#your biceps

There is nothing more conspicuous on a guy than a pair of muscular arms. Women certainly notice that right away and even fellow males will glance with envy. They signify strength and power and can – at times – get people to pussy out during a confrontation with you.

A great “illusion” of sorts is to get the peak in your biceps to come out and get as high as possible. This will make your arms look huge and very impressive when you’re “making a muscle,” as it is commonly phrased.

But we have some good news and bad news about a biceps peak.

First the bad news. You either have a predisposition for a peak through your genetics or you don’t. There are guys who have never worked out a day in their life but have these detailed and muscular looking arms that go up layer-by-layer if they flex.

Now for the good news. If you fall into the majority and do not have these awesome genetics, you can still perform certain exercises that will maximize your peak. And if you are one of the lucky son-of-a-bitches, then this will make it even better.

STANDING HIGH CABLE PULLEY OVERHEAD CURLS

These are great as a warm-up or finisher and you can really begin seeing the peak being worked (if there’s a mirror in the gym in front of the cables) with the angle that you’re arms will be at when you’re at the top of the rep. The key here is to make sure that you close your arm as much as possible when at that position and squeeze the D-handle grip as hard as possible, holding it for a second or two.

High cable curls give you a nice range of motion and you can really get a great stretch on the other end of the rep, too,

CONCENTRATION CURLS

These can be done seated or standing and bent over and both will get the job done. But don’t take the easy way out and lean your elbow on the inner part of your knee. By avoiding contact and doing the rep, you are putting all of the tension directly on your bicep muscles. When you brace it against your body, you are taking away some of the tension and also eliminating the balancing that works the muscle.

Do the same thing at the top of the rep like the high cable curls and squeeze that muscle and grip tight and hold it there. And bring it back down slowly using perfect form. Since some of the movements for the peak are of the isolation variety, it’s imperative that you have control over the weight and use no momentum.

STANDING BARBELL CURLS

This may seem like a surprising choice here, but there’s a method to our madness. This would not normally be an exercise that would be one to do deliberately with strict form and is often used for ‘cheat’ or ‘power’ curls, using heavier weight and lower reps.

But here lies the one important caveat: use a closer grip (approximately two inches less than shoulder width) and that will put the emphasis on the long head of the biceps, which makes up the peak when you are showing off by flexing.

And once again, squeeze the shit out of it at the top of the rep and feel that bicep tense up more and more.

BY JOE PIETARO