How did Arnold get his bicep peak?
Mia Kelly
Published Jan 15, 2026
This palm rotation, called supinating, is what Arnold believed helped him peak his biceps more than anything. It's simple, yet painful, to do: At the top of each rep of a dumbbell curl, turn your palm outward to where your pinkie finger is closer to you than the rest of your hand, and squeeze the peak contraction hard.
How do I get the massive peak on my biceps?
But there are ways to give your biceps as much peak as possible.
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Give these exercises a try to break past your genetic makeup and make your biceps look like mountains!
- SPIDER CURLS. These are essentially the same as a preacher curl. ...
- HIGH CABLE CURLS. ...
- INCLINE CURLS. ...
- STRICT BARBELL CURLS. ...
- DRAG CURLS. ...
- CONCENTRATION CURLS.
How can I make my biceps like Arnold?
Arnold's favorite curls
Likewise, Arnold loved incline dumbbell curls. He would set the incline bench to an angle of about 45° to ensure maximum stretch throughout his biceps. Arnold considered one-arm concentration curls to be the ultimate movement for adding peak to the biceps.
Did Arnold Schwarzenegger train forearms?
Keep Things In Perspective. Although Arnold advocated training biceps, triceps, and forearms with equal intensity, he also liked to draw attention to the fact that the triceps are the larger and more complex muscle group of the upper arm. The biceps have two heads, while the triceps have three.
How did Arnold get huge?
Arnold's training schedule is considered high volume by today's standards. He did as many as 26 working sets on large muscle groups such as back, chest, and shoulders. And since he broke down the legs into the quads, hamstrings and calves, he frequently did as many as 61 sets on leg day.
34 related questions foundIs bicep peak genetic?
Bicep peak is a prime example of genetics in the role of shaping your arms. This can be because of whether or not you have low or high bicep insertions. Someone with a high bicep insertion will have a greater peak when developed.
Which bicep head is the peak?
The biceps are composed of two heads: the outer (long) head and the inner (short) head. The peak is formed by the outer biceps head; therefore, if you want to bring up your biceps peak you need to build up that head.
Do hammer curls work bicep peak?
While supinated (underhand) bicep curls will help you improve the peak of your bicep, hammer curls will improve the thickness and overall strength of the arm and the forearm.
Why are bicep curls useless?
Doing bicep curls just provide a little extra pump. In terms of performance, they don't help much at all and in most cases, people over compensate and pull their backs out anyway to jerk the weight up. So stick to pull-ups, cleans and bent over rows if you want strong guns.
Is curling 50 pound dumbbells good?
Yes, curling 50 lb dumbbells for reps is a very impressive feat of strength for someone who lifts weights regularly. Obviously, the more reps and sets that you perform and the better your form is, the more impressive a 50 pound bicep curl is.
Should you lift heavy for biceps?
“But to build bigger biceps and triceps you have to focus on perfect form, moving through a full range of motion and, crucially, never lifting too heavy. The key to adding arm size is to getting a good pump through lifting lighter for longer – and executing every rep as perfectly as possible.”
Which is better hammer curls or bicep curls?
Hammer Curls – Which One Is Better? In the matchup against bicep curls vs. hammer curls, the latter is the clear winner for getting bigger muscles faster. Hammer curls work more muscle groups and work the biceps in ways that regular bicep curls do not.
Is long head responsible for peak?
Short & Long Head
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 labelled in the picture, is also an important muscle in terms of building your peak.
Are biceps hard to grow?
Progressive overload and overload in and of itself is pretty difficult to achieve with the biceps. You need to do something dramatically different in your arm workouts to stimulate those muscles, and that is to vary the way in which you're performing your biceps curls!
What is the best biceps size?
Without mentioning names, the biggest biceps range anywhere from 25-30 inches. You can expect many of the bigger professional male bodybuilders to have 20-24 inch biceps. Female bodybuilders will generally fall in the 14-18 inch biceps range.
What's better long or short biceps?
Having a short or long biceps brachii has its advantages and disadvantages. If the end goal for working out is to have big, full-looking arms even at rest, having long biceps is ideal. On the other hand, a higher bicep peak may be more attainable if an individual has short biceps.
Which bicep head is responsible for width?
The brachialis is the muscle that is most responsible for bicep width and it's often sorely neglected in our training.
How long does it take to develop biceps?
Typically, it takes around 6-8 weeks for you to start noticing changes in the appearance of your arms. At around the 12 week mark, this is typically when you can expect to see more significant changes, especially if you didn't already have a large amount of muscle mass in the area!
Is a preacher curl bench worth it?
The main advantage of preacher curls is that thanks to the pad, they're easier to learn for beginners and better at isolating your biceps. They also require less core strength than standing curls, which makes them an ideal exercise if you're a bodybuilder who wants to hone in on specific muscles.
What happens if you do bicep curls everyday?
Doing bicep curls every day will increase the exposure to stimuli that will promote muscular growth. While the biceps are a smaller muscle group, this allows for faster recovery times between each session to allow for greater total volume throughout a given week.
Are pull ups better than curls?
Despite the isolation of the bicep curl vs the chin up, chin ups are actually the better exercise for your arms and your upper body as a whole. The practicality of the functional strength is a big factor, but not as big as the facts. Chin-ups are proven to have a greater bicep activation than curls.
Do pushups work biceps?
Doing push-ups will help you strengthen your upper body muscles including chest, shoulders, upper and middle back, biceps, triceps and the area on the side of the chest beneath your upper arm. Each type of push-ups may work different groups, although this exercise will mainly strengthen the aforementioned muscles.
How many reps and sets bicep curls?
For building bicep mass, perform two to six sets per biceps exercise for no more than six repetitions. It is also important to give your biceps adequate rest time between sets so that you can continue to lift heavy. Rest two to five minutes between your sets and increase the weight if you can do more than six reps.