Try this test. Flex the bicep of your right arm. Take your left hand and see how many fingers you can fit between your bicep and your elbow. The more fingers you can fit, the “shorter” your muscle insertion is and the harder it will be to develop full big biceps. One to two fingers, and you have fairly long insertions, and thus good bicep potential. Three or four, and you’ll find it hard to add much mass to your biceps.

If this is you, you’re going to have to train the hardgainer way. Don’t worry though, this is the most effective way to build bicep size, and get pretty damn strong in the process. You can’t afford to waste your bicep training doing endless sets of cable and machine curls – they’ll tire your arms out, but at the same time they are probably the least effective type of growth stimulus.

To get huge biceps, you’ll need to go hardcore. Here’s an example bicep routine:

Close grip Chins 3 sets of 6-10
Barbell Bicep Curls 3 sets of 8-10
Alternating Dumbbell Curls – 2 sets of 8-10

This bicep workout is designed to be performed once or twice per week. As you can see, its based around bodyweight and free-weight exercises. These exercises have been proven again and again to elicit the largest growth and strength responses, and will serve you much better than cables and machines. (If you really want to learn how to build whole-body muscle, week in week out, then you can check out Vince Delmonte’s program here, which I highly recommend). If you can drink some whey protein immediately after your workouts, and work your whole body in a weekly split, then you’ll be well on your way to huge biceps.

So how am I going to go about building huge biceps?  First of all, I’m going to train in the 8-12 rep range, and no less. When I first started training, I used to read a lot of bodybuilding forums and absorbed a lot of “hardgainer” advice. This is the sort of “back to basics” thinking that you might have found too on the net – heavy compounds, lots of food, protein and rest. There’s certainly merit in it and it’s a great antidote to the ridiculous routines and exercises you read about in muscle mags.

Still though, it’s easy to lose your way with hardgainer thinking, especially if your primary goal is a physique as opposed to strength. I’m sure 2-3 sets of heavy curls per week in the 4-6 rep range was far from optimal for my biceps, and this is what I did for a couple of years.

So after a few years I finally figured out what works and what doesn’t for my body.  If you don’t have 6+ years of training experience under your belt, I suggest checking out this program by Vince Delmonte - I can honestly say it’s about as close as it gets to an effective, no-BS training and diet regime.  For me it’s all about heavy compounds, yes – but I notice I gain best from training my arms twice a week, with at least 6-8 sets per muscle, in the 8-10 rep range.

This is what I’ll be doing in order to develop huge biceps. Close grip chins, barbell curls, dumbbell curls. Simple and effective. You can be sure I’ll be hitting the rest of my body with compounds in the 8-10 rep range, and eating right to boot. Ideally I’d like to see significant differences in the mirror within 3 months time – and with muscle memory and intelligent training, I know for sure that this is more than achievable.

-Train with the right exercises – that largely means close grip chinups, and free weight curls –barbell and dumbbell. For most people, just switching to close grip chinups is more than enough to explode their bicep growth. Endless sets of cable and machine curls do not cut it. Studies have proven that bodyweight and free weight exercises are massively superior, so get on it

-Train your WHOLE body for growth. This is THE most important point to consider, and it’s really hashed out in the top muscle and strength gain program from Vince Delmonte Although there is some leeway, the body does not like growing one muscle out of all proportion. Have you ever seen someone with massive 17” biceps, but no shoulders, chest back or legs to speak of? Very very unlikely, and yet, there are thousands of people who train their biceps hard 4-5 times a week and nothing else. The fact is, the body does not like growing out of proportion – and for good reason, too.

Your body only grows muscle when it receives signals that tell it it’s absolutely necessary - and simply training only your biceps isn’t enough. If you’re hitting heavy compound exercises and working every bodypart at least once a week, and you’re eating a caloric surplus with lots of protein, then your body realises it’s time to build muscle – and it does it all over. So train your entire body with compound, free weight exercises – that’s how to get huge biceps. Again, the principle of whole body growth is seriously important, and if you havent checked it out yet, No Nonsense Muscle Building is by far my favourite resource for spot on information.

