Variety is key to growth.  Repeatedly doing the same workout is not only boring but will eventually cause your results to plateau.  Even though you are training hard in the gym, your efforts aren’t being rewarded because your body had adapted to your current workout.

By targeting your muscles at new angles, you will activate different muscle fibers leading to new growth.   Add these three exercises to your next arms workout and breathe some new life into your routine.  Goodbye boring, hello results.

Guillotine Curl 

This unique take on the standard cable curl is a great way to target both heads of the biceps.  This exercise will hit your arms from an entirely new angle.  During most biceps exercises, your upper arms are parallel to your torso and you curl the weight from your waist to your chest.  The advantage of the Guillotine Curl is that your upper arms are perpendicular to your torso, and you are curling the weight from a high cable towards your body.  This provides a new stimulus for your muscles, which will yield results.

Targets: Biceps brachii

To perform:  Attach a straight bar to the top of a cable pulley.  Grasp the bar with both hands and slowly lower yourself to the floor or a bench, with your feet facing away from the pulley.  Lying on the floor or bench with your arms extended, curl the bar to your forehead, squeeze your biceps, and release.  Repeat for 3 sets of 12-15 repetitions.

Lying DB Curl

The lying dumbbell curl is arguably the most isolated biceps exercise, placing nearly all of the stress on the target muscle by stabilizing your torso.  With an increased ROM, your arms get a better stretch and stronger contraction.

To perform:  Lie on a flat bench with a light dumbbell in each hand.  Extend your arms towards the floor so they are perpendicular to your torso.  In a controlled fashion, curl the weight up to your shoulder, contract, then slowly release to the start position.  Repeat for 3 sets of 10 repetitions.

Targets: Biceps brachii
Reverse Grip Cable Curl

Something as simple as switching your grip can provide an enormous change to your routine.  This curl will provide constant tension in the arms muscles because of the cable.  In particular, the brachialis will be heavily targeted, as well as the forearms and biceps.   The brachialis is a small muscle in the upper arms but can add width and separation in your arms if trained properly.

 Targets:  Brachialis, Forearms, Biceps brachii 

To perform: Attach a straight bar to a cable pulley at ground level.  Grab the bar with a pronated grip, and from a standing position curl the weight towards your chest.  Slowly lower the bar back to starting position and repeat for 4 sets of 8-10 repetitions.

BICEPS BLAST WORKOUT

Guillotine Cable Curl    (3 sets of 12-15 reps)
Lying DB Curl   (3 sets of 10 reps)
Reverse Grip Cable Curl  (4 sets of 8-10 reps)

Try this workout and let me know what you think!   

Thanks for checking this out!

-Parker