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.
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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.
