They may not be the most functional muscles you need to grow, says Murphy, but that doesn’t mean you don’t want to look great at the beach. Here are three moves to add to your routine twice a week.
The first is the towel pullup. Simply drape a thick towel evenly over a pullup bar, take hold of either end using a neutral grip (palms facing each other), and perform pullups. You get a shitload of biceps work on this and, because the towel is so thick and you have to constantly squeeze it, it smokes your forearms so you can develop an iron grip. Perform 50 total pullups in as few sets as possible.
“Hammer curls are also an outstanding exercise for making biceps bigger,” Murphy says. “Everybody focuses on the biceps brachii—or the biceps itself—but the brachialis runs beneath the biceps, and hammer curls work the brachialis in particular. A bigger brachialis pushes the biceps up further, making them appear bigger.” Working the brachioradialis also increases the size of the forearm, which makes the arm appear more full. Using a weight that allows 10 to 12 reps on your first set, perform five sets in total, pushing each one until you’re one rep shy of failure.
Finally, work in some barbell chain curls. “Using chains for resistance with barbell curls is great,” Murphy says, “because—since weight increases as the chain is lifted off the floor and your biceps get closer to full contraction—you can overload the weight you’re lifting compared with a regular weighted bar.”
