bend the elbow. But it also rotates the hand. So if you're listening at home, you can take your hand, flex your arm a little bit with your palm up And then turns such a palm faces down and watch what happens to your bicep. You'll notice that your bicep Shortens and lengthens a little bit when I was you know when I was a kid my uncle used to do that
Starting point is 00:08:14 He used to say he wants to see my my muscle dance and he'd do this thing And then you know years years after I had another uncle had a tattoo on his arm is actually he was in the name It was a naked girl And it's like you want He was a naked girl. It was a naked girl on his arm. And he'd say, you wanna see the naked girl dance? You see what the, what a fantastic trick. Yeah, what a cool guy.
Starting point is 00:08:31 But anyway, so it does flex the elbow, meaning bends the elbow, it does rotate the palm, so it supernates the hand. But it also does something else, like people I know, it actually brings, it adducts, or abducts the shoulder. It brings the arm up in front of the body. This is why when you do curls,
Starting point is 00:08:48 if you're going to try and real hard, you naturally wanna kinda bring the elbow up. So it's got a little bit more function than just flexing the elbow, but it's a pretty basic, in terms of muscle function, it's a pretty basic muscle. The attachments, there's two heads of the bicep, meaning there's two main parts of the bicep. That's why it's of the bicep, meaning there's two main parts of the bicep, that's why it's called a bicep, bime meaning two, cept meaning head, there's two of them.
Starting point is 00:09:10 And the attachments, there's close enough to each other that you can't really work different parts of the bicep. That's important to note, like if you listen to our past episode on the chest, we talked about how you can work upper chest and in the middle of the chest and lower chest by changing the angle of your presses, for example. With the bicep, you can't work the upper bicep, you can't work the lower bicep. That's because the chest has a bunch of different attachments. That's right. It attaches up and down the sternum.
Starting point is 00:09:38 Where's the bicep? It's pretty close. There's the two heads attached right next to each other on either end. And so you can't really, you can't isolate or work the upper bicep or the lower bicep, even though some people might say you can, it's false when it contracts, the whole thing contracts. And then you can't really work the outer bicep and the inner bicep. There are studies that show that there's maybe more activation on the outer head and the inner head with different exercises, but boy, are you splitting hairs?
Starting point is 00:10:07 You're not going to necessarily change the shape of your bicep by changing the angle of the exercises. The shape is largely almost entirely determined by genetics. Genetics. Yes. Now, it's involved in any time you lift something or hold something or pull something, your biceps are involved. Any time you carry something in your arms, whether it's a briefcase or your groceries, your
Starting point is 00:10:32 biceps are involved. Yeah, I've seen different looking biceps for sure. Like, you know, like, ones that are like pretty long looking as far as the long muscle belly versus like, like a softball is like sort of sticking up. Dude, I'm so glad you brought that up. The length of the belly of the muscle makes a big difference in terms of how it looks. Body builders, professional body builders, they have a few things working for them and why they're able to develop their incredible physics steroids aside.
Starting point is 00:11:00 One of them is their ability to build muscle, they just build muscle very easily compared to the average person. The second thing is they all have very long full muscle bellies, meaning if you look at the bicep and you look at it including the tendon, it's less tendon more muscle. Less tendon more muscle means you have more muscle belly. And as that muscle gets bigger, you just have a greater potential for muscle size.
Starting point is 00:11:25 A shorter muscle belly would be more tendonless muscle and you can't change that. No workout, routine, no exercise will change that. That's genetic. If it's a short muscle belly, you're limited in terms of how big that muscle will look. And one of the ways you can tell that is the gap that is when someone flexes their bicep,
Starting point is 00:11:43 how much of a gap that they have between the bicep, how much of a gap that they have between the bicep and actually their forearm, some people have a bicep that goes all the way across because they have a long muscle belly like that, which in turn can create more of an illusion that you have a bigger looking bicep. So that's right.
Starting point is 00:11:58 And you can't change that. So if you hear somebody say this exercise gives you longer looking biceps, you know that they're full of crap. The only way to do that would be to detach your muscle somehow and reattach it somewhere else. I don't recommend that. I don't, I don't, I highly don't recommend that. But yeah, it gives you this, it's a very popular muscle to train. I'll tell you what, the first exercise I ever did, I can pretty much guarantee, and I don't know exactly
Starting point is 00:12:25 what it was, but I'm pretty sure it was a bicep exercise. I'm pretty sure the first resistance training exercise I did was picking up a dumbbell and doing a curl. And it's funny with kids, when they go to the gym, you bring kids to a gym, they instinctively say, hey, go lift weights. Yeah, that is the first move they do. Well, I did do a curve.
Starting point is 00:12:41 Think about it real quick, you know, row, press, squat. I mean, it is for sure. And even compared to Tricep pushdown, which would probably be the second easiest, it's definitely the easiest movement to figure out. Exactly. I mean, the, it's almost, it's almost hard to fuck the mechanics up, although you can. And I think there, there's a more optimal way to, to do a bicep curl, which we'll get into that when we get into workouts and stuff, but it's definitely one of the easiest exercises anybody can do to go in there and just pick it up and feel it in the right place and say,
Starting point is 00:13:14 I'm working my biceps now. Yeah, it's true. And it's definitely the muscle that I focused on early on. You know what I mean? Because it's the muscle. Oh, dude, I used to do bicep curls every workout. Non-stop hammering the girls. You know, and there's definitely some things to all that frequency and hammering that
Starting point is 00:13:32 I did as a kid has been somewhat, you know, a blessing later on in my life. Now, it's like I don't have to address them that much and they actually respond really well because of the frequency that I trained them for so on. But I definitely was stuck in a hard plateau for many years as a kid because I didn't really fully understand programming. I didn't understand the importance too of what types of exercise I should be doing.
