I cant lift more than 10 kilos in bicep curls. It’s been like this for 8 months

[vincentleo]

No matter how much I try I can’t get past 10 kilos in bicep curls.
I have never been able to do 3x10 in bicep curls. I don’t see any growth in this area.

What can I do? It sucks that I try and try but never see any results in this area

 

[kazane]

@vincentleo The recipe is simple.

1. Eat lots of protein, and plenty of calories.
2. Sleep more than 6.5hrs every night. Ideally 7.5+hrs.
3. Don’t work the same muscle to failure more than 2x/week. If you’re not going to failure, do as you like with frequency, just know that you’re leaving gains on the table.
4. Push harder. Demand more of your body than it is capable of giving you, and do it over and over again. Don’t stop yourself before failing, let your body struggle and shake and truly burn out.

You’re leaving gas in the tank. Gains are just as much psychological as they are physical.

 

[vincentleo]

@kazane

1. I eat a lot of protein. I am eating in maintenance right now but I’m trying to overcome the fear of losing weight so I can eat a little more.
2. I sadly don’t get much sleep due to having a kid that has medical issues.
3. I go to failure with bicep curls. I always feel that I can’t do more than a certain number of reps. I have limited time and need to do other exercises so 10x19 isn’t possible.

I have done A. I get to 10 kilos but can’t do 10x

 

[christad]

@vincentleo Are you doing rows and chin-ups? Try switching up your curl technique too. Preacher, cable with different handles, ez bar, dumbbells, incline, etc. If you’ve plateaued incorporating some variety often helps

 

[vincentleo]

@christad I haven’t tried any other exercises. Maybe I will try something else for some weeks

 

[steve126]

@vincentleo do chin ups as well. You need to do alternative exercises to curls and then u will get some gains. Also eat at surplus to get gains.

 

[kazane]

@vincentleo Sleep can really undercut gains, that might be your challenge!

Sleep as best as you can, and just be sure you’re emptying the tank fully when you do bicep curls. If you can do 10kg and just can’t get your rep count any higher, then refocus and go up in weight. Go for 15kg, or go for a 25 or 30kg bar or bicep machine.

When you come back down to 10kg, you’ll be able to get more reps out.

 

[cathya]

@vincentleo Well if your eating at maintenance and not getting sleep it makes sense that your not seeing much gains in some areas.

 

[vincentleo]

@cathya Yeah I suspect that’s it. My situation may not change for a couple of years because of my daughters condition but I am hoping that sticking to a workout routine will make things easier once things get easier in my personal life.

 

[mrsmac0324]

@vincentleo good luck to you. I’m glad that you’re still able to exercise. I think that my mental state would have been better if I had done the same. I had a couple years of my son being in/out of the hospital / needing hourly medical attention at home, so I can empathize.

 

[dekaewaii]

@vincentleo If you can't sleep, you won't be growing much. Do what you can, but just focus on maintaining if you can't sleep.

Also, try something else. There's nothing special about 10kg. Do 5 kg for a tabata set. That's where you do as many reps as you can for 20 seconds, and then rest for 10 seconds, and then repeat that 8 times. You're screaming and crying in pain by the end. Another day, do 5 sets of hammer curls where you can't do more than 8 reps on your first set, and do as many reps as possible each time. Next day, 20kg barbell curls. Do as many as you can on set one, really dig deep. Then, on set 2, match that number. You won't be able to without pausing and breathing a little in between. 4 sets of that'll do yah. Each week, repeat but make yourself do 1 more rep, or slightly higher weight. But yah, if you aren't gaining weight and aren't sleeping, you're not gonna get notable gains. Strength comes from muscle and muscle is tissue. It has weight. To gain weight you need to gain weight.

 

[gigibraun]

@dekaewaii What if I’m already 159 pounds and I don’t want to become a 200 lb tank just to bench 225?

 

[dekaewaii]

@gigibraun Can you expand on the question? Like, have you dieted way down to 159, or did you start at 130 and have been bulking already? My thinking is this: what's a healthy amount of muscle, whats too much, and what's too little? Http://www.fitmatic.com/body/calculators/maximum-muscular-potential can answer this. At 160, if 20% bodyfat and 5'10", you have about 130 pounds of lean mass, and a maximum potential of 190. Ish. Around there. So you're about 30 pounds of muscle under their starting point, where they then math out a potential gain of 15 pounds year 1, 8 pounds in year 2, 4 in year 3, 2 in year 4, and 1 pound in year 5. So, if you're already 160, you body has 30 pounds that it wants to gain. If you eat enough protein and never workout, your body will add 30 pounds of muscle. Then, you've got an easy +15 pounds from there from consistent lifting. Is that last 15-20 pounds in years 2-5 worth it? Probably not. But right now, totally do what you want but you need to gain 30 pounds of muscle and could easily add 45. So according to the research, 130 lean mass is too little, 160-175 is normal, and 190 is too much. Doesn't really answer your question, but I think your perception of weight is skewed.

 

[gigibraun]

@dekaewaii I started at 105 and bulked to 159. I don’t wanna bull any more and become 200

 

[missmandee]

@vincentleo I was the same. I stopped with the curls completely and started full body workout. Also what @percyk-of-salt said.

Came back a few month, bixeps bigger and lifting considerably more volume.

Enjoy

 

[king18471]

@vincentleo How often are you training your biceps?

I ask as hitting three sets of 10 once per week is not that much volume and will certainly see you plateau at some point. Perhaps at 10kg.

If you want to get better at bicep curls, then do more bicep curls.

In practice this would mean doing them or a variation of them every session to maximise the volume you can pack in a given week.

There will be a sweet spot where too much volume in one session makes you tired meaning you do less the next, lowering your overall volume. If you can find the sweet spot then this is your Maximum Recovery Volume (MRV).

The above advice assumes your sleep and diet are on point. Have poor sleep or diet and the MRV you can handle will drop.

Also another tip, you can get stronger at bicep curls by doing other exercises too. For example pull up and chin up variations will still use biceps to some degree. So programming those in will act to increase the volume on that muscle group. Even bent over rows use your biceps, though to a lesser degree. So you may want to focus on overall training volume, and ensure your program is well rounded, rather than measuring only bicep volume.

Edit: also if your goal is arm size, then also train triceps. These are a much larger muscle group than biceps.

 

[vincentleo]

@king18471 I train biceps 2 times a week. I mean I do other exercises that include biceps but bicep curls is two times a week.

I don’t get much sleep due to personal reasons and I am eating in maintenance.

 

[mo]

@vincentleo Is biceps the last workout in your routine and what exercises are you doing before them?

If you’re doing other exercises first that use your biceps and are increasing your reps or weights on those, you might not have anything left in the tank when you get to biceps.

 

[vincentleo]

@mo I do two upper body workouts a week and 2 lower body.

The two upper body looks like this:

Day 1
Bench press 5x5

Lat pull-down 4x10

Incline dumbbell press 3x10

Barbell row 4x10

Tricep push down 3x10

Dumbbell curl 3x10

Day 2

Overhead press 5x5

Lat pull-down 4x10

Close grip bench press 3x10

Dumbbell row 3x10

Tricep push down 3x10

Dumbbell curl 3x10

 

[mo]

@vincentleo Sleep and calorie intake might be the true culprit but maybe for a few sessions try doing them first, or right after lat pull downs and see if you’re able to increase.