Bigger Bi-Ceps

Lift all you want and do any exercise you want, but you have to understand nutrition, your needs, calorie counts and ratios in order to make sure what you add is muscle. You can't add to just your biceps without adding overall. You have to have a surplus of calories, clean calories.
 
I agree with the posts above.

Squats, Deads, Rows and Bench press all all great compund movements that promote the increase in Test levels in males which in turn, will result in overall muscle growth.

Concentrate on these compound movements to pre-exhaust your smaller muscles ex:....biceps, triceps, etc....Then trash those smaller muscles with 6-8 sets at the end of your workout.
 
D15BT said:
Wha??!?!?!. bench row dead lifts...What about good ol fashon curls and the 25lb barb with weight curls?
Curls are an isolation exercise. They do very little for growth. But if it makes you feel better do a few sets along with your compound movements. But growth in any muscle comes from growth overall. Spot development does not happen very often.
 
Seems to be a lot of misinformation about isolation movements on this site. A collective chip on peoples' shoulder about body building in general as well.

Not everyone lifts for the same reasons, don't give bad advice based on you thinking someone's goals are bad.

If some kid 'just' wants big arms, then that's his choice. Don't tell him to go squat. I wonder how some of you can keep clients with that type of attitude.
 
Muck said:
Seems to be a lot of misinformation about isolation movements on this site. A collective chip on peoples' shoulder about body building in general as well.

Not everyone lifts for the same reasons, don't give bad advice based on you thinking someone's goals are bad.

If some kid 'just' wants big arms, then that's his choice. Don't tell him to go squat. I wonder how some of you can keep clients with that type of attitude.
Did you totally read over my post above?

Your post shows how un-educated you are about bodybuilding. Compound movements set the stage for overall muscle growth.
 
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I dont get it, So do bicep curls but dont emphasize on them? the compound lifts ( meaning lifts that train alot of muscles?) makes sense to build overall strength yea but it doesnt seem like my biceps are really compariable to my chest. so do more compound and less curls?
 
overall muscle growth

He asked about bi's.

Your post shows how un-educated you are about bodybuilding.

Did you put a hyphen in uneducated to amuse me, or was that accidentally ironic?

If overall growth is what he's looking for, that's great. If he came here and said he's been doing a lot of arm work but hasn't seen results, doing squats may be great advice. He just asked for a bicep exercise though.

I dont get it, So do bicep curls but dont emphasize on them? the compound lifts ( meaning lifts that train alot of muscles?) makes sense to build overall strength yea but it doesnt seem like my biceps are really compariable to my chest. so do more compound and less curls?

It depends on your goals. Compound movements are good for a lot of reasons. They allow you to use bigger loads, those big loads promote higher hormone levels, and you're using the body more as a whole.. so you produce a frame that's both functional and proportional. If you have something you want to focus on in addition to this, then you do added isolation work. Compound movements are movements that involve more than one joint. More weight and multiple muscle groups working together to perform a movement.

If you're totally unconcerned with overall body size/strength and just want to work on a specific spot (like the arms), then isolation movements are fine to focus on. There's a plauteau you'll reach there that won't be overcome without doing compound exercises because of the proportions of your arms compared to the rest of your body, but you can build just strong or large arms. You also won't benefit from the added testosterone in your system which would make the isolation movements even more effective.

However, the notion that isolation exercises won't work the particular area as previously stated is not correct. You can 'spot' growth particular areas.. but you'd have to ask yourself why you'd do that. Best case scenario is doing mostly compound with isolation exercises if you want to focus on something in particular. That's better than isolation or compound alone.
 
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This is what you'll look like if you don't do squats!


Sorry - I had to break the ice. An no, I wasn't trying to amuse you but I am glad you backed up your first post.

I stand corrected Muck.
 

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Ahhhh ic, so you kind of need to balance them out somewhat...Do the compound lifts to get your strength up to par and if you see muscles that your not satisfied with use isolation exercies, then get back to compound?
 
Again, it depends on your goals. There's no blanket statements that are going to be appropriate. What's your goal?

I generally use isolation for strengthening areas that are weak in compound lifts. For example, if you're doing back exercises and your biceps tire out before your back does. That would be a reason to work on the biceps, in addition to your normal compound lifts, to catch up to your back so that the compound lifts work out your body more evenly. While your arms would eventually catch up by continuing to do the compound lifts, the isolation exercises (again, in addition to, not instead of) can help your weak areas catch up quicker.

If you have an injury and need to strengthen an area, isolation exercises are great for that.

Isolation exercises are also great for active recovery. During a rest period in your cycle, you can do isolation lifts (not to failure) and avoid compound lifts. This gives your cns a break, while still working your muscles, and helps your body recover quicker.

You might just want something stronger/larger than the rest of your body for aesthetic reasons. Maybe your girlfriend likes big arms, so you do extra arm work at the end of a session or two.
 
The picture above was from injections directly into the arms. Not a dedicated lifter doing curls. Of course you can make some gains in your arms if all you do is curls, but it won't be near the gains you will get if you also do compound lifts in your routine.
 
biceps curls in my experience doesnt work very well, compund movements will make you bigger and stronger. the guy wants bigger biceps, alright, we can say "go do some kind of weird bicep curl" but will it make his biceps bigger? maybe, but will it make it as big as it would be if he did compound movements? probobly not.
id say go with compound movements that hit your biceps, along with other muscles, rows and pullups/chinups are gret, i know many people who have gotten great biceps not doing curls at all, just pullups ;)
 
Karky said:
biceps curls in my experience doesnt work very well, compund movements will make you bigger and stronger. the guy wants bigger biceps, alright, we can say "go do some kind of weird bicep curl" but will it make his biceps bigger? maybe, but will it make it as big as it would be if he did compound movements? probobly not.
id say go with compound movements that hit your biceps, along with other muscles, rows and pullups/chinups are gret, i know many people who have gotten great biceps not doing curls at all, just pullups ;)

I love chinups and rows for the biceps; and rows really work your grip / forearm well.
 
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