Large arms are created with a combination of triceps and bicep work. But it is the bicep muscle that peoples eyes focus on, hence extra attention should be given to this all important “mirror” muscle. Though all bicep exercises involve the curling motion, I have found one to be significantly better for building the mass and peak that most people look for.
The single best muscle building bicep exercise is the Hanging Bicep Curl. Here’s how you do it. Take an adjustable bench and set it at a 45 degree incline and lie on it so you are chest down. Your arms will dangle straight down towards the floor. Grab an EZ Curl bar and do what comes natural. Curl it. I do 5 pyramided sets of 8-10 reps.
The reason that this is such a mass builder is because in this exercise you are in the same position as you would be seated on a preacher curl bench, but the advantage here is that there is no pressure on any JOINT. Everything hangs loose, meaning you can use massive tonnage without fear of straining anything in the shoulder, elbow or wrist joints. You can curl significantly more weight in this position than sitting or standing. Try it and you’ll see.
Now you can use dumbbells in this position but, as we all know, you can use much more weight going with a bar and we are talking mass building here. And again, without joint strain, you can use A LOT more weight. As an example, from a standing position if you can curl 100 lbs with an EZ curl bar, in the hanging bicep curl position you can do 170 lbs. This is the proportional increase that I have. Granted if you want to swing your arms to give yourself momentum to curl, you can. I do. But only on the last couple reps.
My first question to you is this, if you are interested in building muscle mass in your bicep do you think lifting 1.7 times what you normally use for a bicep curl will have a mass building affect? If you subscribe to the belief that more weight will equal more mass, and you better believe that, my second question to you is, what are you waiting for? Go build big arms.
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