Starting point is 00:13:59 There was a lot of things that I could have been doing better that didn't come to a label. I'm glad you said that because just because it's simple and basic when compared to other larger muscle groups, and just because you can't necessarily isolate the long head from the short head of the bicep, the two different heads, or train the upper lower bicep, that does not mean that you can't construct routines that are far more effective than others. And there are factors that you want to consider when it comes to biceps.
Starting point is 00:14:31 It's still not so simple that you just do curls. There are ways you can train your biceps to make them respond much faster and much better. One thing I want to touch on before we get into like training the bicep, we can't forget the brachialis muscle. The brachialis muscle is a, it's actually the prime elbow flexor. A lot of people don't know this.
Starting point is 00:14:51 It's a muscle that lies underneath the bicep and the brachialis muscle is worked every time you work out your biceps, but it's especially worked whenever you do a curl where your hand is in a neutral position. And to that point, this is where you get these, you know, these bro myths of I can, I can, you know, build the outside of my bicep, but where there's some value into doing things like this to create that illusion, right? If this muscle runs underneath the bicep, right, from your forearm, and if you develop that and it gets a little bit bigger, it will push out the bicep. It'll make it gets a little bit bigger, it will push out the bicep. It'll make it look like it. You made it grow wider. Totally. And so it's not like you're
Starting point is 00:15:30 targeting the width of your actual bicep belly, but it's because you're targeting another muscle that runs underneath the bicep, which then creates that illusion of having a bigger wider bicep. Yes. To target the brachialis, the ideal exercise would be a hammer curl. This is where your palm is facing in a neutral position. So supinated means palm up. So imagine if you're holding a bowl of soup in your hand, that's how I first learned it. Pronated is the opposite. That's where your palm is facing down.
Starting point is 00:15:58 Neutral would be in between the two. So it's like, instead of doing a curl, it's your palm up. It's like you're doing a curl, but your thumb is coming up. It's the GI Joe Kung Fu grip. Yeah, exactly. Or just the reason why it's called a hammer curl the same way you would hit a hand with a hammer. Exactly. Exactly.
Starting point is 00:16:11 And that works the breakie Alice. And people who neglect doing exercises with the pronate with the neutral grip are neglecting and missing out. They're totally missing out. So that's just one kind of thing you want to understand when working in the bicep is also pay attention to the brachialis. Now if you do curls with your palms facing down, you're still working the bicep, you're still working the brachialis, but you're also working another muscle called the brachial
Starting point is 00:16:37 radialis, which is a top of the forearm. It's a forearm muscle. So we don't need to get too deep into that because we're talking about the biceps today, but just so that you know, if you ever do a what's called a reverse grip curl, you'll get really sore in the top of your forearm near the elbow. Now, before we get into the workout stuff,
Starting point is 00:16:55 you know, I think we need to share some of the things that were like, I don't know, major pivotal moments in your training career that like really changed like how you trained your biceps in particular. For me, one of the first things that I remember piecing together, and this is part of why we have a YouTube video that's gone viral that I think has done really well. It's also received a lot of criticism from people because of what you mentioned earlier, Sal, about part of the the biceps function is to add duct the shoulder, right? So because it involves the shoulder,
Starting point is 00:17:33 there is that that rolling position at the very end that is, you know, if you want it full contraction, the bicep, you could actually rock at the very end. The problem with that tip or allowing people to do that is the average person that goes in the gym to do an exercise tends to excessively do that. And they use momentum, they swing from the bottom, and then they use the shoulder rock at the end to close off the movement. And what ends up happening is the bicep doesn't carry as much of the load. Shoulders are bigger, stronger, muscle, and if you're also using momentum, then the bicep doesn't carry as much of the load. Shoulders are bigger, stronger, muscle, and if you're also using momentum,
Starting point is 00:18:08 then the bicep is really getting a terrible workout. And so you're gonna cause problems. In my experience, doing lots of that results in bicep tendon inflammation up by the shoulder. This is a very common problem. So if you're somebody that likes to work out and you've been working out for a while and you notice pain in the front of your shoulder where it hurts even to push on it and you do
Starting point is 00:18:30 any time you do a press, whether it's an overhead press or a bench press, it hurts and you think something's wrong with your shoulder. A lot of times it's inflammation of the bicep tendon that rolls over the shoulder joint. And in fact, oftentimes I take clients and they would tell me about their shoulder pain like this. And all I would do is stretch out their bicep, massage their bicep, and then have them do a movement where normally they would get some pain. And they'd be like, oh my God, the pain's gone.
Starting point is 00:18:54 And it was a temporary fix, but it was a great way to highlight to them, hey look, it's not your shoulder joint, it's actually your bicep tendon that's inflamed. And doing lots of curls like that, where you're abducting the shoulder at the same time, in my experience, causes those problems. This is why I used to train,
Starting point is 00:19:10 I've trained a lot of doctors and physicians, and I have also trained physical therapists. Physical therapists who have lots and lots of experience and correctional exercise, but very, very little experience when it comes to performance training or training for hypertrophy or muscle building. And if you ever watch a physical therapist
Starting point is 00:19:26 go into a gym to work out besides correctional exercise, like they're actually in there to build muscle, they think muscle function. And they'll actually go and do something like that. Like, okay, I know the bicep flexes the elbow but also abducks the shoulder and they'll do stuff like that.