Train your triceps hard – when most people say they want big biceps, what they really mean is they want big arms. The triceps make up two thirds of the muscle on your upper arm, and you should train them accordingly – i.e. you should be doing more work for your triceps, than you do for your biceps. Close grip bench press, overhead extensions, dips skullcrushers – these bodyweight and freeweight movements are all good. Change your focus from “huge biceps” to “huge arms”, and you’ll reach your physique goals a lot sooner.

Close grip Chin Ups – 3 sets of 6-10
Barbell Bicep Curls – 3 sets of 8-10
Cable Bicep Curls – 2 sets of 8-10
Reverse or Hammer Curls – 3 sets of 8-10

Close grip Chinups - these are, in my experience, the best mass builder for the biceps bar none. I know many, many people would argue with this, and yes, the curl is good too. But if you look at the evidence and your own results were you to include these in your weekly biceps workout, you’d have to agree. Perform them for at least six reps for size gains. If you can’t do six, then have someone “spot” you and support your legs with their hands, until you can hit six on your own. When you can do more than ten, add weight via a dip belt or dumbbell between your legs.

Barbell Bicep Curls – The second best mass builder! Your focus here should be on form. Keep everything stiff and still, with flexion only at your elbows. Check your form in the mirror, and visualise the bicep doing all the work as you perform these.

Cable curls are nice to finish off the biceps and get a good pump. They aren’t essential, and most of your efforts should be focussed on the previous two exercises. Again, keep your form strict with cable curls and focus on the squeeze.

Hammer/Reverse curls – these are good for training the brachialis (the muscle underneath/below your bicep, close to your elbow) and the top of your forearms. Reverse curls are easier on the wrists when you use an E-Z bar. Again, form is the key. That should finish off your biceps workout – now get that protein shake in ya and watch those guns grow!

The whole workout is based on a variation of a workout in Vince Delmonte’s No Nonsense Muscle Building, which is in my opinion the absolute bible on building lean muscle and physique transformation. Worth checking out if you haven’t seen it before.

Most people utilise combinations of curls for their bicep training. Afterall that’s what the bicep does – when it contracts it brings your forearm close to your upper arm. So why the need for close grip chins? And why are they more effective?

Well first let me tell you that they’re actually better for both strength AND size. Whichever your goal is, you’ll reach it sooner with 3 sets of close grip chins, twice a week, than any number of sets of bicep curls. And unless you’re already an advanced bodybuilder (i.e. if you have particularly large arms, say 17”+, that need more work), the close grip chin is more than adequate, and you need never curl a barbell or dumbbell again.

Here’s two reasons why it’s more effective:

-The close grip chin is a closed-chain bodyweight exercise. That means that you’re moving your body through space, rather than just moving weight relative to your body. Studies have shown that closed-chain bodyweight exercises elicit the absolute highest growth and strength responses of all exercises (next in line are closed-chain free-weight exercises, like the squat – and right at the bottom, are open chain cable and machine movements, like pulldowns or machine curls). Your body simply takes them more seriously. As such, strength and size are gained much more quickly with close grip chins.

-The tension is constant on your bicep throughout the entire movement. At no point in the close grip chinup do you relax your bicep. In the curl, the tension in your bicep reaches a peak half way through, and then as you bring the barbell up towards your upper arm, you can feel the bicep relax. There’s no room for relaxing in the close grip chinup – your biceps are contracting just as hard at the top as they are at the middle and bottom of the workout. As such, the close grip chin works the bicep hard through an entire range of motion, which breaks down more muscle fibre and stimulates a greater growth response.

Hopefully that’s convinced you that the close grip chin is the best exercise for huge biceps. If not, I urge you to try it – cut out all bicep curling, and hit up the chins for 3 sets, twice per week. Try to keep your reps above 6, and add weight if you can do more than 10. I guarantee you will be surprised at your results after 4-6 weeks, and you may very well never go back to curling.

p.s. you’ll find more of these gems in No Nonsense Muscle Building - the best physique transformation product on the net in my opinion. Worth checking out.