Bicep Exercises at Home With Dumbbells and Without

Strength training is one of the primary reasons why anyone goes to the gym. For all others, there are triceps and bicep exercises at home.

Irrespective of your gender, you will want to cut down on excess fat from your arms and muscle them up.

Since many people avoid going to the gym during the coronavirus pandemic, we must focus on alternatives to continue the exercises. So, check out the best bicep exercises at home to improve your strength and bulk up your muscles.

The exercises will help you muscle up your arms and make your biceps visible without workout machines.

Bicep exercises at home with dumbbells

All exercises given below can be followed by men and women who focus on maximum gains.

You can do these along with other activities you do during a session or on your arms day.

Bicep curls

If you are familiar with biceps and triceps workout at home, you will surely first think of bicep curls to start.

You need dumbbells to do this exercise, and you must choose the ones you can withstand till the end of the set.

Beginners should start with 2.5kg dumbbells, while intermediates can try 5kg dumbbells. If you already do this exercise regularly, you might be able to use 7.5kg or heavier weights.

How to do bicep curls?

Stand straight, keeping your feet shoulder-width apart
Bent your knees slightly
Hold dumbbells in both hands and grip it underhand
Extend your arms fully to the sides and keep elbows in line with the torso
Curl the weights up to the shoulders
Make sure your biceps feel squeezed on the top
Repeat the exercise 15 times and do three sets

Zottman Curl

Move onto the exercise called Zottman curl that targets the forearms along with the biceps.

You need dumbbells for this too, and similar to the previous exercise, choose weights that you can carry.

If you keep doing these exercises regularly, your strength will increase.

Eventually, you will be able to take heavier weights. But initially, you should stick to the ones you can exercise with.

These not only prevent your biceps from wearing out before completing sets but also avoids injuries.

How to do Zottman curls?

Stand straight and take dumbbells on both hands
Hold them in a way to keep your palms face away from the body
Keep elbows close to the body throughout the exercise
Lift weights by keeping upper arms in place till dumbbells reach the line of shoulders
Keep your palms facing upwards at all times, even at the end of the exercise
Hold the contraction that happens when you do the exercise and rotate wrists to keep your palm downwards
Take a moment and then return to the first position

To follow this exercise in the right way, we have added a video for you. Make sure you follow this to have smooth bicep exercises at home. Not doing this right can hurt your hands. Do three repetitions of 10 or 15 times for each set.

Single-arm curls

The single-arm curls keep one arm moving and the other one stagnant. You have to do the exercise separately for both hands.

Again, choose the pair of dumbbells that you can carry and follow the steps.

How to do single arm curls?

Extend your arms and make a T-shape with the body
Make an underhand grip of the dumbbells and keep your palms facing up
Now curl your right arm up to around a 90-degree
Retrieve back down and keep it parallel with the ground
Make sure your opposite arm is extended all through the curls
Once you have done 10 or 15 reps, on one hand, do the same with the next one
Do three sets for each hand

Hammer curl

Imagine holding two hammers in each hand. Chances are that they are heavy, and you will want to grip them in the middle and not at the ends.

Now replace the thought of hammers with dumbbells and grip them on each side. This bicep exercises at home, work all through the brachii to the brachialis. Thus, doing this more often will make your arms look thick.

How to do hammer curl?

Once you grab the pair of dumbbells, let them hang at an arm’s length to your sides
Your palms should face towards the thighs to ensure you have held them right
Now without shifting your upper arms, bend the elbows, and curl dumbbells close to the shoulders
Pause for 10 seconds and slowly lower the weights back to the side
Make sure you straighten your arms when you return to the starting position
Repeat it 10 or 15 times in three sets

Decline dumbbell curl

When you lie on a bench chest down, you isolate the biceps as you don’t need to maintain tension on your core muscles or legs. This is different from when you stand and do the same exercise type.

For a variety of bicep exercises at home, you can use several grips at this position. Check out the guide to understand how to do this one specifically.

How to do decline dumbbell curl?

Take a pair of dumbbells and lie down, keeping your chest against the bench
You need to set the bench at a 35-degree incline to get the correct posture
If you don’t have a bench, you must skip this exercise or use similar furniture to get the proper angle/posture
Don’t move your upper arms but bend elbows to make the dumbbell curl
Bring it as close as your shoulders
Pause for a while and slowly lower the weights back to the starting posture
Straighten your arms once you return to the starting position
Repeat it 10 or 15 times in three sets

Concentration curl

Concentrate curl is an amazing exercise to add to the list of bicep exercises at home. It is a movement in isolation that solely works on your biceps.

