Biceps Exercises Ranked (BEST TO WORST!)

There are so many biceps exercises, but which ones should you be focusing your efforts on if you want to build bigger biceps? In this video, I’m going to give you the most popular bicep exercises ranked from worst to best and help you to determine which ones you should be doing and which you can pro

And so, with no need to have to concentrate  on this decision at all, just like that, the Concentration Curl gets the big red X  as one of the worst bicep exercises.

What’s up, guys Jeff Cavaliere, Athleanx. com. What  you see behind me is a bunch of different bicep exercises, many of which you’ve either done in the  past or you’re still doing them today. However, after today, you might want to get rid of  a few of them. Because what I’m going to do is going to help you to rank them from  the worst to the best, leading with only the best bicep exercises that are capable of  delivering the gains that you’re after.

And so, as always in our Exercises Rank series,  their criteria for the selection matters. What makes one curl variation better than the  other? We’re going to focus on hypertrophy as we have in the entire series. Which of these  exercises is most capable of delivering those gains above all else? Secondly, can it  do it safely?

As a physical therapist, I want to deliver those gains, but do so without  causing any harm along the way. And finally, we have to let the anatomy of the bicep muscle  deliver the exercise selections, too, because it doesn’t just bend the elbow, it does far more  than that. So, if we can tap into what the actual function is, then we have some good exercise  selections. So that being said, let’s start breaking them down from the bottom to the top. And so just like that, we start at the bottom of the barrel.

Here are the worst of the worst and  work our way up. And for that, I don’t have to concentrate very long on this first pick because  it’s going to be the Concentration Curl. And this exercise here isn’t inherently bad, it’s just that  it’s most commonly mis-performed. In other words, it’s one of the most popular bicep exercises and  one of the most popular mis-performed exercises. And that’s because the position of the elbow  matters a lot.

A lot of people will just simply rest their arm on top of their thigh, creating  almost a seesaw effect that takes a lot of the potential work away from the biceps. Or they’ll  take that elbow and drive it into their thigh, which just creates a strong leverage for  the biceps, once again, taking away some of the effectiveness of the exercise because  the biceps aren t doing all that it can. Throw in the fact that while you may feel a  good contraction in the biceps while doing it, you’re certainly not tapping into the bicep s  full capabilities, as you’ll see here shortly. It just isn’t one of my favorite choices and  for that reason, guys, the Concentration Curls gets the first in the bottom are the Worst. By the way, if you love Concentration Curls and you still want to do them, at least do them  right.

Do me a favor and watch this video over here when this one is done, and I’ll show you  exactly how to make sure you do every time. Moving on, we have an exercise that proves  that just because you throw the word curl after the first part of the name, it doesn’t  make it a bicep exercise. And that’s because the Reverse Curl is not a good bicep exercise. What  we’ve got here is a good brachialis exercise or brachioradialis exercise, but still not a bicep  exercise. Because one of the main drivers of function for the biceps and one of the unique  abilities it has is to supinate that forearm.

If you fully pronate in order to grab this bar  with an overhand grip, you are minimizing the contribution of the biceps to the exercise. Sure, it will be there to help the flex that elbow and bring the bar up, but as the third  line of defense, not when we’re trying to create hypertrophy guys. And for that reason, the Reverse  Curl just because it has that important second part of the name is not one of the important  exercises as we work our way up to the best. And so if we confuse the right way to do the  Concentration Curl and got confused with what muscles the Reverse Curl does, this exercise  is just plain confused. We’re talking about the Biceps Pushup.

It’s just not a bicep exercise. It never is. It never will be. And for those that think, Yeah, but for calisthenics? No.

But not  even.. ? No, not at all. Yeah, but.. Nope.

How about just a little bit? Unfortunately,  no. I mean, even just It just doesn t.

There’s just no way in human creation to convince  me that the Bicep Pushup is a good bicep exercise, let alone a good bicep building exercise. We’re  talking about a pushup, you know, a pushup for chest triceps or shoulders. You’re not working  your biceps. And the eccentric overload argument isn’t a strong one either. It just is not a good  exercise, guys.

It should never bear the name of a Bicep Pushup. For all these reasons, it only bears  a big red X right through its name, and that’s why it belongs here at the bottom of the list. And so, with that I nugget to break out my blue marker as we work our way up into the Better  Category, all good exercises, all good exercises, just different levels of effectiveness based on  some of their inherent limitations. And if you’re looking for a bodyweight exercise that actually  works the biceps, then let’s start looking at this one, the Inverted Chin Curl. Because what  this does is it checks all the boxes in terms of bicep function.

In order to pull yourself  up, you’re going to have to flex the elbow. Check. Have the forearm in a supinated position  to have that underhand grip. Check. And had the shoulders in a flexed position out in front of  our body, the most overlooked component of a true biceps complete contraction.

Check. What holds this exercise back, however, is simply loading it becomes a lot more difficult. When you’re looking for progressive overload, this may not be the best choice. But you’re  looking for a good bodyweight bicep exercise, did I mention is better than the Bicep Pushup? Then this one is the one that you’re going to want to use, and it belongs as the first with  the blue circle and the Better Category.

And so, we took a giant step up from the worse  to better in our body weight category. Let’s take another step up when we talk about the Reverse  Curl, and this is what this is Zottman Curl. So at least with the Zottman Curl, the first portion  of the concentric part of the lift is going to be performed with the forearms supinated. So, we’re  going to get that much better bicep contribution. However, the problem comes in with what we do  next, and that is just simply providing to perform the eccentric component or lowering part of the  lift.

Guys, remember, you are actually strongest in the eccentric part of the lift and when you’re  trying to grow a muscle, tapping into your ability to handle more weight or slow down the eccentric  on the muscle you’re trying to grow is important. The Zottman Curl is taking away that opportunity  and for that reason, it’s half good, but not good enough. And that means it’s going to get a circle  here for a Better exercise, but not great. And so next up in the Better Category is an  improvement on once again, an exercise in the Worst Category, those Concentration Curls. And  this time we’re looking at the Preacher Curl.

Again, it’s a great exercise for building up  bigger biceps, but it has some limitations. Most importantly, for me, I’m a little confused by how  people load the exercise. I think it comes from a false sense of security, of thinking once again,  with those elbows driving back into the pad, they have that additional leverage that oftentimes  convinces them they should and could handle more weight than their biceps can handle. If you need  some more convincing about that this isn’t always the case, I’m going t