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Long-head bicep exercises are important if you want to properly develop the muscle group. Your biceps are made up of two heads - short head and long head. The long head is a part of the bicep muscle that's responsible for the front part of the upper arms. To attain a proper bicep peak, you need to work on the long head diligently.
The long head is essential for physical appearance and aesthetics. Additionally, the long head of the bicep helps with developing the upper arm. More often than not, fitness enthusiasts and coaches discuss the importance of the bicep long head, as it’s the more prominent of the two bicep heads.
You must remember that it’s extremely difficult to isolate the bicep long head from the short head. Every exercise you do works on both heads. However, there are certain exercises that put more focus on the long head and activate it better.
Long Head Bicep Exercises
Here are six long head bicep exercises you can include in your routine for the bicep long head development:
1) Dumbbell Curl
One of the most common long head bicep exercises is the dumbbell curls. In fact, every bicep workout routine has dumbbell curls, as it’s a foundation movement.
To do the exercise, hold a dumbbell in each hand, and place your arms beside your torso. Use your biceps to pull the dumbbell towards you by folding your arms from your elbows. At the top of the motion, your biceps must be engaged and squeezed, and your palms should be facing you and parallel to your shoulders.
When you lower the dumbbell, try to control the negative as much as possible to maximize the burn.
2) Concentration Curl
The next exercise for bicep long heads you can include in your workout routine is concentration curl. You won’t find this exercise in every routine, but it's used by fitness coaches and bodybuilders occasionally to grow the bicep muscles.
To do the exercise, hold the dumbbell in one hand, and place your triceps against your inner thighs. If you’re working on the right bicep, hold the dumbbell in your right hand, and place the right tricep muscles on your right inner thigh.
Once you’ve attained this position, you can keep your left hand on your left quadriceps for balance. Pull the dumbbell towards yourself using your biceps and inner thighs for support. You should use the full range of motion available to ensure your long head is getting worked on. So, pull the dumbbell all the way towards you, and when you lower it, your forearms should completely extend towards the floor.
3) Preacher Curl
Preacher curls are a great pick for long head bicep exercises, especially as you can do this exercise using barbells or dumbbells. If you have access to a preacher curl machine, you can use that. Otherwise, fitness establishments often have a preacher curl pad that you can use. If you have access to either, you can use an incline bench to do the exercise.
Coming to the exercise, hold the dumbbell in one hand, and place your upper arms on the pad or the incline bench. To stabilize yourself, hold the pad with your free hand. Lock your underarms on the edge of the pad. Place your upper arms (triceps) on the pad, and extend your forearms all the way forward.
To do the exercise, pull the dumbbell towards yourself without taking your elbow or upper arm off the pad. It’s going to be difficult at first, as your biceps will want to use the additional assistance. So, it’s advised to begin with a lighter weight before moving to heavier weights when your strength improves.
4) Incline Dumbbell Curl
Incline dumbbell curls are a common exercise, and you’ll find almost every routine having it.
To do the exercise, sit on an incline bench. Take a pair of dumbbells, and extend your arms towards the floor. Keep your back against the incline bench pad, and lift the dumbbells to replicate a dumbbell curl, but your elbows shouldn’t move forward.
This exercise essentially keeps the elbows as steady as possible to ensure that the correct muscles get engaged.
5) Close-grip Barbell Curl
If you want to do barbell exercises to work the long bicep head, close-grip curls are a good choice. This exercise can be performed using a straight barbell or an EZ-bar.
If you’re using a barbell, hold it with a close grip that's slightly smaller than shoulder-width. However, if you’re using an EZ-bar, hold the inner grip of the bar. To do the exercise, add weight plates if your biceps can manage the resistance, and proceed to do curls while maintaining the short-grip.
6) Cable Curl
Every workout routine should have a finisher exercise. This is one you use to completely burn out the muscles and force them to grow back thicker and stronger.
The best pick from long head bicep exercises for a finisher workout is cable curls. You need to attach a straight bar to the cable pulley machine and adjust the anchor to the bottom, to do this exercise.
Next, proceed to do bicep curls as usual, but keep a shoulder-width grip for proper muscle engagement.
Bottom Line
It’s well-known that you cannot attain arm growth just by exercising. If you want to develop your arms and attain the long head bicep peak, you must have a proper diet in place too.
Nutrition is of utmost importance when it comes to building muscle and losing fat. If you want to add mass, you need to be in a calorie surplus, and if your goal is to cut fat, you need to be in a calorie deficit.
However, it’s possible to cut fat and gain muscle at the same time if you’re in a calorie deficit. However, you need to ensure you’re consuming enough protein to help the muscle fibers to grow back thicker and stronger.
You should also give your muscles rest and hydration for them to grow. So, if you work on your biceps on Monday, you must give them rest for at least a day or two before working on them again.
