Best 4 Exercises To Include To Get Perfect Biceps | Men's Health Magazine Australia

4 Exercises You Absolutely Need To Include In Your Next Arm Workout

The quest for eye-catching biceps is an endless one, and often, it requires more than a simple standing dumbbell curl. Sure, the basics of biceps training are great, but it’s too easy to cheat yourself out of a bicep-growing contraction, overusing momentum and losing the time-under-tension that it takes to really make your arms pop. If you […]

The quest for eye-catching biceps is an endless one, and often, it requires more than a simple standing dumbbell curl. Sure, the basics of biceps training are great, but it’s too easy to cheat yourself out of a bicep-growing contraction, overusing momentum and losing the time-under-tension that it takes to really make your arms pop.

If you want your arms to grow and develop quickly, you’ll want more than that old-school dumbbell curl. Don’t erase that move from your workouts completely—a standing curl of some sort is a great way to start an arm workout. But you’ll want to follow it with exercises that hit your biceps from other angles with a variety of tempos.

That’s the idea behind these four biceps curls. Each can be used on its own, or as a second or third exercise on the day you’re really hammering your arms. (And for more exercises that will chisel your arms, check out Metashred from Men’s Health.)

Lying Forehead Cable Curls:
Lie with your back on a bench and your head under a cable machine with a bar or two straps attached to it. Grab the bar or two straps (or have a friend hand the attachment to you). Your arms should be nearly perpendicular to the floor, and your back muscles should be tight.

Without moving your upper-arms, curl the weight down to your forehead, then squeeze your biceps hard for one second. Slowly let the weight return upward, then repeat the move.

Aim for 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps.

Bent-Over Concentration Curl:
Hold two medium-weight dumbbells, bend your knees slightly, hinge at the hips, and let your arms hang forward. While keeping a flat back and tight core, curl both weights up, squeeze for a moment at the top of the move, then lower them. Don’t lower them until your arms are fully straight, though—you want a little bit of tension in your biceps for the entire move. Aim for 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps.

Preacher Curl:
Set up an EZ-curl bar on a preacher bench. Pick the weight up, then sit back on the bench. Focus on keeping your entire upper arm on the bench. Curl up until your forearms are nearly perpendicular with the ground, then squeeze your biceps hard. Lower the weight, stopping just short of letting your forearms line up with your upper arms, hold for a moment, and then curl up again.

Aim for 3 sets of 10-12 reps. This is a great second or third exercise to use to finish off an arm workout.

TRX Plank Spider Curl:

This move will crush your core as much as your biceps.

Grab a single TRX handle set up in front of you, and position your body in a one-arm plank position. Focus on keeping a flat back and an ultra-tight core. (When you start out, set the TRX handle up higher so that your body can remain closer to a standing position; only when you’re comfortable with this should you move the TRX handle closer to the ground.)

RELATED: 5 Ways To Trick Your Body Into building Muscle – Without Lifting More Weight

Pick up a dumbbell and, keeping your upper-arm perpendicular to the floor, curl upwards to your opposite pec. Lower the weight and repeat.

Aim to do 3 sets of 6 to 8 reps per side.

This article originally appeared on Men’s Health

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