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Questions and answers about sports

Am I doing the right amount of volume for biceps?

6 min read

Asked by: James Burks

How much volume should you do for biceps?

MEV = Minimum Effective Volume:



Most intermediate-advanced lifters need at least 8 sets of direct bicep work per week to make gains, and for some, it’s even more than that. If you’re training twice a week, that’s about 4 sets per session.

How much volume do you need for arms?

Overall training volume is key, with most recommendations suggesting 12-16 total work sets per week for intermediate lifters. Performing as little as 6-8 sets per week can also suffice for some lifters who are performing a lot of pressing, as the triceps are also responsible for this movement.

Do arms need high volume?

When your arms need a boost, increasing your training volume can work wonders. The sleeve-stretching program we’re offering here does just that, using basic exercises to increase the amount of work you’re doing with both your biceps and triceps, and shocking your muscles into a mode of rapid growth.

How many sets should I do for big biceps?

Gaining Muscle Size



To gain bicep mass, perform three to six sets of six to 12 repetitions per exercise. Rest 30 to 90 seconds between sets and choose a weight that allows you to perform the recommended number of repetitions while challenging your biceps.

Is 4 bicep exercises too much?

Recommended Routines



When designing a routine, choose three to four different biceps exercises, doing each for three sets of 12 reps. You can also do them as part of a circuit, performing one bicep exercise after the next with no rest. You will generally need to go lighter for this, but will definitely feel the burn.

What builds biceps fast?

Best Exercises for Building Your Biceps Fast

  1. Barbell Curls: The barbell allows you to overload the muscle more than a dumbbell. …
  2. Preacher Curls: Help target the brachialis muscle in the lower part of the biceps.
  3. Concentration Curls: Provide support for the upper arm to prevent swinging and use of other muscles.

Do biceps respond better to high reps?

Biceps are best suited for intermediate reps. High reps tend to make them look flatter once the pump subsides, but very low reps aren’t effective at stimulating maximum growth.

Do biceps respond to heavy weight?

Use moderate loads, higher reps, and more cumulative metabolic stress. Some lifters get carried away trying to train the arms with pure strength. But the arms really don’t respond that well to heavy loading.

How can I increase my biceps volume?


Multiple papers have shown that cutting volume down to about nine weekly sets seems to be enough to maintain or in some instances. Even grow a muscle. And therefore a good recommendation to stick to.

Should you do low reps for biceps?

As a general rule of thumb, for maximizing arm size, spend about one-third of your training time doing low reps, one-third doing moderate reps, and one-third doing higher rep sets. This will ensure that you provide your arms with various types of stimulation, thus causing muscle growth via a variety of mechanisms.

How many sets should I do for bicep curls?

Shoot for three sets. You can opt to curl both dumbbells at the same time or alternate them, but either way it’s vital to lower the weight back to the start point after each rep in order to stretch the muscle properly and work all the muscle fibres.

Are 21s the best bicep exercise?

The 21s bicep curl is a powerful compound bicep exercise. Compared to standard bicep curls, bicep 21s maximize time under tension during the exercise motion. As a result, the increased time under tension strengthens the biceps muscle and increase biceps hypertrophy.

Are 7s good for biceps?

The 7-7-7 method can be used for most muscle groups, not just the biceps. You may use it to build a bigger chest, massive delts, stronger legs and so on. Because of the high rep range, your arms will feel like they’re on fire. The key is to perform each rep correctly, not just rush through the movements.

Why do bodybuilders not do full reps?

Bodybuilders prefer to not rely on their skeletal systems to bear load but leave the tension in the muscles. So by not locking out and completing the rep, they are working under constant muscle tension.

Did Arnold Do 21s?

Arnold sought to increase his biceps to greater and greater sizes. A man known for his unique style of training that was high in intensity, he came across the idea of combining partial and full repetitions. Thus, 21s for biceps were created.

Who has biggest biceps in world?

Moustafa Ismail

An Egyptian man has entered the Guinness World Records for having the world’s largest biceps. Dubbed the ‘real-life Popeye’, Moustafa Ismail, 24, has biceps which have a circumference of 31 inches, the same size of an average grown man’s waist.

What is hyper trophy?

Hypertrophy is an increase in the size of cells (or tissues) in response to various stimuli. A typical example is muscular hypertrophy in response to exercise. Exercise stimulates skeletal and cardiac muscle fibers to increase in diameter and to accumulate more structural contractile proteins.

Who invented bicep curls?

Invented by 19th century strongman George Zottman, the zottman curl targets your biceps and your forearms at the same time.

How did Arnold get his bicep peak?

This palm rotation, called supinating, is what Arnold believed helped him peak his biceps more than anything. It’s simple, yet painful, to do: At the top of each rep of a dumbbell curl, turn your palm outward to where your pinkie finger is closer to you than the rest of your hand, and squeeze the peak contraction hard.

How did Arnold train biceps?

Arnold would pick up a heavy dumbbell and train to failure on the standing 1-arm dumbbell concentration curl. Then without resting he would pick a lighter dumbbell and train to failure with that. He would just keep going down the rack until he was using the lightest dumbbells.

Are curls a waste of time?

Bicep curls very well may be beneficial to many athletes, when done with the right intent. However, without adhering to the foundation movements; squats, pulls, cleans, snatches, bodyweight calisthenics, sprints, etc of your specific sports, bicep curls may very well be a waste of time.

How much can a average man curl?

How much can the average man dumbbell curl? The average dumbbell curl weight for a man who performs resistance training regularly is 50 lbs for a max curl or for a few reps. For sets of 8-10 reps, the average dumbbell curl weight for a male lifter is around 35 lbs.

Are pull-ups better than curls?

Despite the isolation of the bicep curl vs the chin up, chin ups are actually the better exercise for your arms and your upper body as a whole. The practicality of the functional strength is a big factor, but not as big as the facts. Chin-ups are proven to have a greater bicep activation than curls.

Do bicep curls make your arms bigger?

Bicep curls are a great isolation exercise, which makes them popular among body builders. But for the average gym-goer who wants bigger arms, bicep curls aren’t particularly effective. Bicep curls exclusively target the biceps brachii, the large muscle located on the front of the upper arm.

Is 100 bicep curls good?

From doing a hundred repetitions. On each arm is an increase in the reps. Equal to an increase in the strength. And the muscle mass i'm the guinea pig here i'm just experimenting.

How heavy should dumbbells be for bicep curls?

Suggested starting weights are 5 pounds or 10 pounds per dumbbell. If you are just beginning, rehabilitating from an injury, or returning to exercise after a sedentary period, you might start with 2 pounds.