Intermediate to Advanced

Author: F Dog

To answer this question, we need to define the bicep and consider its function. The bicep is a muscle in the upper arm that crosses both the elbow and shoulder joints. In most people it possesses two heads, hence the Latin roots of ‘bi’ meaning two, and ‘cep’ meaning head. Its tendons attach to the shoulder and forearms, making it a two-joint muscle that is involved in a variety of movements:

• flexing the elbow
• flexing the shoulder
• abducting the shoulder and internal rotation
• adducting the shoulder
• supination of the forearm, especially when the elbow is flexed

Abduction and adduction of the shoulder may seem confusing at first, but these actions are performed by the individual heads.

1. The long head abducting the shoulder.
2. The short head adducting the shoulder.

 So what does this mean for us?

When training the short head of the bicep, we want to take a grip slightly wider than shoulder width. This helps prevent internal rotation and shut off the long head, even if just partially, allowing the short head to do the bulk of the work. In addition you will want to use a supinated grip (regardless of which head you are training) as this is the position where peak bicep contractions will occur. Now that we have these basics covered let’s move on to the exercises themselves.

Calisthenics training is not exactly my forte. Most of the time progression is nebulous at best, or outright dangerous to load weights on. This is not the case with chin ups, which can be loaded safely with a vest or a belt with any sort of plates you have on hand. Then, as far as bicep training without equipment goes, it is absolutely uncontested. As it allows you to train from almost anywhere at any time of the day. Even multiple times a day.

We do need to have a specific set up when training the short head though. As we said before, we are going to set up with hands slightly outside shoulder width in a supinated grip. From there put your spine into thoracic extension. This should help to disengage some of the back muscles from taking over. Now when initiating the pull, I want you to attempt to bring your shoulders to your wrists. Do not treat this like a pull up where the idea is to get your chin over the bar or to bring your chest to the bar. Your eyes should end up around level with your hands if done correctly (and you have relatively normal proportions) and you should feel almost all of the weight on your biceps. 

Generally speaking I don’t see the purpose of going much more than 10 or 12 reps on a single set. So if you are at that point where you can do three sets of 10 or more, I suggest that you get a dip/pull-up belt or a weighted vest and increase your load with plates.

The second exercise I advocate for is the barbell curl. If you have a loadable ez-bar, that works as well. The key here is something where you can load weight in small increments in order to increase total load month to month. Hand placement will be similar to the chin up: supinated grip just outside shoulder width. From there, find a wall. Set your back and butt against it. This should allow focus on the biceps and get rid of excessive rocking, while still giving leeway to avoid the unnecessary stress that strict form like preacher curls will provide. 

These first two exercises covered the elbow flexion portion of bicep training. Chin ups provide shoulder to wrist. Curls provide wrist to shoulder. Now this last exercise is something I don’t see many, if any, people promoting. I am not entirely sure there is a name for it. It covers the flexion of the shoulder aspects of the short head of the bicep. I discovered it while doing overhead pressing variations during a shoulder injury.

Barbell, ez curl bar, dumbbell, kettlebell. Take your pick. They are all good enough as long as you have reasonable increments to progress with. Get your hands supinated, but at shoulder width instead of outside of it. From here the setup is similar to a reverse grip shoulder press, but instead of finishing the press, once you get the weight to eye level, bring it behind your head while keeping your elbows flexed. Once you have gone back as far as comfort allows, lower it down to chest level and repeat for 8 to 12 reps.

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