3 Ugly Truths About Building Big Biceps

It’s been a while since I talked about big beefy biceps. I have ugly biceps. I have ugly shaped biceps. I have big triceps. Biceps are not my favorite body part.

Biceps are a smaller body part and there is a lot of misguided information about biceps and how it impacts arm size. I'm going to get into that a little bit later in this article.

So, here are three tips - three ugly truths actually - about building big, beefy, bulging biceps.

Truth #1 - You Can’t Change Your Shape

Number one, you can't magically change the shape of your biceps and turn it into this big softball or hardball-looking peak. I know you guys have seen it. You've seen some ugly biceps, you've seen some potato-looking biceps, like what I have.

And you've seen these biceps that look like hardballs. They just ball up and they look impressive and they get people excited; they make the arms look kind of bigger, right?

But you've also seen little biceps that have this space between the elbow and the biceps. They tend to look less than appealing.

I get asked a lot of questions about how to improve the shape of the biceps, or how to build or change that shape.

The reality is you can't. Your existing bicep shape is all you get. All you can do is expand it or make it bigger. It's like a balloon. You can only take that shape and make it bigger. You can't magically just add a peak or a hard ball-like peak to the bicep. 

Period. End of story. There is no way to change the shape. You can only make the shape bigger. 

Truth #2 - Biceps Require a Limited Volume

Second ugly truth. You don't really need a lot of sets to build the biceps because they are a smaller muscle group. A lot of guys will attack the biceps with just a ton of sets, but it's not really like that. It's not really required.

The biceps are like every other muscle group.

First and foremost, you should really try to train the entire body for as much strength as possible. That includes the back. A lot of rowing movements. 

You have horizontal rowing movements, you have vertical rowing movements (or pulling movements). You have lat pull downs. You have pull-ups, you have chin-ups, you have barbell rows, you have dumbbell rows, you have t-bar rows. 

A ton of amazing options that will contribute to mass. That's how you want to build the base of your biceps strength and size.

But it's also a good idea to add in things like hammer curls, dumbbell curls, EZ bar curls, even straight bar curls if you like them. I don't particularly like them. They feel awkward to me. But, whatever works for you.

Then, after the big-hitting biceps exercises, you might want to get fancy. You can do 21s. You can do cable curls, you can do all kinds of nasty stuff, but you don't need a lot of volume.

What you need to do is maximize your volume and focus on getting a lot stronger than you are now with a reasonable amount of volume. Doing 20 to 30 sets a week really isn't going to generally amplify your biceps size.

If anything, it'll probably give you elbow issues and contribute to elbow tendonitis. 

Truth #3 - Want Big Arms? Think Triceps!

The third ugly truth about the biceps, and this one has to do with arm size, is this…

When it comes to arm size, it's all about the triceps. It really is.

If you're one of these guys that has a potato bicep like me, you need big triceps, right? My biceps is long and full and it looks good when it's down at my side, but I don't have that hardball looking thing that is so greatly coveted.

Arm size is really all about the triceps. The triceps comprise generally two-thirds of the mass of the arm. If you want big, impressive arms, especially from the side and from the back, it's gonna be all about triceps size.

This comes down to your pressing strength; your overhead pressing, your bench pressing, and movements like that.

So, biceps strength and bicep training has its place. Just don't elevate it to the point where you're doing too much work. Focus more on the triceps. The triceps are a larger muscle group; slightly larger. They can take more punishment.

They're generally more resilient and you can put in more work for your triceps.