5 Best Standing Arm Exercises to Tone Your Biceps

Standing arm exercises for toned biceps. (Image via Pexels/Mikhail Nilov)

To tone your biceps, you need to incorporate standing arm exercises into your workout regimen.

Toned and strong biceps go beyond aesthetics, as they provide several functional benefits, including enhancing athletic performance, enabling you to lift higher weights, developing greater definition in the upper body, and more.

Barbell Curl and Other Standing Arm Exercises for Biceps

We have curated a list of the five most amazing and best standing arm exercises that can help tone your biceps:

1) Barbell Curl

Barbell curls are among the most basic standing arm exercises that can help tone your biceps. This exercise can enable you to pack strength in the biceps along with helping you get bigger arms.

How to do the exercise?

Start in a straight standing position while clutching the barbell in your palms with an underhand grip, with your hands positioned wide..
Hold the barbell at your hip height before contracting your biceps and squeezing your core muscles to bring the barbell to shoulder height.
Pause before slowly returning the weight back to the center position, and repeat.
Your grip positioning on the barbell will help in engaging different and unique parts of the muscles.

2) Drag Curl

It's one of the underutilized standing arm exercises that can help you get bigger and stronger arms. This exercise can also help in muscle gain in the arms, thanks to its unilateral movement.

How to do the exercise?

Start in the same position that you adopt for standing curls.
Make sure to keep your form strong and enhanced. Simultaneously, curl both hands upward while driving your elbows at the back.
Make sure to keep your hands tucked in towards your body throughout the movement.
At the top movement, squeeze your biceps before reversing the movement. Repeat.

3) Bent Over Barbell Row

It's an efficient standing arm exercise that can amp up your workout routine with greater emphasis and stretch of the biceps. This exercise can also engage the core muscles, back, and shoulders.

How to do the exercise?

Start in a straight standing position, and grab the barbell in both hands apart at shoulder distance.
Position the barbell at arm length in front of your thighs.
Hinge down from above your hips, and bend your knees. Tighten your core muscles, and drive the barbell towards your rib cage.
Hold on to the moment before lowering the barbell back to its starting position. Repeat.

4) Resistance Band Hammer Curl

This is a highly effective standing arm exercise that can provide increased range of motion. It involves both concentric and eccentric movements to work on all the biceps heads.

How to do the exercise?

Begin in a standing position while maintaining good posture, with the center of the resistance band placed beneath your feet.
Clutch the ends of the resistance band in both palms while angling your palms parallel to each other.
Bring your hand to your shoulders in a curling movement, and pause at the top movement.
With constant tension in the resistance band and control, bring your hands back to the sides of the body. Repeat.

5) Alternate Bent-Over Row

It's another decent standing arm exercise to strengthen and tone your biceps. This is a unilateral row exercise that can enhance posture along with ensuring balanced development of strength and muscles on both sides.

How to do the exercise?

Begin in a standing position with your feet apart at hip distance while clutching the dumbbells in both palms angled with each another.
Your hands should be hanging on the floor.
Hinge down from your hips above, and bring your head to the height of your tailbone.
Keep your core braced, and drive one elbow to the back so that the wrist is in line with your ribs.
With control, lower the dumbbell back to its starting position. Continue by alternating sides.

Bottom Line

The aforementioned standing arm exercises are among the best and most effective ones to help tone the biceps and pack strength in your muscles.

For focused biceps training, you should also focus on your diet routine along with working out to get bigger and stronger arms. It's recommended to start with warm-up exercises such as arm circles to prepare your muscles for standing arm exercises.