People have asked me many times: "Anton, how can I get bigger arms?" "Anton, how many arm days do you do?" Anton, what's going to give me bigger arms-dumbbells or barbells?"
When it comes to building those biceps like many men (specifically) want to, you want to make sure you're getting the best out of your training in order to stimulate that growth.
I will share with you what success I have found when it comes to building those biceps and how using both barbells and dumbbells is an efficient way that will only benefit you long term.
Firstly, let's talk about the muscles in the biceps. You have two heads of the bicep: the outer long head and the inner short head, so when it comes to working both those different heads you need to maximise certain exercises and angles in order to hit them.
Now for myself, training for strength and hypertrophy is essential for muscle growth and by utilising both barbells and dumbbells, you are able to focus on both training methods.
Type 2 muscle fibres (fast twitch) predominantly dominate the biceps, which is why lifting for strength as well as hypertrophy is only going to increase the stimulation of growth. I like to always aim for progressive overload, whether it is; increasing weight, reps, sets, or changing tempos in my training over time in order to progress.
For strength I like to aim to lift relatively heavy, ensuring that form isn’t compromised too much. By using mostly barbells, I can recruit multiple joints and muscle fibres. By incorporating multi-joints to assist, I can progress in my strength much faster and safer.
Exercises I like to use for strength that target my biceps are; Underhand or Overhand BB Rows, T Bar rows and different variations of Barbell Bicep Curls. Utilising barbells allows me to overload and progress greater than dumbbells, because there is only so much weight you can increase with dumbbells before you increase the risk of injuries.
Different grips and exercises will target a different area of the bicep, but more importantly your bicep works in tandem with your back. Including those bigger compound movements into your plan with the use of barbells working them directly and indirectly will enhance the growth of your biceps, as you are able to progress at different rates with smaller and bigger movements.
Following my strength work, I like to then go onto more specific hypertrophy training. I have already utilised most of my energy for the strength work that is needed most at the beginning, so I can move onto a different protocol.
More reps and more mind-to-muscle connection, work the biceps in a different way. With dumbbells, I am able to hit different angles and focus on the squeeze of the bicep to work more time-under-tension (TUT) if chosen. These exercises include Dumbbell Curls with so many variations; Supinated Grip, Hammer Grip to hit more forearms as well, or a combination of both.
Hopefully this can help improve your training for the better in order to increase the muscle mass in those biceps. Just remember, never limit yourself to one sort of training protocol or equipment in this case. Barbells and dumbbells are different in many ways, but combining both is only going to enhance your progress for the better.
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