Bodyweight biceps training

Powerful biceps will help you to excel in your pulling exercises. But by doing only compound exercises such as chinups and rows you might not be able to stimulate the biceps enough to make them grow big and strong. That's why a good combination for the biceps is to use both compound and isolation exercises. If you already do a lot of pulling in your workout routine you can do only isolation exercises for the biceps to avoid overuse injuries due to the repetitive motion. Let's take a look at some great biceps exercises you can do at home with rings or minimal equipment.

My favorite biceps exercises are weighted chinups and inverted curls

Isolation exercises for the biceps

Isolation exercises work the biceps directly with very minimal assistance from other muscle groups. You can do these exercises with rings, suspension trainers or with a dining table. If you are not strong enough for compound exercises that is fine. Work your way up using the following isolation exercises until you are able to do the compound bicep exercises. 

1.Bodyweight bicep curl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-udHJtfdvY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEMEIHDmlVE

Bodyweight bicep curl is a versatile tool that allows you to adjust the difficulty from easy to hard. Set the rings around hip height. Move away from the rings to make the exercise easier and closer to the rings to make it harder. When you are strong enough you can progress to the short lever inverted curl. If you don’t have rings use a towel or bed sheet tied above a closed door. You can perform the bodyweight curl with one arm also but it requires good technique and balance.

When you can do 10reps of leaning curl with feet placed below the rings anchor point (doing curls at about 45degrees) proceed to the next exercise.

2. Short lever inverted curl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awaLXTJhxhA&t=180s

The inverted curl has constant tension on the top position where the leaning curl gets easier on top of the movement. Start with the short level curl. Lay on the floor with bent legs and place your shoulder line below the rings. You need to be able to reach the rings with straight arms while laying on the floor. If you don't have rings you can use a table. Depending on the table you might not be able to do a full range of motion. In this case exaggerate the peak contraction by holding the top position for a longer time on each rep. Best arm position is by placing your fists on the table. If this arm position is uncomfortable grab the edge of the table. This will make the exercise easier since it changes the mechanics a bit. Make sure you are pulling straight upwards instead of an angle like you did with the leaning curl. 

When you can do 12 reps move to the straight body inverted curl and start working with the compound exercises.

3. Straight body inverted curl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q83_yw3pFEI

Same as the short lever curl but performed with a straight body. Elevate your legs for an extra challenge.

Compound exercises for the biceps

Compound exercises for the biceps require also strong back muscles for pulling. If you have difficulties with the chinup check out my chinup progression guide here:

Guide to chinup and pullup progressions - even when you can't do a single rep

4. Narrow grip bicep chinup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph2WGXaP3-Y

Use a grip that is narrower than shoulder width. Concentrate on curling with your biceps.

When you can do 10-12 reps of the regular narrow grip chinup you can try the behind the neck chinup

5. Behind the neck bicep chinup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3cfhl5Fmps

Use a shoulder width grip. Do a chinup by pulling your neck towards the pullup bar. Don't use a wide grip since this compromises the shoulder joint and might cause shoulder impingement issues.Elbows need to be pointing forwards. Doing behind the neck chinups will give your biceps a better peak contraction at the top compared to the regular chinup.

6. Side to side chinup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U_ZLqGTE5U

If the standard biceps chinup is too easy you can start your workouts with the assisted one arm chinup. Assist with the non working arm. Work one side at a time or alternate sides between reps.

6.1 Weighted chinup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FiR9W_gVF0

If you don’t like single arm movements you can load the bicep chinups with additional weight using a backpack or a dip belt.

Training tips

Important note regarding the form of the bodyweight curls. Curl your fists towards your ears or forehead depending on the grip width. Imagine that you want to punch yourself in the face or to the temple while doing this exercise. Don’t pull towards your chest or above your head. If you do a curl by bringing your palms towards your neck or chest line you will engage the back muscles more and reduce the tension on the biceps. If you do heavy pulling for low reps in your workouts such as heavy rows, pullups or chinups the rest of the bicep work is best done at 8-12rep range.

Workouts

Since biceps get some indirect work from compound pulling exercises you don't need to do that much direct work to make progress. If your training routine involves some chinups, pullups or rows you can make progress with 6sets of direct bicep work per week. In case you want to emphasize the biceps you could increase the direct work up to 8-10sets without hindering your pulling performance. Just do your bicep work after the pulling exercises in your routine.

If you train twice a week

Workout A Isolation

3x Inverted bicep curl 10-12 reps

Workout B Compound

3x Chinup  6-8reps

If your routine has a pull day

3x Narrow grip or behind the neck chinup 6-8reps

3x Inverted curl 10-12reps

If you just want to blast your arms or biceps on a separate training session

3x Weighted chinup 6-8reps

3x Behind neck chinup 8-12reps

3x Inverted curl 10-15reps

Check out my training template here:

TWO Workouts - Training Template

Videos links and exercise progressions from my previous articles are included.

Have fun building those guns!

Interested in Bodyweight Strength Training?

This one is for those who are interested in practical information in one small package.

Get Guide to Bodyweight Strength Training at Amazon.com

I did my best to gather all the information between these covers so that you can make the best progress possible. It is a textbook with some math. But you can skip the math part and read the best parts. I don't mind!