Dumbbell Exercises for Bigger Biceps
The biceps, as its name suggests, consists of two portions: the short head and the long head. This muscle mainly flexes the elbow and supinates the forearm. Therefore, exercises for bigger biceps should include these movements.
Exercises for bigger biceps
Next, we’re going to list some exercises for bigger biceps that can help strengthen this muscle and increase its muscle mass. Remember that we always recommend professional supervision, as a trainer can help integrate them into a routine that encompasses other body parts.
Alternating rotating biceps curl
As this exercise consists of both flexion and supination, it works out both the biceps and the brachioradialis and the brachialis anticus.
- Starting position. Place your feet shoulder-width apart, slightly bend your knees and hips, and look straight ahead. With your arms extended, hold a dumbbell with each arm. The palms of your hands should be facing inwards.
- Movement. As you flex your arm, turn the dumbbell outwards until it ends in supination. In other words, with the palm of your hand pointing towards your shoulders. Then, do the same movement in reverse. Once you do the movement with one hand, repeat it with the other.
Exercises for bigger biceps: hammer curls
This exercise stimulates the brachioradialis and the brachialis anticus. These are the steps you have to follow to do it:
- Starting position. Place your feet hip-width apart, slightly bend your knees and hips, and look straight ahead. You should hold the dumbbells in such a way that the palms of your hands are facing your body.
- Movement. You have to flex your elbow until you practically reach your shoulder with the dumbbell, keeping your wrist in a neutral position throughout the movement.
Supine biceps curl
This exercise is similar to the barbell biceps curl exercise, as the hand position is the same. However, the dumbbells are always going to provide more instability and you’ll require greater coordination and control of the movement to do the exercise correctly.
- Starting position. Start standing, with your hips and knees slightly bent. Place the dumbbells in a supine position. This means that they’ll be parallel to the ground and the palms of your hands will be facing forward.
- Movement. Maintaining supination throughout the movement, flex your elbow until you almost reach your shoulder. Then, do the eccentric motion in the same way.
Exercises for bigger biceps: incline dumbbell biceps curl
The main characteristic of this exercise is that the range of motion of the arm is greater than in the rest of the biceps exercises. Therefore, the muscle is more elongated than usual at the beginning, which is key to effective muscular work.
- Initial position. Sitting on a slightly inclined bench at less than a 45-degree angle, you have to place a dumbbell in each hand in a neutral position (facing inwards). At the same time, you need to make sure you stabilize your shoulders and place your arms at the sides of your body.
- Movement. You should lift the dumbbells by flexing your arms and then performing a supination movement. After that, in the eccentric phase, do the same movement but in reverse.
Scott bench biceps curl
The purpose of a Scott bench is mainly to isolate the biceps and provide greater stability. This ensures that the movement is carried out by this muscle and not any other movement that can help flex the elbow.
On the other hand, we should mention that the biceps are mostly activated at the beginning of the movement.
- Initial position. Sitting, support the back of your arm against the inclined support and don’t separate or move them during the exercise. You can use one or two dumbbells at the same time. The position of the wrists may differ depending on the variant you’re going to perform: hammer biceps curls, rotating biceps curls, or supine biceps curls.
- Movement. Lift the dumbbell in a controlled manner until your forearms reach a vertical position. Next, lower the dumbbell in the same way. It’s important not to fully extend your elbow to prevent injury.
Do these exercises for bigger biceps carefully
It’s important to mention that, although the exercises to get bigger biceps are apparently very simple, it’s very easy to injure yourself. This happens when you lift more weight than your biceps can support or if you help yourself by pulling back with your back.
Therefore, it’s important to adapt the weight to your physical capacity, activate your core well, and pay special attention to the exercise technique.
Finally, we should note that working with dumbbells has multiple benefits. Among them, we can highlight coordination, movement control, and the options of working either unilaterally or bilaterally and alternatively or simultaneously.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Delavier, F. (2007). GUÍA DE LOS MOVIMIENTOS DE MUSCULACIÓN. DESCRIPCIÓN ANATÓMICA (Color). Editorial Paidotribo.
- Oliveira, L. F., Matta, T. T., Alves, D. S., Garcia, M. A., & Vieira, T. M. (2014). Efectos de la Posición del Hombro sobre el EMG del Bíceps Braquial Durante la Ejecución de Diferentes Variantes del Ejercicio de Curl de Bíceps con Mancuerna-G-SE. PubliCE.