Increase Bicep strength and Muscle Mass?

Question

I have been doing 4 sets of 15 reps of 40 pound dumbbell curls for the past few months. If i want to improve bicep strength and tone should i continue this excercise or should i change it up? Also, i weigh about 155 pounds and i'm 6 feet tall. If i want to gain muscle mass what excersices should i do. I already do leg presses, shoulder presses, and calf excercises as well as crunches and my bicep excercises. Thanks for any advice.

Answer 1

Variety is the most important thing in muscle growth. Our bodies are so good at adapting that by the third day you do the same exercise routine you are mostly adapted.

So try variations like barbells with different grips, cables and other curl machines.

The other important thing for growth is the intensity of your training. A few high quality sets are better than a lot of lazy sets.

Lastly, you need to train both fast twitch and slow twitch muscle fibres. So you need to vary the speed at which you do reps. Also try partial reps and negative reps to force contractions at different parts of the motion.

Finally, use a good protein powder and multi-vitamin to ensure your muscles have the nutrients needed to build up.

For curls guys should able to do at least half their body weight, so you're pretty close to that.

Answer 2

Although there are different ways for different people, there are a few rules that I follow. First thing is to do different bicep exercises in different workouts so that your biceps do not get used to any single exercise. Also, doing heavy weights at lower reps can be effective for building strength and size. A couple of particularly good exercises are reverse-grip curls, standing or preacher, and hammer grip curls. I dedicate an entire day to solely to arms (tri's, bi's, and forearms) and my bicep workout usually consists of standing barbell curls, one-arm preacher curls, incline dumbbell curls, and hammer curls. Be sure to allow enough rest time and don't overtrain!