A tale of two biceps: how I built my 23" guns

Flex, August, 2004 by Ronnie Coleman

Let me destroy a myth: I was not born with great biceps. I built my bis one rep at a time, persevering over a decade and a half of blood, sweat and tears. I tried numerous techniques and workloads on the road to 23" arms. I made mistakes along the way, but I learned from them. In the end, I found that the basics of biceps training are, at heart, simple. On these pages, I'll share what I've learned to help you arm yourself as best you can.

SECTION ONE

ARMED EVOLUTION

STAGE 1 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

I got my first weight set when I was in elementary school and wasted no time in putting it to use. I didn't know bodybuilding, but I knew that barbell curls built big biceps, and big biceps meant strength. So I curled, not with technique, but for strength and size, and my biceps grew. It wasn't optimal growth, because my objective was to merely make my arms stronger, not to work the muscle. Still, I was establishing a solid base of tendon and ligament strength, and I was gaining ease with controlling heavy compound movements.

STAGE 2 POWERLIFTING

In high school, I powerlifted, and I discovered that deadlifts, particularly, gave me more biceps size, plus enormous tendon and ligament capacity. I may not have been constructing an ideal bodybuilding physique, but I was building a more substantial superstructure on the foundation begun in elementary school. This increased my potential for later gains. Meanwhile, I kept curling, just for kicks. I loved the biceps pump, and I was perfecting a technique for creating it at will.

STAGE 3 INTRODUCTION TO BODYBUILDING

I didn't start bodybuilding until well after high school. I was a police officer in Arlington, Texas, powerlifting at the police gym during my off-hours. I weighed about 215 and was very strong, and my arms were so big that a friend insisted that I tag along to Arlington's MetroFlex Gym. That's where I was introduced to individual bodypart workouts, and training for separation and symmetry as well as size. A lifetime of barbell curls paid off: Three months after I joined the gym, I won my first bodybuilding contest, taking the heavyweight and overall titles at the 1990 Mr. Texas. The next year, I placed first in the heavyweight class in the 1991 World Amateur Bodybuilding Championships. I was a pro.

STAGE 4 PROFESSIONAL BODYBUILDING

I became a pro after less than two years of bodybuilding, so in terms of experience, I was in bodybuilding preschool. But I had an intuitive sense, from my years of curling, of the basics needed for building great biceps. Now, I needed patience and perseverance, as well as confidence and resolve. My workouts are, after all, old-fashioned, low-tech, unsophisticated, and exhausting hard work.

SECTION TWO

MY BICEPS PRINCIPLES

PRINCIPLE 1| WORK THE MUSCLE, NOT THE JOINT

Whether I'm doing a heavy compound exercise (such as standing barbell curls) or a strictly isolated movement (such as cable or machine curls), the weight is being moved by muscle contractions, not from leverage. You won't find my upper arm swinging from my shoulder joint or my lower arm being pried backward by my bodyweight. The contraction begins in my biceps. They swell and start peaking before the weight starts moving, and the farther the weight is curled, the more they harden and bulge out to the sides. The same during the extension: The muscles stay tight and hard. You have to "think" the contraction into your biceps heads.

PRINCIPLE 2| A FULL PUMP

Some bodybuilders go for a burn; I want to feel the blood gushing into my biceps under high pressure, until it's swollen and drum tight. An optimum pump is not to the point where it's dead to sensation; that indicates you've gone too far, and the blood is leaving the area. Go to the point where the muscle has pumped enough to create a hard pull at its insertions, and the belly is hard and heavy.

PRINCIPLE 3| HEAVY WEIGHT

Heavy weight versus strict performance constitutes the most challenging dilemma in bodybuilding, but combining the two is bodybuilding's most important principle. Together, they give your biceps the fastest and highest-quality development. Extreme concentration is paramount, since the pull of the weight can easily distract your attention from the contraction of your biceps. I use that challenge to intensify my concentration, telling myself that the heavier the weight, the more blood I'll need to pump into the biceps belly, to help it resist even more weight.

PRINCIPLE 4| FULL RANGE OF MOTION

A full extension and complete hard contraction for every repetition is the quickest way to build a great pump. Each repetition is like the stroke of a pump handle. The more complete your range of motion, the more access you're gaining among the muscles for blood flow; the more blood flow, the more the muscle is pressurized. Also, the farther the muscle extends and contracts, the more tissues are worked for growth. I've said it before: Partial reps are a joke. Instead, feel the stretch at the bottom, and get a hard peak contraction at the top of the curl.