Starting point is 00:19:40 And I'll have to come in and say something to them like, okay, look, I know that's the function but don't work out that way. You're going to cause problems and you're not going to get the most development. It's one that comes from experience. It's one of the biggest debates that we have online with people. If you go back and you look in, Jackie can link the in the show notes, the video of where I'm teaching a split-sense bicep curl and I and I queue to retract the shoulders and
Starting point is 00:20:03 keep the elbows sucked back by your side and don't allow them to rock forward. You know, a good hundred comments on there or a bunch of trolls that are coming on there and trying to school me on the anatomy and the function of the bicep and I'm fully aware of that. But what I also know is that I've trained enough people
Starting point is 00:20:20 that when they first get in the gym and they learn how to bicep curl, if you let them move the shoulder back and forth, they end up taking over the movement. It's a more dominant muscle. It's a stronger muscle. So if you are given the green light to go ahead and use the shoulders for that, they end up rocking and using momentum and they don't get as much effort put from the bicep. Which is why this is why we're training this, right?
Starting point is 00:20:42 So if that's the case, I would much rather teach a client how to retract, depress the shoulders, keep the elbows in a fixed position, and I used to give the, as if you had a pin or a rod that went through your elbows, went through your ribcage, and then out to the other elbow, and that elbow cannot leave that rod, the entire time that you're doing this curl.
Starting point is 00:21:04 Now, that was a game changer for me. I remembered learning that and then a first applying it to myself and then later on applying it to clients. And you get better results. Way better results. And what's nice is that if you lay that foundation right and you do a really good job of learning that the mind, muscle connection, the bicep, taking the bicep, making the bice, do most of the low and work, then later as you become a more advanced lifter, you can do things like cheat curls and you can throw a little what we call body English into the
Starting point is 00:21:35 movement and give that little extra effort with the shoulder and you're going to be probably just fine. But for the most part, I would say stay away from that. Right. 99% of the people listening to this podcast should definitely master the movement of the bicep curl within a strict position first to get it down and then you could add things like that. Game changer for me for biceps, and this was a game changer for all muscles, but especially
Starting point is 00:21:59 for the, what would be considered the simple muscles like biceps and triceps and stuff like that. Game changer for me was when I understood that the kind of strength that you get and the adaptation that you get from exercise and working out was relatively specific to how you train that muscle. So what I mean by that is, if you get really, really good at a standing barbell curl,
Starting point is 00:22:23 you're gonna get some carryover onto to a concentration curl or a preacher curl or a drag curl, but it's not going to be 100% carryover. In other words, if I gain 20 pounds of strength on a barbell curl, I'm not going to necessarily gain 20 pounds of strength on a concentration curl. Now I remember thinking to myself, why is this? Why is this the case? I'm working the muscle. It doesn't have all these long attachment, like, you know, all these attachments like the
Starting point is 00:22:48 pecs. So why is that the case? And then you really started, I started to dive in and realize that the, how muscles contract, it's known as the sliding filament theory. It's where muscle fibers running across each other, attached to each other and then, and then contract. And where they, where they each other, and then contract. And where they have to attach and contract the hardest is where you're going to build the most strength.
Starting point is 00:23:10 So what that means is, in layman's terms, I'll use the barbell curls as an example. When I'm doing a barbell curl with the free weight, when I'm curling the weight, let's say I'm staying there with 50 pounds, it becomes fully 50 pounds when I'm opposing gravity directly. In other words, the heaviest part of that lift is when my bicep or my arm is about halfway totally flexed because from the bottom, when the bar is against my legs up to there, I'm not directly opposing gravity.
Starting point is 00:23:38 I'm pushing kind of out first. Then I come up, now I'm directly opposing gravity. Now it's fully 50 pounds, but then I curl it back a little bit, right? Then the barbell kind of comes back towards my body, so it becomes a little lighter. So most of the tension on a bicep curl, on a barbell curl, is mid-range, about middle way between my bicep being fully extended and fully contracted.
Starting point is 00:24:00 So most of the strength gains I'm going to get are going to happen about mid-range. Now let's look at a different exercise. Let's look at a different exercise Let's look at a preacher curl when I'm doing a preacher curl and my elbow was out in front of me And I'm extending the weight in front of me The barbell is heaviest when my elbow is fully extended Yes, and it's much easier when I get up to mid-range and of course when I fully contract because now the weight is not opposing gravity, I'm just kind of moving the weight back
Starting point is 00:24:27 and I don't have that 50 pounds anymore. So most of the strength gains, most of the adaptation is gonna be at that fully extended position. Now let's look at a concentration curl, concentration curl, old-school Arnold exercise when I'm bending over. Or like a drag curl.
Starting point is 00:24:40 Or like a drag, whatever. Now I'm doing the curl, a concentration curl and I'm bringing it up and the hardest part of that exercise is when my elbow was fully contracted, the squeeze, that's where I'm gonna get most of the adaptation. So that was a game changer. And the second part to that was also elbow position,
Starting point is 00:24:57 elbow in front of my body, elbow to the side of my body, elbow behind my body. Which is basically creating that theory what you just said right now. So somewhat. Yeah, and then you combine the resistance with that and it does that as well. elbow behind my body, which is basically creating that theory what you just said right now. So somewhat. Yeah. And then you combine the resistance with that and it does that as well.
Starting point is 00:25:07 So now you have all these factors. Now you can construct your workout around that. Where am I getting most tension? Where's my elbow position? And now it's not just all curls are the same. Who cares? Do 10 sets of curls. So that was the, that's what put the most, so the first one was understanding the mechanics,
Starting point is 00:25:25 getting the mind muscle connection for me. The second biggest game changer is what you just said right now and is probably number one when it came to when did I really start to see size. I put on my bicep was every workout from that point on whenever I did my biceps, I always made sure that I hit all three major positions with my elbow. So I would do like you said, elbow position down by my side, elbow position out in front of me, and the elbows up above my head. And sometimes you can manipulate that by either lying down on a bench, like with a spider
Starting point is 00:25:55 curl, you know, that would simulate almost like if you were behind your... Inclined curl, concentration curl. Right. Yeah, all that. Yeah, I was interesting too, because it's kind of a joke that like I'd stick pretty much with compound lifts and with athletes in general, we're training the movement, but definitely something I always threw in the mix and considered were curls and isolating the bicep to in order to enhance the overall mechanics of the lift and to sort of fortify the joints and add that strength where there was a loss within,
Starting point is 00:26:27 say a deadlift or say, I'm doing a rounded back position carry and I have to hold something really heavy and have an isometric strength in that movement. Doing things like that and adding curls and adding isometric poses to where I'm really just focused on the bicep and making sure that, you know, I have the strength to sustain, you know, more tension there when I need it was very important for my strength. Oh, it's totally, and if you're a wrestler or a grappler, biceps are very important.
