How to build bigger biceps?

   

1. Take a weight off

You have to load the barbell until it bends and then grunt like Sharapova with a megaphone to forge bigger biceps, right? Absolutely not. Rather than trying to reach your personal best with each rep, load the bar with weights you can comfortably lift 12 to 15 times, says Frost. Why? Each massive rep actually uses up testosterone, so push your body too hard and you’ll actually deplete your body’s best muscle-building chemical. 

2. Train less

When it comes to boosting your biceps, playing hard to get is your best strategy. In fact, you should only give your mirror muscles full attention 20-30 mins per week for best results, according to Sims. Any more will overload your cannons, tearing down the recovering muscle fibres you worked to build up.

3. Go hard or go home

If you want to come equipped with a couple of sleeve-rippers then you have to work for them – but not for very long. Short 20-minute bursts of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) are the best way to blow up your bis as they target your larger muscle fibres.

4. Use your brothers in arms

The worst tactic to deploy in the arms race? Focusing on the biceps alone, says Frost. The muscles you love the most only makes up a third of your arm; your triceps are twice as big and your forearms too large to ignore. The answer: compound exercises that hit all your arm at once. The simple reason: the more muscles you hit then the harder you work, the more calories you burn and the more toned you look.

5. Don’t neglect the little guys

No, not those. If you want to max your biceps and keep your arms in one piece then boost your stabilising muscles. You’ll unlikely to hear a girl wooing over your rotator cuffs any time soon, but these tendons are vital in getting your arms from scrawny to brawny without injury from major muscle imbalances. Target them and keep your arm-pumping programme in full swing by introducing the reverse grip bicep curl after the main event.

6. Get a grip

Turns out maximizing every rep is easy squeezy. Seriously, squeezing your bis during any move while keeping the tempo slow is the best way to activate your arm’s muscle fast twitch fibres. It’s why PTs like Frost swear by bicep cable curls, which keep tension on the muscle throughout the exercise.

7. Hit the bar

Barbells and dumbbells: both effective tools at building up incredible bulk. But which is best? There’s only one way to find out: FIGH- erm, ask the MH experts! “It’s a draw in my book,” says Sims. “Sure, barbells allow you to lift bigger weights, which is great for seasoned gym-goers, but dumbbell exercises like the dumbbell uppercut can attack your arms at different angles.”