The standing alternating is great warmup exercise and a major MASS BUILDER. At the start of the rep, with the palm facing the outer thigh, as the curl begins, twist the wrist upward. At the end of the rep, squeeze the bicep (flex) for a peak contraction. On the decent, resist the weight. Try to do 4 sets with about 8-12 reps per set. Try to get at least eight reps per set, if not, try decreasing your weight for the proceeding sets. Try not to get more than 12 per set, if you do, try increasing your weight until the 8-12 range is achieved.

Try not to swing the weights, instead, you can apply lots of power to the upper half of the curl by "tucking" your body under slightly to get more of a press and squeeze on the heaviest sets. This is one advantage of the standing position. Always remember that this exercise demands intense concentration on the contraction of each arm in order to receive maximum effectiveness.

The seated alternating curl have the same effect as standing curls, except that they provide more muscle isolation. With these, you cant use body language to help power the weight up. Seated curls also demand more mental effort, because of the concentrated nature of the movenment. Still, the same rules apply: Squeeze up, supinate as you go, then resist strongly on the return to avoid letting your body rock and forth. With these, also try to do 4 sets with 8-12 reps for the first 2 sets then for the last 2 sets, if necessary, change weights so on the last 2 sets, 10 and 8 reps can be achieved respectively.

Again, try not to swing the weights. One option to consider is using a bench with a back support to minimize the chances of swinging the weights. Remember that this exercise also demands intense concentration on the contraction of each arm in order to receive maximum effectiveness.

The cambered-bar curl is particularly useful as a MASS BUILDER and also it alleviates a lot of adverse torque on the wrists. You can do this exercise alone but it is considerably more effective when being performed with a partner. The exercise described is call "BUILDUPS". These are performed with 2 people standing in front of each other with a selected weight than can be handled by both trainers. The goal is to pyramid 7 reps. For example, You pick up the weights and complete ONE rep. Pass the weight to your partner and they too shall perform ONE rep. The weight is then returned to the first partner to complete TWO reps. The weight is then given back to the second partner again and they will complete TWO reps. Then pass the weight back so the first can complete THREE reps. ETC....... This procedure will continue until seven reps is completed by both parties. After seven reps is completed, repeat the seventh rep, then work your way back down. 6,5,4, etc... This exercise may sound very simple but once you try it I'm positive you will have a change of heart. If you perform these toward the end of your arm workout, you can guarntee that these will force you to bring the days training to an end.

I hope these techniques will aid in improving your overall arm development and strength. Performed correctly, they will.

This is the true arm mass builder. As you pull the bar upward concentrate on your biceps muscle. As you approach the top of the movement squeeze the biceps as you bring the bar under your chin, be careful you i-nay cause the muscle to craiiij) front tile intense contractions.

* Muscle Confusion Tipv: Use a straight bar for one workout and an angled curling bar on the next workout. Vary the width of your grip from your hands being next to each other, or as much as 30 inches apart. Try pausing half way down or halfway up to really feel your arms burn. Half reps are an awesome way to vary your routine. These can be done from the first half of the inovement or from the back half of the movement. Try bringing the bar halfway up pause and return, on your next workout try the opposite by lowering the bar halfway down, pausing and return to the top.

Preacher curls really pump up the peak of the biceps, because they force you to perfori-n the movement using only the biceps muscle. As with "Bar Curls" there are many ways to vary the movement to promote muscle confusion.

* Muscle Conlitsion Tips: Use a straight bar for one workout and an angled curling bar on the next workout. Vary the width of your grip from your hands being next to each other, or as much as 24 inches apart. Try pausing half way down or halfway up to really feel your arms bum. Half reps are an awesome way to vary your routine. These can be done from the first half of the movement or from the back half of the movement. Try bringing the bar halfway up pause and return, on your next workout try the opposite by lowering the bar halfway down, pausing and return to the top.

This exercise can be done from a standing or seated position. Keep your elbows at your side, and your palms facing upward as you lift the dumbbell. Since you are alternating your arms you should be able to really focus on the bicep that is moving the weight.

* Muscle Conrfusion Tips: Keep your palms upward on one workout, they try them inward (facing each other) with heaveier weight. You can also use a slight cheating motion and use heavier dumbbells - as you lower the weight be sure to keep the dumbbell under control and conventrate on feeling the negative burn.

Perfon-n this movement as if you are doing the classic double biceps pose. Stretch out as far as you can and pull the handles toward your ears. Concentrate on feeling the biceps flex as you perform the movement. Notice that T.J.'s elbow position remains perfectly stillfrom the start to finish.

* Muscle Confusion Tips: Take a couple steps backward -- lean back slightly and pull the handles towards your ears. You can also use a lower pulley and curt the handles towards your shoulders.

Each set consists of eight repetitions. To warm up: Do a set at fifty percent of your maximum effort. Begin with three sets of eight. When you can't break a sweat with that, add five more reps to each set.

Standing barbell curl. With your elbows against your sides throughout the motion, grip the barbell and curl it toward your shoulders.