Starting point is 00:26:59 Anytime you're holding, squeezing, choking, gripping, grabbing someone, pulling someone, you gotta have strong and stable biceps. But let's say you don't do a lot of that kind of stuff. Let's say your football player and you're doing a lot of pushing, very, very often it's a lot of pushing. The bicep acts as a counter to the pushing movements. And you need that because it slows down, it decelerates the joint because if you didn't
Starting point is 00:27:24 have a bicep and I just extended my arm real quick, my arm brisk and half, you need that muscle to stabilize. So when people say biceps are not functional, bullshit, remove your biceps and see how functional you want. You have to have, you have to have the biceps to consider. To that point too, you also have to consider that what this is why injuries occur like this in sports a lot of times is because you've overdeveloped the antagonist muscle so much that the other one is suffering and then it blows out.
Starting point is 00:27:52 That's like a hamstring pull. Hamstring is the bicep of the leg, right? So the hamstring is the bicep of the leg. Your leg, your quads are what drive and push and in football and most sports, you build up these dominant quads because your work is very, very common. That's one of the first to blow as a hamstring.
Starting point is 00:28:09 Right. And I would probably venture to say that a lot of the bicep tears you see are probably people that just neglect to train them and they're doing explosive type. Over and out of their tricep. Well, dude, you see power lifters tearing their biceps when they deadlift.
Starting point is 00:28:24 All the time. Strong man tearing their biceps when they deadlift. All the time. Strong man tearing their biceps when they do like atlas stones or heavy carries. Bicep tears happen rarely when people are doing curls. It's usually when they're doing something else. It's usually when they're doing something real heavy and the bicep is acting as a supporting role. And because the bicep isn't strong enough
Starting point is 00:28:43 to support the other bigger, stronger muscles, you end up causing problems. Which brings me to another game changer for me. Years ago, I had a trainer that worked for me who had, and he was just very, very fit young man, but he had these incredible looking arms, especially as biceps. They were just so well developed. And I knew he was in a bodybuilder, he had just incredible looking arms, especially his biceps. They were just so well developed.
Starting point is 00:29:05 And I knew he was in a bodybuilder. He just brought him on staff. And I asked him, I said, you know, I said, I said, I'm down with him, like, dude, what do you do for your biceps? Like, you have the most incredible looking arms and your biceps are phenomenal. And he was, I'm gonna be honest with you,
Starting point is 00:29:17 he goes, I do some curls, but I don't do a lot of curls. He goes, I was a gymnast for years. I did lots and lots and lots of chin ups. And then I thought about it. I thought to myself, like, wow, you know what? Like the best exercises for the quads are not leg extensions, they're squats. They're these compound movements.
Starting point is 00:29:37 So that was another game changer for me was like, you know what? Yes, there are lots of bicep exercises that only flex the elbow, but let's not negate the bicep building abilities of a palms forward, you know, supinated grip, chin up. That's like a compound movement for your biceps. And I think it's if you have, if you're struggling developing your biceps, get really good at heavy chin ups and watch what happens. It's a great way to get those biceps. It's also something for you to take in consideration too
Starting point is 00:30:05 when you're programming. I remember that was a mistake that I used to do a lot is I was so concerned about my biceps, I'm hitting it all the time. And then what I don't realize is how important that role is in my rowing and pulling, all my pulling exercises that I'm doing. And you're getting a good workout from that.
Starting point is 00:30:24 So you can count that as hitting the bicep, too. I mean, the bicep in a seated row and in a pullup, you know, these movements, the bicep is a lot of times the first muscle that initiates the first bit of movement in the pulling. So, you know, you're getting some work done when you're doing that. So, you know, there's strategies to,
Starting point is 00:30:44 that's one way to increase frequency on some of your bicep being addressed without it being a quote unquote bicep day. It's like, I just did back, yesterday, I'm getting a lot of good back exercise. You know, so now how I program my biceps the next day, I wanna be, I wanna make sure that it compliments that workout and I don't overwork it too.
Starting point is 00:31:02 Yeah, and I don't know if I've just noticed, but like bicep and curls being one of the most, like a lot of people will go for shorter range of motion reps. And that seems to be a more of a thought process and a trend in that direct. So, you know, something like a chin app, like to be able to take your arms through that full range of motion
Starting point is 00:31:23 and get the benefits of that from all points. And speaking of full range of motion that full range of motion, get the benefits of that from all points. And speaking of full range of motion, full range of motion for all exercises, but with biceps, extremely important, full extension. Nobody does full extension with biceps. I don't know why, they all tend to stop just short of full extension. Let the arm go all the way down and then do your curl. I think that's every little centimeter counts.
