Best Bicep Exercises: More Than Just Curls!

There are far more ways to work the biceps than curls, and in fact, some of the best bicep exercises are not curls at all. If you want to explore other possibilities to get your guns blazing then try out some of the following bicep exercises…

Chin Ups

To die hard ‘curlers’, it may come as a shock to hear that many people actually credit chin ups as being the best bicep exercise of them all. Consequently, if you have access to pull up apparatus it’ll really pay to try them.

Don’t mistake chin ups for pull ups. Chin ups are hand under and facing backward, and Pull ups are hand over and facing forwards. Both work the biceps, but Chin ups are far more effective because of the natural pulling position the biceps are in when the palm position is supine.

Pull ups, do, however, offer an important variation – because of the prone position of the hand (facing forwards) you take the biceps out of play somewhat and bring the brachialis into play more, and the brachialis is an important muscle to develop when looking for the biggest biceps possible.

If you’re strong enough you can also attempt to do single hand chin ups or pull ups.

Rows

Most people know rows as a back exercise (particularly bent over rows for lats and upright rows for traps), but they are also some of the best exercises to build biceps. In fact, many people don’t curl at all but get all of their biceps work from rows; which is testament to just how effective they are.

Bent over rows are the best rowing exercise to build the biceps out of the two. Not only do they allow for immense weight to be handled (far more than upright rows) but they are far safer and also allow for greater variation.

With a barbell you can perform bent over rows with a close grip or narrow grip, overhand to work the brachialis, or underhand to work the biceps more.

With dumbbells you can work each side together or separately, you can use underhand, overhand, or a neutral grip, much as you can with standing biceps curls with different grips and receive the same benefits each variation offers.

Curls

Curls had to be included to make this article complete. I’m not going to run through the different types of curls here, but I will direct you to the most definitive article on this website on the subject of bicep curl variations which gives you the information you need to literally concoct hundreds of specialist variations – and understand precisely what each variation does.

Conclusion:

All of these exercises are great biceps builders, but the worst thing you can do is to fall into the trap of searching for ‘the best’ biceps building exercise, and forsaking all others. Use as many variations as you can for all-round development and to maintain mental interest in your training.

Check out our other muscle building articles for more great training tips.