How many excerises should I do for my bicep?

Question

Me and a friend were talking, he says he does only 4: Standing Barbell Curls, Preacher's, Incline Dumbbell or Hammer, and Concentration Curls. I wanted to add cable curls, but is 5 excerises too much? or is the 4 just right. BTW, he only does it once a week.

Answer 1

According to Muscle and Body Magazine the Authors recommend 4 unique excersises with three to four sets per excersise. You want to "total" 12-15 sets throughout your curl routine. If you do it "right" any set over 15 will be impossible as your biceps will be too fatigued to continue.

You seem to have a nice variety in your current routine. Mix it up every two weeks to "shock" your muscles. The two biggest mistakes body builders make is first, getting too set into one routine.

The next is not doing the appropriate reps per set. My formula has been 12, 10, 8 increasing weight each time taking my muscles to exhaustion the last few reps on the last set.

Technically, the experts say you only need to concentrate on each body part once per week in your work out routines. I find personally that by working on bicepts 2x per week I get better results. Anything over that and you are not giving your muscles enough recovery time.

Have fun building those guns.

Answer 2

For myself personally, I vary it slightly from week to week. 5 is not too much depending on your current build and abilities as well as your planed reps and set amounts.

I usually stick with standing dumbbell curls, incline hammers, concentration, close grip bench press, and incline dumbbell if I feel like I'm not pushing myself hard enough.

I also workout my biceps once a week so I know how that goes. Experiment, test your body, see if you can or see if you should just stick to getting those 4 down perfect for now.

Answer 3

I wouldn't worry about working out your biceps or triceps too much. Stick to big compound lifts and almost all compound lifts have some way of you using your arms. As long as you are doing all your other lifts don't worry about you doing too little bicep exercises. You should only work your arms at the end of your workout. Do 2-3 sets and if you feel that your arms need a bit more of a workout then do another set or two.