Starting point is 00:31:43 I think that goes back to a lot of the fear that was put into people. And I think some trainers were responsible for this of the time and retention and don't lock out your joints. No, I'm not telling you to relax, maintain tension. Right, and I think, I mean, I remember being a young trainer that I queued like that where I would keep time and retention by shortening the range up just right before
Starting point is 00:32:06 they lock out. The reality was I should have been teaching clients to fully extend, but then still keep tension in the muscle, which that takes a little bit of practice and understanding of what you're doing because the default thing for people to do is to lock out and rest. Relax. Relax and let the joint take over the load. But you also can't use it much weight. I, I, I, no joke, I was 70, probably 16 or 17, added a quarter inch to my biceps because I took my preacher curls
Starting point is 00:32:32 from stopping just short of full extension to dropping the weight like 20 pounds and going all the way down. Oh, there you go. You nailed it. I mean, it's a very much of a negro thing to begin with, right? And so now if I have to go down that full extension, you do have to drop the weight. Yeah, and, and let's be honest, guys, curls are nothing to brag about. So, hey, don't worry about the weight you're curling. It doesn't, it's not that big of a deal. Right. It's,
Starting point is 00:32:52 it's all about the form and feel with biceps far more than anything. Oh, that's a really good point, too, that you make on the preacher crows, because that is probably an area that it's, the irony is that you see people shortening the range up on the, on the, on the range. Yeah, the range that it's most valuable at, you know, all just so you could say that you preach your curl, the 45 pound plates or something ridiculous. It's like, well, why are you doing preacher curls? If you're taking away an equalizer, you're taking away those last three inches, that's the reason why you do that exercise. I rarely go over 50 pound barbell with a preacher curl.
Starting point is 00:33:25 And I've got really strong arms. I can curl, if I wanted to, I could curl quite a bit. But I'll go 50 pounds or less, and I'm going all the way down, full extension. And it makes a huge, huge difference. So let's talk a little bit about the best rep ranges, how many sets people should do, the type of frequency, and other techniques and factors in terms of workout programming.
Starting point is 00:33:46 Now, rep ranges, this is an important one with biceps because some muscle groups just don't work well with super low reps. This is one of them. This is one. Yeah, I love low reps. Really low reps for a lot of exercises and body parts will give you more muscle and more strength
Starting point is 00:34:04 and a better look. Biceps just don't seem to work well with super low reps. Now there is one exception to that, and that is when you actually do the one compound exercise. The chin up. The chin up. Great point. Absolutely. If there is ever an exercise that I'm going to in my three reps, low reps, anything under
Starting point is 00:34:24 six pretty much, that I would consider doing for the bice, four reps. Right, low reps, anything under six pretty much, that I would consider doing for the bicep, it would be like a chin up and potentially weighted. Like if I could do six chin ups really easy, then I could see some good value in doing weighted, you know, three to four reps of chin ups. Like you're gonna get some good bang for your opponent. Very good point.
Starting point is 00:34:41 Other than that, all other exercises, low reps, doesn't lend the cells well to biceps. It's too easy to cheat, too much momentum. You start using lots of other body parts, and they just don't respond very well, and tends to set you up for injury. So I'd say, for the most part, six reps is probably right about as low as I would go when it comes to bicep training. As far as sets are concerned, like any other body part, studies will show that between nine to on the high end,
Starting point is 00:35:12 maybe around 18 or 20 sets per week for a muscle group. So studies will show that nine sets is right around the lower range and around 18 to 20 sets is the upper range for really advanced people in terms of total sets per week. Personally, I average about 15 to 18 sets per week. And I divide that up between three workouts per week. And then that brings us to frequency.
Starting point is 00:35:38 Frequency, most people in my experience do really great with about two to three harder workouts a week. If you're gonna work out with low intensity, then you can work out pretty damn frequently with the biceps. You can go into the gym and hit it five, six days a week. I think that's just the important thing that we have to reiterate
Starting point is 00:35:57 because I think that's the mistake that I made as a kid, who was trying to get his biceps to grow, was, and I still, it doesn't matter how many clients I've had and I've said this to, I feel like I have to repeat this all the time, which more does not always mean more results. Just because we say, hey, go at 918, they say 918, I'm gonna do 20 to 24. That's the right dose.
Starting point is 00:36:19 Yeah, it is. And that's the idea. And the reason why there's a range 9 to 18 is maybe you're on the upper range, 18. Maybe you're on the lower range. Some people respond, I a range 9 to 18 is maybe you're on the upper range, 18, maybe you're on the lower range. Some people respond, I mean, I was supposed to be on the lower range. So I was somebody who ended up responding. I'll never forget when I started to cut back on days in the gym and my body started to grow
Starting point is 00:36:35 and build. So it's really trying to find that sweet spot for you, and the people that are highly motivated, we have like, do we have the spectrum, right? The ones that are really motivated to work out and they really have these goals that want to build my bicep. They tend to overdo it. They tend to be the ones that,
Starting point is 00:36:54 oh, I could still do another set, I feel okay. Let's do another exercise. And before you know what, they've done 12, 15 sets and one extra, or one workout just for their biceps. That's crazy amount, especially if you plan to take advantage of the benefits of frequency and coming in another day or a third day, potentially in that week to hit those biceps again. By that time, you've fried the things.
Starting point is 00:37:16 You've overreached. And what ends up happening is the body spends all this time and effort trying to recover and it's not adapting and building and growing. Think of it this way. Think of your body's ability to build muscle or adapt or burn body fat as a lock. Only the right key will open that lock. And that key is quite different from person to person. There are general truths. That's why I gave that general answer of nine to maybe 18 sets per week.
Starting point is 00:37:42 But the key that's going to open your lock is unique to you. Use the wrong key, you know, IE go to many sets or train too hard or do two little sets or train too easy, you're not gonna unlock your body's ability to build muscle. So it's, I'm very glad you brought that up. More is not better. The right dose is what's best.
Starting point is 00:38:04 The right dose and don't judge what the right dose is because your friend may get better results from doing more than you. Okay. And the right dose is not the feeling you get in the workout. That's where I think people like to hear they're like, all right, I'm fine.
Starting point is 00:38:18 I can do more. Yeah, that's it. I can do more. Right, I can do more. So should I do more? And I get DMs like this all the time about our programs. Hey Adam, you know, I'm following maps in a ball right now, but I feel like I can do more. Right, I can do more. So should I do more? And I get DMs like this all the time about our programs. Hey Adam, you know, I'm following maps in a ball right now, but I feel like I can do more.