How to do concentration curl?

Start this exercise while sitting on a bench and keep your legs wide
Place one elbow inside of thighs and lift a dumbbell gripping it from underhand
Now curl it by contracting the biceps till they are parallel to the shoulders
Move your forearm instead of the upper arm
Hold it for 10 seconds and retrieve back to the starting position
Make sure you don’t allow momentum to control the weights when lowering it – lower it in a controlled motion instead
Do it 10 or 15 times and then switch arms
Do it three times for each arm
Make sure you keep the elbows tucked in and against the thighs

At home arm workouts without weights

If you don’t have Best dumbbells, you need to follow the bodyweight bicep exercises instead. The following list includes different kinds of bicep exercises at home, and they use your body weight to improve body mass. These might seem more difficult initially but will get easy as keep doing them.

Inchworm

One of the best warm-up bicep exercises to do without weights would be this one. It is easy and gets you pumped up for the following workouts.

How to do inchworm?

Stand tall, keeping your feet and hip-width apart
Keep arms to your side and bend the waist
Keep your hands on the ground gradually and walk on your hands till you make a plank
Stack your wrists under the shoulders and make sure your core, butt, and quads are engaged
Pause for a while and then slowly reverse the exercise just the way you came to the front
Repeat it 5 to 10 times and then move onto other activities.

Downward dog push-up

Downward dog is a basic exercise that goes weights-free with the arms. It targets your biceps, triceps, and shoulders. It is also different from the regular push-up or plank posture.

How to do downward dog push-up?

You need to get all fours at first
Keep wrists under the shoulders and knees under the hips
Engage the core and lift knees, and straight both your legs
Allow your head to drop organically between the biceps as you create an inverted V-shape
You need to keep your back and arms straight and hips piked up
Don’t touch the heels on the floor and feel the stretch at the back of the legs
Lift the right hand to reach back and tap the left toes
You will see your torso rotate so that you can touch the toes
If you cannot touch your toes due to flexibility issues, tap the shin or knee
Retrieve to the downward dog position and roll forward into a plank
Do a push-up by bending the arms and lower your chest towards the floor
Push back up and come to the plant position and then again pike the hips up
Lift the left hand tap the right toes
Once done with the toe tap, you need to roll forward into another plank and repeat the push-up
Continue all these steps 10 times to complete one set

Incline push up

An incline pushes up is one of the easy bodyweight bicep exercises at home. You need a stool that can take your body weight. It is a type of push-up regression and perfect for people who cannot do the regular push-up yet. Here, your upper body stays elevated, so you don’t have to exert more pressure.

How to do incline push up?

You need to come to the plank position by keeping your hands on a box, stool, bench, or step
Lay your palms flat and keep hands shoulder-width apart
You need to stack the shoulders directly above the wrists
Extend legs behind you and keep feet hip-width apart
Engage core and glutes to do this successfully
Bend your elbows and lower the chest towards the bench
Now push back to go to the first position and come down, creating pressure on the arms
Do the exercise 10 times and repeat if you can

Plank jack

Just because you don’t want only one part of your body to lose fat, you wouldn’t want only to do exercises that help the biceps. We all want more parts of our body to be involved through home workouts to work at every level. This particular exercise will strengthen your arms and your core, hips, and thighs.

How to do plank jack?

The plank jack is jumping jacks in a plank position, so you need to do a regular plank pose at first
Keep your palms flat, shoulder-width apart, and stacked above the wrist
Extend your legs behind you and engage the core glutes
Now make your legs jump as you would during jumping jacks
Make sure your hips don’t bounce
Repeat 10 times and do more sets if you can

Burpees and Push-up

The complete burpee exercise includes a push-up. It is a difficult exercise and should be done once you are good with other activities. You can always give it a try and keep the pace slow. You can also use a bench for incline push-up to make it easier than going down to the floor.

How to do burpees and push-up?

Keep your feet and shoulders-width apart and arms by the side
Squat to go lower and place hands on the floor
Keeping shoulders width apart, kick the leg straight out and behind you
Make a plank by keeping your hands stacked under your shoulders
Bend elbows and lower the chest towards the floor
Straighten them to do a complete push-up
Make your feet jump towards the hands to allow your lower body to squat
Jump into the air and reach arms overhead
This completes one burpee and push-up – try to do 5 to start with and then 10 or 1

Final thoughts

Now you know how to do bicep workouts for mass, both with and without dumbbells. You currently have to start doing them on your own and see results in less than a month. The tutorials taken from YouTube will surely help you further in this process.