Train Your Biceps Twice Over The Course Of Your Split

A smaller muscle group like the biceps recovers from a hard workout more quickly than a larger one like legs or back. You can train it more frequently over the course of your split, especially if your training split lasts five or more days.

That being said, how you construct that split becomes crucial. In a worst-case scenario, you wouldn't want to train biceps on Mondays, back on Tuesdays, and biceps again on Wednesdays. Your arm flexors wouldn't be given sufficient recovery time to grow. Nor would you want to train biceps the day before or after a back workout. Strategically working in other upper-body workouts, leg days, or rest days between biceps workouts can help pace your pull-day routines.

Just because you're training your biceps twice over the course of your split doesn't mean you simply have to repeat the same workout. Consider the first workout to be a general mass-building biceps routine that includes movement for both the long and short heads, and the second workout to be one that emphasizes the short head with a variety of moves, grips, and rep ranges.

You can even consider alternate techniques to use—negatives instead of forced reps, partials instead of dropsets—to work the biceps in very different ways as well.

Add A Biceps Workouts After Back Training 

One easy remedy for the problem of training the biceps is to do your biceps immediately after your back workout. (Never train biceps before back; it would adversely affect your strength on many of your back movements, as well as your ability to hold on to the bar or handle.) Most back-day movements are multijoint exercises, so the biceps are already carrying a significant load. It makes sense, then, to just finish them off because they're already highly fatigued.

Training a smaller muscle group immediately after a larger one is familiar terrain to most bodybuilders, but usually you're not able to generate the same degree of intensity after you've just finished a bunch of heavy pulls.

That's one reason the second biceps workout should be done on an arms-only day. Here, the biceps won't be prefatigued so you'll be able to hit them with more energy—and more weight—a great combination for maximal stimulus.

Start With A Mass-Builder That Focuses On The Short Head

Since curling movements for the biceps are almost exclusively single-joint exercises, the usual advice to start with a multijoint movement just doesn't cut it here. Choose a movement with which you can move the most weight. For most people, that's standing curls. Standing movements allow you to generate a bit of momentum through your lower body and thus are better leadoff hitters, if you will, in your arm workout.

As noted above, a slightly wider grip on the bar (or EZ-bar if your prefer) can shift some of the emphasis to the short head. One approach I've used is to do 2 sets with a slightly closer grip and 2 more with a slightly wider grip (or 3 and 1) rather than 4 sets with the same shoulder-width grip. That allows you to better emphasize both the short and long heads on your different sets right at the start of your arm workout.

Further, don't be shy about putting some challenging weight on the bar at the start of your workout, when your energy levels are highest. After a few warm-up sets, use a weight that causes you to fail at 6-8 reps, the lower end of the muscle-building rep spectrum. If you can do more than 8 reps, add more weight.

Emphasize The Short Head In Your Workout 

We spoke about prioritizing a lagging body part in the first paragraph of this article, so by all means add another 1-2 movements that focus on the short head. Your best bet is to target it early in your workout when your energy levels are a little higher. Assuming you did some wide-grip barbell curls as your first movement, consider adding other short-head-focused movements next. Good options: preacher curls, lying cable concentration curls, and high cable curls.

Hitting the short head with a different relative intensity—that is, instead of choosing a weight that causes failure at 6-8 reps, choose one that causes failure at 8-10 or 10-12—also allows you to target the short head in new ways.

Adding a second movement from a slightly different angle and with a slightly different relative intensity is the best way to work the short head for better overall gains.


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 3 Day Full Body Routine

This routine is a 3 day a week workout routine. Each workout day is followed by 1 rest day and the third workout is followed by 1 or 2 rest days (as most people will take the weekend off entirely).
This routine is typically used by beginners and involves full body workouts.
It is great for beginners because of many reasons:
  • It allows you to get familiar with the exercises by repeating them many times throughout the week.
  • Since most beginners do not possess the same strength levels as more advanced lifters, it is good to trigger the muscle more often because the amount of weight lifted is significantly lighter and you will not need as much time to recover and repair before their next workout. 
  • As a beginner, your body will actually experience greater gains training less rather than training more. Take advantage of this time in your training as you will experience the 'beginner gains' that you may never experience again. You need to allow your body to adapt to exercises and recover in order to grow. 3 days is a good start for beginners and it will allow you to eventually progress to more volume and more frequency if desired.

Sample 3 Day Full Body Routine

Day 1:
Day 2: Off
Day 3:
Day 4: Off
Day 5:

 

4 Day Split

This is the next step from the 3 day full body workouts.
This routine is typically performed by intermediate trainers.

There are many variations that are floating around but the most common template to follow is performing upper body then lower body on the following day, then a rest day, then repeat (upper body/lower body).

As in the 3-day workout program, you have the choice to take two days off for the weekend or to continue after only 1 day of rest. The disadvantage of only taking one day off instead of the two day weekend is that it throws you off schedule for your next week (if that is important to you).