Starting point is 00:38:29 So is it okay if I do it? And I'm like, no. Are you getting stronger? Yes. Are you building muscle? Yes. Okay. Keep doing what you're doing. You're doing the right thing.
Starting point is 00:38:36 Just because you can do more doesn't mean you should do more. So, you know, understand that if all the studies are showing that the maximum benefits for muscle gain are falling somewhere between nine to 18, these are also natural athletes. So if you're somebody who's anapologically enhanced right now, you obviously can probably extend that another more like 24 sets,
Starting point is 00:38:56 but it's gonna be in that range. And I hear people doing 30 to 40 to 50 sets of bicep exercises in a week. And it's just, you're getting really good at curling. That's all you're doing. You're not building a lot of muscles. You're actually building a lot of endurance. If you're lucky, if your body can adapt,
Starting point is 00:39:14 you're building a lot of endurance. And that's not going to build the kind of muscle or the visible changes in your biceps. That most people are after when they're training biceps or any other body part with weights in the gym. One last thing I want to touch on, this is an advanced training technique, but I want to cover this because it works best for the muscles of the upper arm and it does work. It legit does work. It sounds crazy, but for sure work studies prove it and that's blood flow restricted training Now, we don't need to go too deep into this,
Starting point is 00:39:46 but blood flow restricted training is the process of using like a knee wrap to tie off the upper arm. And I don't mean completely, you're not cutting off all circulator's restricted. But you're doing it enough to restrict blood flow and you'll feel it, you'll feel the veins kind of pop out, you know, pop out a little bit
Starting point is 00:40:04 and you'll feel a little bit more of a pump. And then you do some bicep exercises and it burns like crazy and you get an insane, insane pump, but it does indeed work. The first time I implemented blood flow restriction training was actually when we started my pump. This was a, we brought this up, we brought this topic up. It was a grand experiment. And I did, I gained size on my arms. It works good on calves too. It tends to work good on the extremities. So that's just something a little side note. If you're really, really advanced,
Starting point is 00:40:32 look into blood flow, restrictor training, it does work. Definitely lower the load. Well, I saw the most value in the two areas, you just said, calves and arms. And where I saw the most value was, when I tended to overreach in a bicep, extra routine, right, or any sort of arm routine,
Starting point is 00:40:50 I did too many sets. I fell right into the trap that I'm talking to you guys about just five minutes ago. I fell into that, I overreached, and I kind of fried my biceps, and it's, you know, two days have gone by, I'm still feeling it, it's the third day, still kind of feeling it,
Starting point is 00:41:03 but I want to keep my frequency up a training, but I don't want to do as much damage. It's a great way to supplement frequency without putting a lot of damage on the muscle. It will replace the workout. Right. You're right, 100%. Right. And that, to me is what, and I experimented enough with it to realize too that,
Starting point is 00:41:21 because I loved it, just like you did when you, oh wow, that's seen results change from it. Then when I then the happening was, I was like, oh, you know, today I'll just do BFR. I'm not in the mood to do, you know, full, five sets of, you know, barbell curls or something. I'll just do some quick, I'll get a pump from the BFR and then I'll move along.
Starting point is 00:41:38 What I did notice was if I allowed it to replace my regular training for my arms, it did not help me grow. And in fact, I would start to see a little slide back. But if I used it to intermittently supplement more frequency into my training, it was a game changer. Totally, incredible, incredible tool. But it's advanced.
Starting point is 00:41:59 If you're not super advanced, and you haven't been training for a long time, it's also got value here. So if you have, you brought up about like, people that have issues with their shoulder, they feel pain in their shoulder or you have elbow stuff. So if you are very sensitive to a joint related somewhere to the bicep or near the bicep, so anytime you do any bicep exercises, especially if you go heavy, it really irritates or bothers that area.
Starting point is 00:42:24 This is a great tool to use for rehab. So for clients that have issues in there, like that maybe they have a very compromised shoulder, maybe they're just re, they've been coming back from a shoulder surgery. I don't want to do something dangerous like a heavy buy barbell curl. I'm not going to do a chin up with that person because I'm going to put the shoulder in a compromised position, but I definitely can do a strict, you know, cable curl, bicep curl things with really light weight and do BFR to where it's not putting a lot of stress or load on the shoulders, but then I can get this massive pump from BFR.
Starting point is 00:42:57 Perfect. A ton of value for it with things like that. Perfect. Now, we want to leave you with like tangibles. We we wanna leave you with like tangible. We wanna leave you with an actual workout, because you're probably listening to this episode, because you wanna build bigger biceps, so you're right now, notes are taking some mental notes,
Starting point is 00:43:15 and we wanna leave you with the workout. So what we did is we actually came up with a workout ourselves, one that you could take for free from this episode. So I came up with a workout, Adam came up with a workout ourselves, one that you could take for free from this episode. So I came up with a workout, Adam came up with a workout, so to Justin, and we made sure that they all work together. And this is gonna be a three days a week kind of bicep workout. Now, in my workout, I wanted to make sure
Starting point is 00:43:38 that I hit the three elbow positions and the different tension points of the bicep. I wanted to make sure that we were able to do an exercise where there was maximum tension in the mid-range of the elbow flexion, one where most of the tension was at the full extension where the arm is almost all the way open. And one where the most attention was where the bicep
Starting point is 00:43:59 was fully squeezed. So here's the three exercises that I recommend. And each one of these exercises in this workout, you're gonna do three sets and the goal is to do 10 to 12 reps. By the way, 10 to 12 reps means intense, but it does not mean going to failure. So if I tell you to do 10 reps, pick a weight you know you could max out and do 12 reps with, but you're only going to do 10 reps. That goes for all of our elimination. So we always would advocate for, you know, one to two reps short of failure. That's right. So pick a weight, stop about one rep or two reps before you're not able to curl anymore.
