Supplemental Exercises for Bodybuilding Biceps

Building big biceps, can't happen in a vacuum. If you work on your biceps alone they may experience some gains, but you will reach a plateau at which they won't grow anymore. The reason for this, is that your body is trying to keep your muscles in balance. If you are trying to build up a muscle group, and the counter muscle group doesn't have the strength to keep up then you won't grow until you bring up the strength or size of the lagging muscle groups. When this comes to getting bodybuilding biceps, you have to know what muscles are holding you back so that we can pack on some size.

Supplemental Muscles for Bodybuilding Biceps

The first muscle group that you want to bring up to speed when it comes to your arms is your triceps. Since the triceps make up two thirds of the size of your upper arm, this is the first muscle group we should focus on to be able to grow our biceps as well as our upper arms in general. Most people's triceps will already be stronger than their biceps, but we want to make sure to work both muscle groups, so we are not leaving anything behind. Do 3 sets of 12 reps of any of the following exercises during your next arm workout: rope triceps push-downs, overhead rope triceps extensions, skull crushers, overhead dumbbell triceps extensions, or close grip decline bench press.

Another muscle group that will probably be holding you back will be your forearms. Your grip strength, which includes your forearms and your hands is incredibly important for building muscle and strength all over. If you can't hold on to a dumbbell or a bar then you can't really expect to lift it. Your forearms and grip can be helped by doing hammer curls, Zottman curls, reverse EZ bar curls, reverse barbell curls, and fat-bar pull ups. If you really want to hit your forearms on their own, you can do wrist curls and reverse grip curls, farmers walks, plate pinches, or get a heavy gripper from Iron Mind or a similar store.

It Takes 15lbs for 1 inch

If you find that you are doing all the above exercises and you still aren't making any gains, then you may just not be big enough all over to gain the size you want. Earlier we talked about muscle imbalances prohibiting your gains, well that isn't just a local muscle to muscle thing. Your body also tries to maintain a certain proportionality to your entire body, and for bodybuilding biceps, you want to be proportional anyway. A good rule of thumb is that for every 1 inch you want on your arms, you are going to need to add 15 lbs of muscle to your frame. The exercises that you are going to want to do will be your staple strength and bodybuilding exercises. Doing heavy dead-lifts, heavy squats, bench presses, and rows will help you build the size and strength you need to support the bodybuilding biceps you want.