The reason why this routine is categorized as intermediate is because now that you have been training longer and you have become stronger in your lifts, you will need more rest to allow proper recuperation between body parts you've trained in your workouts. You will back off the frequency you train each muscle but you will increase your training by one day.

Once you have completed about 3-6 months of a 3-day routine, you can move up to this split to start seeing more muscle gains.

Sample 4-Day Split Routine

Day 1: Upper Body
Day 2: Lower Body
Day 3: Cardio/Off
Day 4: Upper Body
Day 5: Lower Body

5 Day Split

The 5 day split is the most advanced routine that I would recommend for anyone.
Sure, there are routines that could make you train 7 days a week or even twice per day for a total of 14 workouts per week. But eventually the line has to be drawn and I draw it at 5 days per week for 99% of natural trainers.

After training for many years and developing your maximal strength and growth, you may need to start training using a 5 day split routine focusing on only 1-2 muscle groups per workout.
When you train for more than 2 years or so, the strength gains experienced in the beginning (due to an adaptation in your central nervous system) due not occur at the same rate. You will reach a point where it will be very tough to add more weight to your lifts or even grow additional muscle.

It's not to say that you can't, it just becomes a lot harder.
At this point, it is better to increase the volume trained on the muscle on the day you work it and allow a longer cycle for it to repair fully and to stimulate growth.

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1.Length of Strength Phase

True strength development takes a lifetime of toil and focused reps with the iron. But that lifetime is broken down into increments of 12-16 weeks. What's so special about this time frame? That's how long it takes to accrue enough stress to get stronger by progressing through rep ranges and exercise selections.

Each 12-16-week cycle is broken down into smaller cycles of 3-6 weeks, depending on the person and the program. These 3-6-week phases are further broken down into training weeks. During each week, training volume and intensity vary:
  • Week 1 has a baseline volume and intensity (more on that in a bit).
  • Week 2 is similar to Week 1, possibly with an increase in either volume or intensity.
  • Week 3 features a big hike in either volume or intensity.
  • Week 4 is inversely related to Week 3—it's either low volume/high intensity or high volume/low intensity

2.Volume and Loading

Sets and reps—these are the details that stop folks in their planning tracks and elicit a deer-in-the-headlights look. Want the secret? Let me assure you, it's not that complicated.

I follow a simple strength set-and-rep rule I learned from longtime strength coach Dan John. Strength, he says, is built in the 15-25-rep range. Not reps per set—total reps multiplied by sets should fall within that range. This rep range is magic—it offers enough volume to make the body take notice while also allowing for loads heavy enough to build strength without overloading the nervous system.

There are several ways to break this rep range down: 5 sets of 3, 3x8, 6x3, 5x4, 5x5. Take these set-and-rep examples and plug them into the training week breakdown from above. Here's an example:
  • Week 1: 3 sets of 5
  • Week 2: 3x5
  • Week 3: 5x3
  • Week 4: 5x5
Let's say you want to ramp up intensity (that is, lift a relatively heavier weight) for the next four weeks. That looks like this.
  • Week 5: 4x4
  • Week 6: 4x4
  • Week 7: 5x5
  • Week 8: 3x3, 2x2, 1x1
What about loads—how heavy should they be? Strength is built at between 75 and 85 percent of your one-rep maximum. That corresponds to a weight you can lift for just 6-10 reps. That's it—that's your weight range. Work up to and push the upper end of that intensity range; this loading range is sustainable over the long haul and keeps lift form sharp and crisp. Creeping up to or above 90 percent—a weight you can do for only 3-4 reps—is fine on occasion, but doing it regularly invites trouble.

Keep the loads between 75 and 85 percent, move the bar fast, and leave a few reps in the tank at the end of each set. Remember, you're not training like a bodybuilder. No need to take those sets to muscle failure.

3.Exercise Selection

Barbell lifts are your best strength-building tool, period. Not everyone should do barbell back squats. Not everyone should do conventional deadlifts from the floor. Here's a simple rule: If you can't perform an exercise and maintain good form, don't do it. But within each of the major lifts are a number of variations that might be more suitable for an individual based on lifting skill and body type. A sharp-eyed strength coach can help guide you to the one best suited for you, but not everyone has access to such a resource.

What's the best way to know if an exercise is right for you? Do a quick self-assessment:
  • Can you touch your toes? If so, you're clear to deadlift from the floor. If not, stick to elevated variations like rack pulls.
  • Can you bodyweight squat below parallel? If so, squat to your heart's content. If not, stick with lower-level variations like goblet squats and two-kettlebell front squats.
  • Can you reach behind your neck and touch the top of the opposite shoulder blade? How about behind your back to touch the shoulder blade on the same side? If yes to both, press and pull to your delight. If not, stick with rowing variations and regressed pressing variations like dumbbell bench presses and push-up variations. 

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