Starting point is 00:44:35 So that's how you know how intense you want to go. So the first exercise, barbell curls, this, they call this the king of bicep exercises. It's the most basic. It's one of the first exercises you learn when you first do resistance training and it is one of the best bicep building just general overall bicep building exercises. Very easy very basic Do three sets of this for 10 to 12 reps. So try and stay within that that rep range the next exercise barbell preacher curls same thing three sets three sets, 10 to 12 reps. Now with this exercise again, really focus on full extension. Let the arm open all the way, keep your body locked in position.
Starting point is 00:45:14 You're going to find that you're not going to be able to use nearly as much weight as you do with the barbell curl if you do these properly. The third exercise is a little bit less popular. It's called an incline curl. Some people call them drag curls. This is where you're laying back on an incline. Your elbows are hanging down, so your elbows are kind of behind your body hanging down.
Starting point is 00:45:34 Let the, keep them in that position. Do not rock the elbows. It's very, very common that people want to swing the arms up when they do this. It's a great way to hurt that bicep tendon by the shoulders. So don't do that. Let the elbows fall full extension, and then when you come up,
Starting point is 00:45:47 really focus on that squeeze at the top without bringing your elbows forward. This exercise will stretch the biceps, but it'll also work on the squeeze at the very, very top. This one burns like crazy. Also, you're gonna find you're not gonna be able to use much weight on this exercise right here. Make sure you rest in between each of these sets,
Starting point is 00:46:05 about 30 to 60 seconds, maybe 90 seconds if you need a little bit more rest. You don't want to be out of breath when you're doing your next set. That's pretty much it. So since Sal went that direction, I wanted to pick some exercises that I thought lended themselves well with the lower rep range. So we talked about we wouldn't do anything less than about six reps except for the one exception to the first exercise that I chose and my workout, which is a supinated pull up or a chin up, right? Now, when you do this, and our intention is to work the biceps,
Starting point is 00:46:39 normally when you go to do a pull up, there's this pull up where you retract the shoulders and you kind of puff their lead with the chest and pull the chin or the chest up to the bar. In this case, I'm not really concerned about pulling my chest up to the bar. I'm more concerned about curling my body up to the bar. Yeah, I like to tell people to try and get your hand as close to your shoulder as possible at the top. Right. So, just try and get your hand close to your shoulder. Exactly. You're not worried about retracting the scapula and getting the back involved.
Starting point is 00:47:08 You're more concerned about pulling the body weight or pulling the south side of the hands to the shoulders and getting a good squeeze. Now, because that's a big compound movement and you're pulling your entire body weight up, this is something that I would recommend the lower rep range, somewhere between that three to five repetitions. And if you can do five reps really easy, then load it. Put a plate underneath you or 10 pounds underneath you and do it.
Starting point is 00:47:33 Find a place where it's challenging for you to get about four reps. That's a really cool exercise to start the bicep workout. And again, we're gonna do three sets of everything just like sales. One of the things that, you know, we mentioned, 9 to 18 for the entire week is kind of the sweet spot. So even though we're giving recommendations
Starting point is 00:47:51 on all of our exercises to be three sets, you may be someone who does two sets of all these exercises that we're recommending for the week. You may be someone that can actually push potentially to four, even though I think that's a lot, because I think three is a lot for a lot of people. Just keep that in mind. Each person can be, can modify individually for themselves.
Starting point is 00:48:09 So the second exercise I'd love to do after a supernated pull-up would be go to an alternating dumbbell curl. And you could do these seated or standing. I like seated because it just puts you more in a strict position where sometimes people tend to bounce and rock from side to side when they're standing up. So, I know it's more functional, it'll be standing.
Starting point is 00:48:28 I know you're going to burn a little bit more calories because you're standing and you're heading to stabilize, but I prefer to do the seated just so you're not cheating the exercise. And that's just alternating back and forth for a total of 10 to 12 reps, which means that's only 5 to 6 reps per arm, right? So five to six reps per arm, a total of 10 to 12 reps for alternating bicep curls. And then the last one I wanted to do something different, and this is like a more recent fine for me, all the years that I trained, I actually really never played with cluster sets that much.
Starting point is 00:49:03 And I really, really like them, especially for biceps. I've messed with it cluster sets with all of their muscle groups. Biceps tend to be one of my favorites. Biceps and triceps actually, arms are my favorite to do cluster sets with. And there's a lot of different formats for a cluster set.
