How to Grow Your Biceps Peak (4 Science-Based Tips)

I feel the best right here in this area. Okay. Don't freak out when you see this biceps, okay? I know it's the best.

Building a well shaped and prominent biceps peak seems to be a priority for many lifters.

And although you hear a lot of people say that it all comes down to genetics, this is only partially true. Those with shorter muscle bellies in terms.

Of their arms, generally are able to.

Develop a more prominent biceps be peak, whereas those with longer muscle bellies will.

Have arms that appear fuller but will.

Have a less pronounced peak as a consequence. However, regardless of whether you have long or short bicep insertions, you can still dramatically improve your biceps peak by understanding its anatomy and what actually creates it. As you probably know by now, the biceps is a two headed muscle consisting of a short head and a long head. The short head is located medially on.

The arm or more on the inside.

And and the long head is located laterally on the arm or more on the outside. So when you flex your arm like I'm doing here, the short head is what makes up the width or thickness of the bicep and the long head is what makes that peak in the biceps. And when flexing from the reverse angle, you can see that the long head is the only head present and is responsible for that peak. It should also be noted that the brachialis, as seen here, is also an important muscle in terms of building your peak, since they anatomically push up the long head, thus creating the illusion of.

A bigger peak when properly developed.

Therefore, in. In terms of developing a biceps peak, the long head as well as the brachialis are what you need to prioritize. But keep in mind that proper development of the long head is not only essential for that peak, but also creates fuller biceps that look more balanced and developed from all angles. And as shown in several studies from the Orthopedic Journal of Sports Medicine, the long head of the biceps also acts as a dynamic stabilizer of the glenohumeral joint, meaning that neglecting its development may compromise shoulder stability and lead to problems in the long run. Specifically for those who lift weights regularly, regularly. So, as you can see, long head development is essential. So in this video, I'll give you guys four tips to help you prioritize a long head and improve its development as well as a brachialis. As you may have seen in my biceps workout video, the long head of the biceps can be emphasized through proper exercise selection since the long head crosses over the shoulder joint, whereas the short head does not. Performing exercises where the upper arm is held behind the body, places the long head in a greater position of stretch compared to the short head, and is thus now able to generate maximal force. One of the best exercises to accomplish this is incline dumbbell curls, since, as you can see, the upper arm is held behind the body, allowing the long head's activation to be maximized and active through the whole range of motion. Some other exercises that apply a similar concept are cable curls where the arm is positioned behind the body throughout the movement, or drag curls where the bar is lifted as close as possible in front of the body and the elbows are positioned behind the body. Another easy way to emphasize long head activation in your exercises is by adjusting your grip width when doing curls with a bar. A more narrow grip will biomechanically favor the long head and thus increase its involvement relative to the short head. But you want to make sure your elbows don't move forward in front of your body as you perform the curl with a narrow grip, as this will instead target the short head more due to active insufficiency of the long head when in this position. So use a grip closer than shoulder width while ensuring your elbows don't move.

In front of the body during the process. In addition, as shown in this study by Brown and colleagues, the short head appears to be more active in the latter part of a curl while the long head is more active in the early phase. So to apply this after performing full range of motion curls, you can then switch to partial reps where the elbow comes up to just 90 degree in order to further target the long head and favor its development over the short head.

Another way to emphasize the long head in exercises that involve the use of dumbbells is by supinating your wrists to a greater extent. Now keep in mind that both heads are responsible for supinating the wrists. However, as shown in this biomechanical analysis study by Miller and colleagues, the short head is the more efficient supinator when the forearm is in a neutral or pronated position. The long head, on the other hand, is the more efficient supinator when the forearm is in an already supinated position. Position. This means that the involvement of each head with regards to supination depends on the extent to which you supinate your wrists. For example, during a concentration curl, if you supinate your wrist from a neutral position to where the palms are facing up, then the short head will mainly be involved. However, if you start in a supinated position from the beginning and then fully supinate your wrist so that your pinky points upward.

Then you can preferentially target the long.

Head and you can even feel this phenomenon by just supinating your wrist to a greater extent without any weight and feeling your long head being activated. And this is something you can apply not only to concentration curls, but any biceps exercise that involves the use of dumbbells where supination is possible. This last tip is going to be to strengthen your brachialis, which as I mentioned earlier, helps push your biceps up and also creates a fuller looking arm. So how exactly can we target this muscle? Well, as I've mentioned in previous videos, the brachialis inserts onto the ulna rather than the radius, simply meaning that it only has one purpose and that is to flex the arm. Therefore, as shown in this study by NATO et al, since it has no role in supinating the wrists like the biceps do, flexing the arm with a pronated or neutral grip will shift some of the work away from the biceps and onto the brachialis. Some exercises that take advantage of this.

Are reverse curls with a bar or.

Dumbbells or hammer curls, which will also help with overall biceps development. So how can you best utilize this information into your training? Well, if your goal right now is to prioritize long head development and growing your peak, an example workout that may be helpful is the following. You can use this in one workout or split them up into your other workouts throughout the week, which I'd recommend. And then over time you can add in movements that prioritize a short head once you're satisfied with your long head development, just to always keep the two balanced within your training.

What's going on guys? Thank you so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed the video and found it useful. I just want to let you guys know that as I did in my previous video, I've written up an article summary for this topic and you can find it on my website built with science.com and also leave a link to it in the description box down below so those who are interested can check it out. And I'm also thinking about starting a few video series on my channel, one of which would definitely be about supplements. So let me know in the comments down below as to what supplements you guys want me to look into. And also thinking about doing a series on specific exercises where I basically just pick an exercise and go through all the research regarding it and show you guys how to best optimize it for growth. So let me know if you guys would be interested in that as well. Anyways, that's it for this video, guys. Thank you again for all your support.

As always.

If you enjoyed the video, don't forget to give it a like. Leave a comment down below and subscribe to my channel if you haven't already. Thank you so much for your support, guys. I'll see you next time.