For all the talk over the last decade about core strength, functional movement, CrossFit, and training in the gym to mimic the motions of sport and everyday life, there’s still nothing like a biceps-focused workout to produce the guns you want.
In fact, even dedicated CrossFitters—or guys training their cores for a specific sport—can benefit from focusing an occasional workout to the sleeve-bursting, high-profile beach muscles. That process breaks you out of your normal routines, challenges muscles in a different manner, and provides a host of benefits.
Because here’s the truth: It’s incorrect to assume that biceps routines are isolated, narcissistic, and useful only to advanced lifters and bodybuilders. The pushing and (mostly) pulling movements you do in a biceps workout mimic everyday life and sport. Try lifting furniture (or your kid) without engaging the biceps. It’s impossible. And while scrawnier guys like Kevin Durant and Steph Curry thrive in the NBA, nobody dominates more than LeBron James, whose guns headline perhaps the most imposing physique in NBA history.
How it works
Whether your biceps work is a staple of your training or an occasional diversion, this ultimate workout will produce results. By alternating between a push and a pull, we can move continuously between movements with no rest, though a one-minute water break between circuits is permitted. Sure, it’s tough—but so are you, right?
Directions
- Do 10 reps of each of the following 5 exercises, performed in a circuit. Do not rest between each set of exercises within the circuit.
- Do 3 total circuits. You may rest one minute between circuits.
Pete Williams is a NASM-certified personal trainer and the author or co-author of a number of books on performance and training.