Buff, strong biceps muscles make it so much easier for you to do pullups and lateral pulldowns. Of course, shapely arms also enhance your feminine physique and solicit plenty of compliments. Bulking up the biceps muscles entails progressively challenging workouts using mostly dumbbells and barbells. As a woman, you can follow the same type of biceps training routines that a man uses to build bigger biceps muscles.
EZ barbell
Straight barbell
Dumbbells
Hammer barbell
Cable pulley machine
Chin-up bar
To support your intense arm training, you should consume 350 extra calories per day beyond what you would eat to maintain your current weight. Additionally, you need about 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of your body weight to build muscle tissue.
Start your biceps routine slowly with light to moderate weight and only three sets per exercise. Gradually increase the volume and the intensity to reduce your risk of suffering from extreme muscle soreness.
Train your biceps and triceps muscles together, one day per week, to maximize your time and bulk up your arms. Pair a biceps exercise with a triceps exercise and alternate between one set of each exercise until you complete four to six sets per exercise. Muscles need training and recovery time to grow.
Use an intense amount of weight so that it is challenging for you to complete six to 12 repetitions per set for most sets of your workout. The optimal intensity that stimulates muscle tissue growth is a weight that is difficult to lift for six to 12 reps.
Begin your biceps workout with a barbell exercise such as EZ-bar curls or straight-bar curls; these exercises require you to use both arms, thus enabling you to lift a very heavy weight to build your biceps.
Incorporate three to four biceps exercises for every workout including exercises like alternating dumbbell curls, concentration curls, hammer barbell curls, hammer dumbbell curls, cable curls and one-arm cable curls at a diagonal.
Change your biceps routine every four to six weeks by swapping out exercises, changing the exercise order, varying the tempo of each repetition or incorporating isometric biceps exercises. An isometric exercise, for example, would be to hold the barbell curl at the mid-range position for 15 seconds.
Perform chin-up holds at the end of every biceps session. Position your hands at shoulder-width distance on a chin-up bar with your palms facing you. Step off and pull your chin above the bar. Hold this position as long as you can, contracting your biceps until you are simply hanging from the bar, stimulating your biceps muscles to grow and bulk up.
Things You'll Need
Tips
Warnings
References
- Exercise Prescription on the Internet: Weight Training Guidelines
- Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning; Thomas R. Baechle, et al.
Resources
Writer Bio
Paula Quinene is an Expert/Talent, Writer and Content Evaluator for Demand Media, with more than 1,500 articles published primarily in health, fitness and nutrition. She has been an avid weight trainer and runner since 1988. She has worked in the fitness industry since 1990. She graduated with a Bachelor's in exercise science from the University of Oregon and continues to train clients as an ACSM-Certified Health Fitness Specialist.