How to build bigger biceps? A simple question that every bodybuilder has heard more than once in his life. However, any serious bodybuilder is concerned equally with every muscle in their body. But which muscle do you show? Do you roll up your pants sleeve and display your magnificent calves? Or, perhaps open your shirt, thereby producing a bulbous pectoral? Of course not. You roll up your sleeve and throw up your arms, showing that time-honored, peaked wonder, the bicep.
A Comparatively Small Muscle All BodyBuilders Love To Work.
Comparatively speaking, the bicep is a small muscle, yet everyone wants to see it, and bodybuilders love to work it. The pros use hundreds of routines that include Scott curls, incline curls, Zotterman curls, bent over concentration curls, heavy-duty, rest-pause, pre-exhaust, etc. All of these exercises and routines can leave the intermediate bodybuilder somewhat confused as to which of these would be best for them.
Some of the top pro bodybuilders, both past and present, have built biceps worthy of being called the best in the world, yet if you follow their training routines, you’ll notice none of them train exactly alike. So, what is the best way to build a bigger bicep? The answer is not easy because there is no universal best way to build a bicep. There is only the best way for you to build your bicep, and you must find what that way is.

Although all of us as humans are alike (we have the same number of bones, teeth, eyes, ears, etc.), we are also very dissimilar. Even among men of the same height and weight, there will be variations in bone length and distances between wrists and elbows, elbows and shoulders, knees and ankles. These variations are even more significant among men of different heights. This means that these varying bone and muscle lengths result in differing amounts of contractile force that can be generated in a given exercise.
A bodybuilder in search of a bigger arm can follow Ronnie Colemans’ 95 bicep routine that produces phenomenal biceps for that specific pro bodybuilder. Still, when he reproduces it set for set, rep for rep, burn for burn, he comes up with a big fat zero. Why? Simply because he is not Ronnie Coleman.
That is not to say that nobody but Ronnie Coleman will grow from Ronnie’s routine. Indeed many have built arms worthy of praise from his routines, but in the same token, many have not.
How to Stimulate Muscle Growth
So here we are back at square one, still asking how do I build bigger biceps? Let’s take a look at what we know about stimulating muscle growth. First, we know that growth is stimulated when we demand more of a muscle than it is used to giving. Although we have stimulated growth, we may not get it if we neglect the nutritional aspects of training or fail to allow enough time for recovery.
To demand more of a muscle, we must first know the action of that muscle. According to Grey’s Anatomy, “the flexor of the forearm; it is also a powerful spinulator and serves to render tense the deep fascia of the forearm through the board aponeurosis given off from its tendon. When the forearm is fixed, the biceps and brachialis annticus flex the arm upon the forearm as seen in the efforts of climbing.” To put it more simply, the action of the biceps is pulling, such as in rows and pull-ups, and all the various forms of curls.
The bicep is a supinator. Supination is achieved by an outward turning of the wrist so that the little finger would be closest to the face at the top of the movement in a curl.

You Need To Know The Difference Between Lifting Weights and Resistance
Now that we know the action of the bicep, the next step is to stimulate growth. Every bodybuilder worth his salt knows that growth stimulation is achieved through lifting weights, right? WRONG! Growth is stimulated by flexing a muscle against resistance. There is a difference between the two, and those that understand the difference build the best bodies.
For example, how many times does the guy in the gym slinging up hundreds of pounds in a curl have the best arms? If your experience is anything like mine, the answer is not very often. To give another example, when you show someone your biceps, do you sling your arms up your shoulder as you would in a cheat curl? Or do you squeeze your bicep in a deliberate manner, getting every fraction of an inch in size out of it you can? The answer is, of course, the latter. It is this deliberate manner and squeezing of every inch that you must put into your curl technique.
The guy in the corner may get tremendous ego satisfaction from handling those huge poundage, but in reality, he is doing little to stimulate growth. His deltoid, trapezius, and lower back are taking too much of the action out of the biceps to do them any real good.
Leave Your Ego At The Gym Door
Now, ego satisfaction is very important to anyone who bodybuilds, for if there were no ego satisfaction, what would be the point of all this pain and work? As a bodybuilder, you must decide where you will derive this satisfaction. Is it going to be from people standing around the gym watching in awe as you cheat curl 200lb, or do you want that satisfaction to come from winning the best arms trophy? If it’s not, then I’d advise you to redefine your goals because if you thrive on people’s amazement at the poundage you are lifting, you are not a bodybuilder but a powerlifter.
To a powerlifter, lifting weights is an end in itself, but to a bodybuilder lifting weights is merely the way to provide resistance at flexing a muscle, which is the way to bring about the bigger, more perfectly proportioned body the true bodybuilder is after.
Now is the time in most bicep-building articles that you are given a routine to follow, so many sets and reps of this or that exercise, so many days per week, and you are given a guarantee that you will gain 1/2 to 1 inch in a month. If that were the case, I would simply give you a routine of my favorite exercises that worked for me and may or may not work for you. You probably already know what exercises work the biceps.
You probably know that supination of the wrist during a curl will build a better bicep peak. ” OK, so forget which exercises I should use; what about sets and reps?” Again, if you have to ask that question you haven’t been reading. Arnold built great arms with 12-15 reps, about 20 sets per muscle. On the other hand, Mr. Heavy Duity Mike Mentzer achieved his goals with 6-8 sets of 6-8 reps. Two complete opposite routines-who is right and who is wrong? Can anyone really argue that either of these great champions trained incorrectly? Of course not. There is a similarity that makes both of them champions.
You will find that neither of these men “lift weights” Rather, they flex their muscles against a resistance, which happens to be weights. Bricks, stones, small children, cars, etc., could all be used to create resistance, but weights seem to be the most practical. Arnold always preferred to flex his muscles against a moderate resistance more times (more reps). Menzer, on the other, liked to flex his muscles against a stronger resistance (heavy weights) fewer times. But every rep they flex their muscles with their entire heart and soul, and that is why the two men of entirely different training philosophies are both champions.
Final Advice
So what does that leave in the way of bicep building advice? The only advice is for you to do your favorite exercises. The fact that they are your favorite indicates that they work best for you. Get in tune with your body, it will tell you when you are overworking yourself. And it will tell you whether to train with high or low reps, heavy or moderate weights, or some other combination.
Strive to get stronger, but not at the expense of good form. Always-first and foremost-flex your muscles for all you are worth. Don’t worry about not using as much weight as the guy in the corner. He is getting his ego satisfaction now. You’ll get yours later. Work hard and be patient. Rome wasn’t built in a day, nor is a 20-inch arm. Remeber paitnce is the bodybuilder golden virtue. If you need some kind of immediate ego satisfaction, don’t start exercising sloppy like the guy in the corner; instead, remember that as a bodybuilder, you have better health than 9 out of 10 people on this planet, which when it comes down to it means a hell of a lot more than 20-inch arms!
References and Excerps
Don Mather; Article Make A Muscle (1984) Muscle Magazine
Muscleandfitness.com Ronnie Coleman’s best bicep routine