I just wanted to share a Bicep killer I learned about recently from the man Arnold(not personally). Curls, Pull-Ups and Chin-Ups are the best at hitting the biceps hard many experts will agree with and I agree myself. Anyways start from a dead hang with palms facing towards your face about 6" apart and pull yourself completely up and hold for 2 secs then come down halfway and hold for another 2 secs coming back to a dead hang. That's 1 rep. Do 3 sets of as many as you can do. My biceps burned so good I could barely move my arms and sorta felt like Randy off of A Christmas Story when he's all bundled up in winter clothes. Not only do you hit your biceps hard you also get your back. Others may have heard of these already but like I said I just recently learned of them and tried them and thought they were awesome so if anyone wants a good bicep workout give these a try.

I love an arm exercise that leaves you feeling like you've got arms like a Lego man! This one sounds like it could do that, so I'm keen to give it a go on Monday (which is when I next hit arms). Thanks for posting.

Cheers

Many people either forget or just don't know how great a bicep exercise chin-ups are. The key is to really flex your biceps and pull with your biceps to get your chin up and over the bar. Also you must go all the way down and pull up with arms and back - not swinging and using momentum. Too many people I see do chin-ups and pull-ups wrong because they are more concerned with the number of reps versus doing them correctly thus they swing and use a lot of body momentum to do them. This defeats the whole purpose of the exercise and could lead to injury.

Now to prevent this thread from potentially turning into a huge debate on chin-ups are better for back versus biceps and other potential angles, I will qualify my statement above with the following:

1) Chin-ups are one of the BETTER exercises to stimulate both bicep heads when done correctly. It is not THE BEST bicep exercise

2) Chin-ups do work your lats, traps, and upper back muscles. Using a palm-facing grip just puts further emphasis on the biceps versus palms-away grip that is a pull-up

3) There have been plenty of studies done that show chin-ups do in fact stimulate the bicep effectively for growth

4) Many pro bodybuilders use them in their routines

5) One must still do specific bicep mass exercises like BB/DB curls in conjunction with chin-ups

6) Being a compound movement, chin-ups are great for beginner/intermediate lifters as it hits back and biceps together thus giving you a two-for-one benefit if you do back and biceps on the same day and it releases more hormones (GH, testosterone) like all compound movements

7) The key to chin-up effectiveness for bicep growth is proper form and full range of motion - no swinging or using body momentum

8) Not everyone will benefit from chin-ups to build there biceps. One has to find the bicep exercises that work best for them. I am finding them quite effective in helping me build back up my left bicep post-tear :-)

John

one cannot simply say this is good nor bad for either muscle group its all about how you personally get the muscles to move, if you dont want your back engaged then you can focus more on your biceps if you want the focus on your back then put it in your back :P same with bench press, alot of people develop moderate sized shoulders because of incorrect form, it all comes down to mind to muscle connection and that 2 second pause you take at the top middle and bottom not only improves the intensity of the exercise it improves the effectiveness of the exercise by adding in the 3rd and final key of developing a strong muscular body... isometric strength... say you do 10 reps thats 60 seconds worth of holds in the 1 set, that could be the difference between 10 and 11% bodyfat :P

Great post. I like doing chin-ups to my sternum. For me I get a great pull in my rhomboids, similar to doing a seated reverse pull-down.