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The 7 best bicep exercises used by the celebs – and the equipment you can buy to dodge a gym membership
Bicep exercises are among the most popular in the gym. But besides bicep curls there’s a ton of movements you can add to your workout
Almost every guy in the gym wants bigger biceps.
But if you’re struggling for inspiration, or you want to work on your guns while at your home, we’ve picked out the best exercises you can do, along with the best home equipment to help do them.
1
Dumbbell bicep curls
The staple of any upper-body workout, the bicep curl never goes out of style. To get maximum gains it’s important to use full range of motion and prevent the upper body rocking backwards and forwards during the exercise.
Here’s Hugh Jackman - aka. Wolverine - performing dumbbell curls. We think he’s leaning back a bit too much to compensate for the weight, but when you’ve got superpowers you can probably get away with it.
Preacher curls
Preacher curls are similar to dumbbell or barbell curls, but resting your elbows on a pad isolates the biceps, making the exercise more intense and making it easier to get a burn.
If you needed any more proof that preacher curls can be effective, here’s Arnie showing you how it should be done.
Hammer curls
Hammer curls are the same as standard dumbbell curls, except your palms face inward to your body throughout the exercise. It’s a great change-up and mixes up the type of strain on your biceps and forearms.
Barbell Curls
Barbell curls force your wrists to point outwards while performing the exercise, working your arms in a slightly different way to dumbbell curls.
You can experiment with wider and narrower grips, but a standard shoulder-width grip is great for building up those arms.
Seated rows
Seated rows work the biceps as a secondary muscle, but they can still help you get some gains on your arms as well as your back.
Thor actor Christian Hemsworth uses both barbell curls and seated rows to get himself in shape in this video.
Chin-ups
Another staple of the gym, chin-ups attack the biceps as well as the back muscles and core. A narrow grip will increase the work of the arms in the exercise, whereas wide-grip will increase the load on the back muscles.
Battle ropes
If you’re looking for a fresh way to work out your arms, why not give battle ropes a try. The standard wave motion, demonstrated by Usher below, makes your biceps work hard along with your shoulders, traps and back.
Equipment you can use at home
Not all of these exercises have to be performed at the gym to see great results.
You can buy a 15kg dumbbell set to use at home for under £20 from Argos.
(Vinyl dumbbell set,)
Or, if you want a high end home fitness product that takes up much less storage space, you can buy the Selectabell dumbbell from Amazon with prices starting at £149 for one.
(Selectabell dumbbell, )
If you don’t want your house to be full of heavy weight equipment, exercise bands can be bought from Tesco for under £5.
Bands can be just as effective as weights for building muscle and are available for much less than a standard weights set.
(Bodymax exercise band, )
One of the most versatile bits of home fitness kit you can buy is a home chin-up bar. This one costs £11.99 on Amazon and can be used for chin-ups and for push-ups.
(Pull up bar, )
More fitness and exercises
How to lift weights to build muscle.
The important thing to remember with lifting weights is to perform exercises with good form i.e. with a straight back and an engaged core to help prevent injury.
Don’t load up with more weight than you can handle as it will ultimately slow your progress and could leave you with a nasty strain.
Plenty of top trainers recommend performing 10-12 reps of exercises for four sets to increase muscle growth.
Use the heaviest weights possible that you can still lift with good form so that the final two or three reps of each set is a challenge.
It’s important to let your muscles rest after an intense workout, so it’s usually best to rotate the areas you work out.
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