Biceps much maligned?

[Mr Punch]

A lot of the weight-training guys on here (and elsewhere) seem to suggest that biceps work is a waste of time, as you don't really use them for anything practical.

I just moved house, and used them a hell of a lot for lifting boxes etc. Of course not in isolation, but I couldn't help get the feeling that if I didn't have my biceps, well, I wouldn't have been able to have moved my arms much at all!

Why the haters?

[bodhitree]

It's not that weight trainers aren't in to training biceps, they just aren't into training them in isolation. Compound movements (with more than one joint) trigger a greater hormone response. I even know a lot of strength and power guys who do curls, skullcrushers, etc.. They just aren't the focus of that lifting session. Biceps are worked by rows, pull ups, etc.

[Mr Punch]

Sure. I do pull-ups, rows, iron crosses etc, but I also add curls to my upper body routine sometimes too. Not for vanity: I'm not interesetd in size, but for example, if I can't do compounds for some reason and I do a tricep exercise like kickouts or kickbacks I want something to balance it up.

[monji112000]

A lot of the weight-training guys on here (and elsewhere) seem to suggest that biceps work is a waste of time, as you don't really use them for anything practical.

I just moved house, and used them a hell of a lot for lifting boxes etc. Of course not in isolation, but I couldn't help get the feeling that if I didn't have my biceps, well, I wouldn't have been able to have moved my arms much at all!

Why the haters?

don't use them for anything practical? WTF?
Maybe you don't need to beefup and have Arnold size biceps.. but high rep low weight muscles are very handy. and ... you do use them for punching, and other aspects of fighting.

basic body building you always balance your training, so if you biceps you do triceps.. or you are going to have joint problems.

I get all the bicep training from pushups , dips, sprawls drills, curls.

[cjurakpt]

from a general fitneess and rehab perspective, I don't advocate training biceps for the following reasons:

1) in general, flexors are intrinsically (the organism is predisposed towards) hypertonic relative to their antagonist extensors (e.g. - upper traps/pecs/lats/subscap/biceps versus lower traps/rhomboids/triceps, hams versus quads, psoas versus glutes, gastrocs versus ant. tib.) and most activities of daily living tend to reinforce this (e.g. - sitting at a computer typing all day)

2) when we look at typical patterns of structural / neuromuscular postural dysfunction, we see that this imbalance contributes to many symptoms that people typically complain of and that working to actively correct that imbalance relieves these symptoms

of course, someone may have a specific reason to do biceps, but for the average Joe, I would recommend that if they were going to do them, to do them first and at a ratio of 1:3 (my personal # - no research to support this suggestion) to lower traps and triceps;

anyway, just my observations

[Mr Punch]

... hypertonic relative to their antagonist extensors Sorry Chris, could you try that again in Od Freisian or something else more closely related to English, I may have a better chance?!


of course, someone may have a specific reason to do biceps, but for the average Joe, I would recommend that if they were going to do them, to do them first and at a ratio of 1:3 (my personal # - no research to support this suggestion) to lower traps and triceps;

anyway, just my observationsThat's probably about as much as I do them, in fact maybe I do them less... Though I do do bicep curls as the first part of iron crosses.