Starting point is 00:49:21 There are a lot of different parameters that you can run by. So this isn't like a you have to follow my exact rep range in sets. This is I'm just going to give you what I like. You could probably Google and see 20 different other ways to do it as far as the time and the rep range. But I like to do the cluster sets in four using four reps. And I like to give a solid 10 to 15 second rest between each set. And the idea, this is an exercise. This will be the only exercise of all the exercise we teach that I like to take to failure. And that's how you know when you're done with the cluster set. So it's one long set. You do four reps. Now, the weight you choose for four reps is a weight that you should be able to do for eight to 10 reps,
Starting point is 00:50:07 fairly easy. So, you should be able to do that weight for a solid eight to 10 reps. You choose that weight, but you're only gonna do four reps, and then you're gonna give yourself a solid 10 to 15 seconds rest before you do the next four reps, and you just keep doing that. What's neat about that is you'll see that weight,
Starting point is 00:50:30 you're going to end up being able to do quite a few sets before the bicep completely fails. And when you figure out the total volume, you did in that one long set, it's normally a lot more than what you would have done in just a basic three sets. So you do four reps, rest, 10, 15 seconds, four reps, rest, 10, and you just keep doing that until you can't do four reps. Until, until, until forms and failure is for me, form breaking down. So strict form, just because you can get it up by rocking your shoulder or getting a little momentum, you're done. Once strict form is broken, then that's where you're completed. It's not where complete exhaustion or muscle failure is. It's where form starts to at all break down
Starting point is 00:51:07 where you have to use any sort of momentum to finish the rep. Awesome. I like those, but first what we're gonna do is we're gonna get a stringer. We're gonna go into the gym, and boil up our arms. We're gonna wear some sunglasses,
Starting point is 00:51:19 and we're gonna curl, and we're gonna kiss our bicep. Do you even know any bicep curl exercises? I'm like trying to think of it in my head, like, right, on the fly here, this is really tough. No, I'm gonna make a little more functional approach here. Just actually like the first one specifically, I mentioned earlier is we're gonna take, if you have access to a sandbag,
Starting point is 00:51:41 this would be amazing doing basically a farmer carry but front loaded. So if you go through to a sandbag, this would be amazing, doing basically a farmer carry, but front loaded. So if you get your hug in the sandbag, if you could hug the sandbag and your front loaded and you're gonna walk down about 40 yards and back. Now, if you don't have access to that, you can always grab some dumbbells and do like a rack position front loaded carry
Starting point is 00:52:01 down and back and you're gonna wanna go pretty heavy with this. So that's something that I've done with my athletes, and I love it. It's definitely challenging isometric exercise to be able to sustain that. What about kettlebells in that position? It kettlebells even better. Right, because the kettlebells with the weight
Starting point is 00:52:17 would be rocked on the outside of the arm. Yeah, exactly. So it's kind of pulling you out and you're resisting that tendency to wanna pull your arms out. I love that. So yeah, I would prefer that, but I'm trying to be reasonable.
Starting point is 00:52:29 So if you have dumbbells, go for it. We go right in, from there, we're gonna go into hammer curls. I'm gonna address the bicep brickey allis. So this is, we're gonna take those, probably a lighter weight. So definitely a lighter weight with this because we're gonna go about 15 reps
Starting point is 00:52:51 and I will take those same dumbbells for the last exercise too. So I'm going to make this real easy for you. But we'll go ahead and do 15 reps. You don't want to keep those elbows in nice and tight and then get those, you know, that neutral grip so that that kung fu grip. You're going to do those curls and we'll go right in for the last exercise. I'll throw at you. It's gonna be our spider curls So you're gonna lean over like an incline bench and then you're gonna have those arms hanging and then supinated here. So now I get that other angle You know for the biceps. So let me get this straight. Are you you're you're doing the isometric hold you walk with it Let's just say we have kettlebells or dumbbells doesn't matter. We're holding we're in low to position We walk 40 yards. we walk back 40 yards.
Starting point is 00:53:26 I set those down, I grab a lighter pair of dumbbells, go right into no rest. Right into it. Right into hammer curls. Super. So this is a giant set. So you're doing three exercises. Oh, and then you go to the spot.
Starting point is 00:53:35 Yeah, so I'm gonna do 15 hammer curls. I'll do 15 spider curls. Oh shit. So you're probably able to take that same weight, yeah, light. Yeah, so that's all in in you know You choosing the right appropriate way and how many in what we'll do three sets three rounds three sets Just you know because there you go
Starting point is 00:53:52 You're welcome. No, I like that actually to be honest with you doing heavy tension carries Added size to my biceps farmer heavy farmer walls. I love the combination of the heavy tension to light high rep curls to you. That would be an insane pump. You're right. I'm actually gonna try this workout tomorrow when I'm working on my arms. So there's three workouts right there. You know Monday, Wednesday, Friday, we're probably good.
Starting point is 00:54:14 And then we should also talk about trigger sessions. Trigger sessions are great ways to add frequency and volume to your body without causing or creating a lot of damage. Now in the case of biceps, this is how easy it is on the days off and between. So you've done your hard workout. You did my workout Monday, Tuesdays off, Wednesdays, Adams workout, Thursdays off, Friday is Justin's workout.
Starting point is 00:54:36 Well on Tuesday and Thursday in the days off, here's what you do. Get yourself a pair of bands, resistance bands, and do some resistance band curls. And just do enough to feel the bicep burn, just do enough to get a pump. That's it, no harder than that. You're just trying to feel it a little bit.
Starting point is 00:54:51 You're not trying to go hard or get a crazy workout. Do that for a few sets, two or three times during the day. So in other words, all you're doing is getting a little bit of a pump in the biceps, two or three times a day on the off days. Those trigger sessions actually they're like turbo. They really are like, you know, we're building the engine. We've got the car with the founded these heavy workouts. Now you're just adding a turbo
Starting point is 00:55:14 which is going to take it to the next level. That's what trigger sessions do and they works great for any body part, but in this case we're talking about biceps, so apply to the biceps. Now we do have a guide called how to get big arms. And the guide talks all about arm training, bicep and tricep training, it talks about sets and reps and things on how to, you know, how to phase your workouts and all that stuff. It's a free guide, there's more information in there
Starting point is 00:55:36 if you want to read more stuff. It's available at mindpumpfree.com, so you can download that. And then all the exercises and stuff we talked about will make sure it's in the show notes So if you want this all listed out for you and you want to write it all down. It's gonna be all there You can also find the three of us on Instagram if you want to ask us any questions or check out and see what we're doing in our lives Justin's Instagram page is my pump Justin mine is my pump Sal and Adam is my pump Adam
Starting point is 00:56:02 Thank you for listening to mine pump if your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at Mind Pump Media.com. The RGB Superbundle includes MAPS and Ebola, MAPS Performance, and MAPS Esthetic. Nine months of phased, expert exercise programming, designed by Sal, Performance, and Maths Esthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal Adam and Justin
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