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Bicep
Workout
 
The bicep (biceps brachii) is
an important muscle for Police Officers and it is rather easy
to train. It is important to understand
that the bicep is a 2 headed muscle consisting of a long
head and a short head.. This is important
because there are different exercises that can be done to
work each individual head. The bicep is a small muscle that
does not need an excessive amount of training to
build them. Train the biceps once per week and with
a healthy diet your biceps will get stronger in no time.
You should be able to work
your biceps in 30 minutes which leaves plenty of time for
some cardio training or you may want to work your
triceps immediately following your biceps routine. I like
to work my biceps and triceps during the same
workout each week. I hit biceps first for 30
minutes and then I hit my triceps for 30 minutes
and then there is no need to work
arms until the following week.
Many people like to work each body
part 2 times per week but I feel that is not necessary for the
average person. When you exercise with weights you
are tearing down your muscles which requires a lot of
rest for them to recover and grow.
Your muscles do not
grow in the gym, they grow and become stronger when they
are being rested outside of the
gym. Because our biceps are being
torn down they need protein to grow and become
stronger. You will need to eat a fairly healthy diet
high in protein and moderate carbohydrates to fuel your
muscles so that they will grow and become
stronger.
For the average person
we should be ingesting around 1 gram of protein per body pound
each day. This mean that if you weigh 160 pounds you
should try and eat 160 grams of protein per day. Eating 1
gram of protein per body pound each day is not
difficult once you see what foods are high in
protein. You can easily accomplish this by drinking a
couple protein shakes each day along with a couple
meals.
You will want to rest in between
each set for roughly 60 seconds. In some of the more
advanced routines you will take very l.little rest in between
sets and at times you will perform multiple sets with no rest
at all. With the beginner routine below I would grab a
pair of 20 pound dumbells and curl them for 2 sets of 15
reps. This will warm up your biceps and elbows
for workout.
As with any fitness activity the
key to avoiding injury is to warm up properly. Now
that the warm up set is done I would move onto the work
sets. I would load a straight curl bar with a
weight that I think I could get 8 reps with. Don't
worry about being precise on your estimate of what weight you
should start out with. If you start your 1st set with a
weight that is too easy then adjust the weight accordingly on
the 2nd set.
I would then make sure I was
wearing a weight belt and then I would lift the straight bar
and curl it 8-12 times before putting the bar down. If
you find that you are able to do 12 reps with that weight then
you will need to increase the weight on the next set.
If you find that you cannot do 8
reps with that weight then you need to reduce the weight for
the next set. Routines with 3-6 reps per set are more
for power lifters and we are trying to achieve strength
gains along with gains in muscle mass which is why we shoot
for 8-12 reps. Ideally this is how your first set of the
beginner bicep workout should go.
Lets say you load 50 pounds on the
straight bar and you are able to get 12 reps on the 1st
set. You rest for 1 minute and then you put 60 pounds on
the straight bar and you are able to get 10 reps. You
then rest 1 minute and put 70 pounds on the bar and you are
able to get 8 reps. That would be a good set because you
increased the weight with each set and you stayed within the
8-12 reps with each set.
A not so good set would be where
you load 50 pounds on the straight bar for your 1st set and
you are only able to get 6 reps. you then put 60 pounds
on the bar for your 2nd set and you can only get 5 reps.
You then reduce the weight to
40 pounds and you get 10 reps on your 3rd and final set.
If on my 1st set I was unable to get 8 reps I would start over
and lower the weight 20 pounds. After a few workouts you
will be able to estimate your starting weight for each
exercise with ease.
So far we have done the warm up set
and 1 work set which was the standing barbell curl. The
standing barbell curl is the best exercise for building
strength and mass in the biceps which is why we do it as our
1st work set.
Because it is an important
exercise we want to do it as the 1st set when we are fresh and
rested. Now for our 2nd work set we will do the preacher
curls with dumbells. The preacher bench can be a seated
or standing piece of equipment depending on the
manufacturer.
I prefer the seated preacher bench
because the standing preacher bench feels awkward to me.
In this exercise we are using dumbells instead of the
barbell. You will want to grab a pair of dumbells that
you think you can curl on the preacher bench for 8-12
reps.
With the preacher bench you
want to make sure your elbows are not hanging off the end of
the pad. The preacher curl is great for shaping
the bicep and this should movement should never be left
out of a bicep workout. Do a total of 3 sets
on the preacher bench using the same principles that we used
with the standing barbell curls.
The 3rd and final work set in the
beginner bicep routine is the hammer curl. The hammer
curl is a great exercise that will hit the lower part of your
bicep. The hammer curl is done with dumbells using the
same weight principles as described above.
Do 3 sets of hammer curls and you
are finished with your biceps for this week. Now would
be a good time to do some cardio or work your triceps to
complete your arm workout for the week. Your goal each week
will be to increase the weight for each of these
exercises. Don't get discouraged, you will get stronger
and be able to increase the weight in no
time.
After 4 weeks of this
routine you will be ready to change to the beginner bicep
routine # 2. Our muscles are smart and they learn to
adapt to the routines that we put them through so we have to
change up our workouts from time to time.
Incorporating new bicep
exercises means that we will be hitting our biceps from
different positions and angles which will cause further muscle
growth and development. I advocate tweaking your bicep
workout every 4 weeks for beginners. Tweaking your bicep
workout can be as simple as removing 1 exercise from your
routine and adding something new.
For the beginner workout I
would stop doing the hammer curl at week 4 and start doing the
dumbells concentration curl. I would then switch the
dumbells preacher curl with the barbell preacher curl and then
switch the standing barbell curl with the standing cable
machine curl.
After a few months of the beginner
routines you may be ready for the more advanced bicep
workouts which will be listed below. You may be tempted
to work your biceps more than once per week as you start to
see some gains but don't do it. You can easily over
train the biceps which will severely reduce your strength
and mass gains and lead to an injury.
Beginner Bicep
Routine
Warm up with 2 sets of
standing dumbell curls for 15 reps each set
Standing barbell curl - 3 sets
for 8-12 reps each set
Preacher bench dumbell curls - 3
sets 8-12 reps each set
Hammer dumbell curls - 3 sets
8-12 reps each set
Standing Barbell
Curl
Preacher Dumbell
Curl
Standing Dumbell
Hammer Curl
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