Last updated 19:27, Thursday, 13 November 2008

THERE’S nothing more impressive for the T-shirt brigade than big biceps.

Biceps are the one part on the body that stand out and can make you the talking point.

If you look at the stereotypical bodybuilder like Arnie, he concentrated his look on mass and peak – the mass made the bicep bigger and the peak gave him the competition-winning look he had for so many years.

On the other scale, you might have the toned bicep, similar to Daniel Craig or Brad Pitt. You’ll find in this type of bicep a different way of training, not necessarily bicep curls but a conditioning exercise that won’t build too much bulk.

Everybody is aware of bicep curls – it’s the main exercise for bicep training. What you might not know is the variations involved. Variations are key to assisting in growth and, if performed correctly, can make you gain inches on your bicep.

The standard bicep curl is generally performed using a dumbell or barbell, with four to six reps considered the norm for mass building and 10 to 15 reps for tone and definition with a lighter weight.

Every exercise on biceps uses a curling technique. In order for your bicep to stand out it’s important to get good shape and with a healthy lifestyle and cardiovascular training, you will reap the rewards.

I’m not one for the boring straight sets that some people might advise so for the benefit of giving you quicker results I will be concentrating on drop setting and super setting.

Both techniques are without doubt the very best in bodybuilding and I guarantee you will get results in a shorter time.

Drop setting standing dumbell curls: I’ve talked before in other articles of a workout I used to perform at Whitehaven Sports Centre. There are two shelves of dumbells in the sports centre, the bottom rack being the heaviest. Starting at the end of the top shelf I would start with 22.5kg and work right down to the lightest weight. Performing six reps on each weight will blast your biceps and you will feel a huge amount of lactic acid build up.

There are two variations that can be performed here – one is the conventional way where you twist the dumbell as you curl and the other is what we call a hammer curl. The hammer curl doesn’t involve a twist. Instead, hold the dumbell like you would do with a hammer and curl. The first variation will add more shape as the hammer curl adds more volume on the bicep. Perform three round of this.

Heavy barbell curl followed by resistance band curls: This will seem weird at first but will again produce good results. Whether your aims are to get big or tone, heavy barbell curls are just as good as dumbell curls. The reason for this is the movement involved. There is no twist and if performed right there is no real way of cheating.

Dumbell curls can be somewhat lazy at times because most people swing their arms too much. With the barbell curl this is limited. However, ensure your back is straight at all times.

The aim is to lift near your one rep max and perform four reps, without rest, pick up the resistance band and quickly perform alternative bicep curls until you can’t perform anymore. What this does is work both slow and fast twitch fibres which in turn create huge growth. This is a variation on supersetting.

Cable curls followed by close grip pull-ups followed by lying cable curls: This is a great arm workout to just perform on its own. Cable curls mean standing in the middle of the cable machine, grab both pulleys in each hand and curl your right arm to your left side of your chest and, for your left arm, curl to the right side of the chest. The key here is to perform them deliberate and slow.

Without rest, move on to the close grip pull-ups. This means grabbing the inner pull-up bars and pulling yourself up slowly. The key is to lengthen your arms on the eccentric phase of the movement. Then finally lie down on the floor and grab the cable bar attachment and curl the bar up to your upper chest. Keep your head on the floor also, never move it from there.

The cable curls will add a peak to your bicep, close grip pull-ups add mass and lying cable curls add three things: mass, shape and strength.

Perform 10-10-10 reps with a moderate weight on cable curls and lying cable curls.

This is all you will have to perform on biceps. It’s a simple method. As long as you incorporate drop setting and supersets into your workout.