How To Build Your Biceps Peak!

Since I’ve started full body training, I’ve been able to start experimenting with a lot of other exercises because the goal hasn’t always been increasing the weight every week, it’s been about overall volume and using different exercises in order to progress. Because of this, even though I have a specific goal whenever I go to the gym, I do have the option of switching things out depending on how I want to train. So I want to share with you three exercises you can start including in your routine if you want to build a bigger biceps peak.

You will notice that I’m doing half reps on some of these exercises, but that is for a specific reason, and I’ll cover that as we go over each exercise. Also, if you’re worried you have long biceps bellies so you can never improve your peak, you’re wrong, you can always improve what you’ve got!

Exercise #1: Seated Drag Curl

You have to make sure this is a DRAG CURL and not just a regular seated BICEPS CURL. If you do a biceps curl while seated, you’re only doing half the range of motion. But if you want to target the outer head of your biceps, drag curls are the way to go. They’re better seated because when you do a drag curl standing, the first half of the movement can feel a little too easy. When doing it seated, it’s tough the entire time, you can simply pull the weight from your hips while driving your elbows back and you can even lift a little heavier than normal. Just make sure you keep the bar against your torso and your chest the entire time.

Exercise #2: Dumbbell Plate Curl

The reason it’s called a dumbbell plate curl is because it’s generally supposed to be used with a dumbbell which has round heads on it. If you have hex dumbbells like me, you can still do it, it just might be a little harder to get your hands parallel. This is similar to a drag curl in that, you want to be dragging your elbows back behind your body while keeping the dumbbell as close to your body as possible. Most people do this exercise wrong because they treat it like a regular dumbbell biceps curl without actually dragging their elbows back behind their body. You want to always keep your hands parallel to the ground, so don’t go all the way down on this movement, only go down to about hip height.

One quick tip to make this exercise even more intense is that, as you curl the dumbbell up, try to turn your elbows out just a little bit. If you do this, you’re going to really feel your outer head of your biceps light up! Essentially you’re getting more supination, kind of mimicking what you would do when you twist your pinky out on regular dumbbell curls.

Exercise #3: Dumbbell Hammer Curl

Traditionally you’ll do a hammer curl out in front of your body. We know that hammer curls place a bit more emphasis on the brachialis (as well as brachioradialis). But we can alter this exercise to still target the brachialis, but also place a bit more emphasis on the outer head of the biceps. Instead of curling out in front of your body, try curling the dumbbell across your body instead. However, the other slight adjustment you want to make is to pull your elbow out a little bit from your body, curling more into your armpit.

Conclusion – Bonus Tip!

When you’re looking to incorporate these into your workouts, just pick one, but also make sure you have a biceps specific movement. For example, make sure you’re still doing a regular supinated-grip biceps curl with a barbell to activate both of your biceps heads. Try aiming for 3 sets of 8 – 10 reps per exercise!