Dumbbell preacher curl. Sit at a preacher curl station. Rest your upper arms on the pad. Palms up! Curl the dumbbells to your shoulders. Pray. Repeat.

Standing Biceps Curls

Yep, the beginner's standard for building overall biceps mass is still the first exercise in Brantley's routine. He'll do a couple of warm-up sets in a controlled manner, paying attention to strict form --- no rocking, bringing the bar up evenly in about a second, pausing for a second at full contraction, and then lowering the bar in two to three seconds, pausing again for a second, and starting again.

Look closely and see that Sean does not let the bar extend fully when he lets it down. "No matter what the exercise, it almost always needs to provide constant tension. If I let the bar extend until my elbows were fully locked out, all I would have accomplished would be to let my biceps rest. If the type of heavy weight I use is going to work, then I have to make sure I work it fully and hard, which means paying attention to what I'm doing at each moment, and not letting the weight rest."

Adapting This Routine For Beginners.
Beginners with less than 18 months of continual workouts should restrict the biceps segment of their overall routine to no more than three sets of two exercises, for a maximum total of six sets. The standing barbell curls, done with weight that allows you to reach between 10 and 12 reps, should develop good overall area size. If you're at least eight months into working out, you can try pyramiding: Use a weight that lets you perform 12 reps in the first set, 10 in the second, 8 in the third, and 6 in the fourth. (You may find that your reps don't match that exactly, and that's okay. But if you fall below 6 in the fourth set, try lowering the weight a little.) The cable curls, done in the same set and rep scheme, provide some finish and shaping. If you are a hard gainer, try upping the weight in these as well.

Intermediates
If you've got a solid 18 months under your belt, the usual reasoning would be to have you select two mass movements --- heavy work like standing biceps curls and machine curls or seated dumbbell curls --- and one or possibly two finishing or shaping movements. If you're working for more size, keep the weight up and the reps low, from five to eight tough, heavy reps per set, and don't go above 8 sets, total, for this bodypart.

This muscle ranks right up there with chest for popularity. There is nothing too revolutionary to say about biceps training. Stretch them good with an exercise like incline curls or using a preacher bench, use a lot of weight with barbell curls, and give them a good, focused workout with concentration curls or alternating dumbell curls (seated), and you should have no problems with biceps development.

Please realize that it would be a lot more difficult to increase biceps size without increasing the rest of you muscle mass. Or stated differently, it would be easier to put an inch on your arms if you gained 10 pounds of muscle on your entire body. In fact, if you stick more with compound exercises like chin-ups, deadlifts and squats, your arms will undergo a great deal of development as well. Besides, having larger shoulders makes your arms look bigger anyhow, just like bigger calves make your quads look bigger.

Since the arms are a small muscle group, you can work them out more often than larger muscles like legs and back, but I would definitely focus my energy on the larger bodyparts, especially for the first year of bodybuilding.

Touted as the mass builder of all biceps exercises, probably cause it lets you handle a lot of weight, and is a relatively compound exercise as far as biceps go. Stand with feet shoulder width apart, grab the bar with roughly shoulder width grip, maybe a bit less or more, keep your elbows at your sides and live in a smooth motion. Lower bar in a controlled motion. Pretty straight forward, meat-and-potatoes type of exercise.

Reverse barbell curl

Incline dumbell curls

Alternating dumbell curl

Concentration curl

Preacher curls

Sample routine for biceps

• 3-4 warm-up sets of 8,6,4,2 reps, rest 2-3 minutes
• 3 heavy barbell sets of 8-10 reps
• 2-3 seated alternating dumbell curls, 6-10 reps
• 2 reverse curls, 10-12 reps

• 3-4 warm-up sets of 8,6,4,2 reps, rest 2-3 minutes
• 3 sets of preacher bench, 10,8,6 reps
• 3 sets of alternating incline curls, 6-10 reps.

There are two important points to remember when performing these exercises: The first is to avoid cheating at all times. Cheating on curls is especially common, particularly when the muscles tire toward the end of the workout. Bending forward at the waist, whipping the torso back and throwing the weight up increases the risk of back injury and defeats the purpose of the exercise. Two simple suggestions for preventing this are to lift less weight and make minor modifications to your stance. Keep your feet shoulder-width apart and moving one foot slightly in front of other will reduce the chance of injury, limit your ability to cheat and promote the correct range of motion.

Rest interval are the other important thing to bear in mind. The less time you take between sets, the more stress is allotted to your body and the more your muscles will respond. In the beginning stages of this workout, your rest time between sets should be no longer than two minutes. A maximum of five minutes rest should be taken between exercises. As you become more accustomed to the workouts, reduce the time between sets to one minute and the rest intervals between exercises to three minutes.

Grasp a dumbbell in each hand and stand erect with your feet shoulder width apart. Position the arms down at the sides of your body with the palms facing in toward your legs. Lift your right arm upward and forward across your chest until the top of the dumbbell is at shoulder level. Hold for a second and return to starting position. As the right arm is being lowered, begin to lift the left arm  upward and forward across the body. Continue alternating both arms. Do four sets of 8 - 10 repetitions for each arm.