Bicep help

[Venus]

About a year ago I had a bad mountain bike accident and I had to stop lifting weights for several months. Since then I've just about gotten my weight lifting up to where I was pre-accident. However, I can't seem to strengthen my biceps.

I just switched to a 1-2 bodypart a day routine so I can focus even more on trouble spots and also give them more recovery time. Yesterday I did biceps and I did the timesaver bicep work (isolation curls on the ball & regular bicep curls with a barbell) plus I added hammer curls. I used the same weight as Cathe.

As usual my biceps are not sore at all but my forearms are really sore, so they are obviously what is doing all the work. I have been lifting lighter a long time because someone told me to keep other muscles from over-compensating I had to lower my weight, but that did not seem to help either. Help! I'm not sure how to fix this problem...and what makes it even stranger is my bicpes weren't even affected by the injuries from the accident in any way.

 

[solara]

Venus ~

Obviously, not Cathe, but I want to suggest that you take your thumb out of the grip during biceps exercises to primarily recruit the bicep during curls.

...just a suggestion. Kudos on achieving your pre-accident weight training level. That must've been one heck of an accident.

Ride safely...lift hard and heavy!

~ Kim


"Welcome the challenge...Embrace it...Don't fear it." -Cathe Friedrich

 

[Aquajock]

Venus, I'd suggest bringing in weighted wrist curls into your program. It makes all kinds of sense that your biceps AREN'T sore but your forearms are; the forearm muscles are quite small and can lose more of their strength when your strength-training program is interrupted. That's true for me, at least.

I believe the Slow and Heavy Series has a good wrist-curl drill in it, both underhand and overhand grip drills.

A-Jock

 

[Venus]

Thank you both, I will take both of your suggestions!

 

[Cathe Friedrich]

Hi Venus! I can recommend three things:

1) Definitely include forearm isolation work in your bicep workouts (ie: wrist curls).

2) Do the S&H Bicep workout (it also has wrist curl exercises too).

3) Incorporate negatives (a training technique) into your workout. Negatives focus on the “eccentric” phase, or the lowering part of the lift. These are best done with a spotter since he/she can help you lift the weight and you focus on lowering the weight on your own. The idea is that your muscles are stronger or able to handle more weight during the lowering phase as opposed to the lifting phase. Therefore, you can really exhaust the muscles you are targeting.

I like to do negatives while doing barbell curls. I also like to mix negatives with super slow training to go for strength.

Suggestion for Bicep Barbell Curls: Try curling the most challenging weight you can safely handle for about 6 slow reps. You will curl the weight up for about 2 seconds and SLOWLY lower it for about 10 seconds. Again, try 6 total reps like this. Side Note: If I don't have a spotter I will put this exercise first so that I am stronger to handle the weight by myself. If I do have a spotter I like to put it last and work to TOTAL failure (beware of frightening facial expressions, ha)

Good Luck

 

[Venus]

Thank you Cathe!