The BEST bicep exercises you can do at home to build bigger and stronger biceps! Standing dumbbell curls, hammer curls, crossbody concentration curls — the 5 best bicep exercises with dumbbells in a 20-minute biceps workout at home. A complete bicep burnout to build strong, defined biceps.
Want to build bigger biceps at home?
Add these five bicep exercises to your at home arm workouts.
Or dedicate one training day a week to just the bicep muscle group with this 20-minute biceps workout at home.
An efficient dumbbell bicep workout to BUILD STRONG, defined arms and biceps!
I believe in the progressive overload principle to build muscle. Progressive overload is when you gradually increase the: weight (lift heavier), frequency (days per week), and number of repetitions (note you can also increase weights and decrease number of repetitions). These changes in your strength training routine challenge your muscles in different ways to build strength.
The best bicep exercises hit both heads of the bicep (there’s a short head AND a long head) from all angles. In my opinion, the most effective bicep exercises are: concentration curls, hammer curls and supine grip curls.
Hammer curls work more arm muscles than standard bicep curls. Thus, hammer curls have been known to build bicep muscles faster. That said, there are several bicep curl variations: hammer curl, reverse curl, Zottman curls. Each variation requires a slight grip change to work a slightly different head of the bicep muscle. The best way to train biceps is to include a variety of these curl variations into your overall training routine.
The five best bicep exercises to build muscle at home with a set of dumbbells — no fancy gym equipment required!
Medium set of dumbbells. I suggest anywhere from 8-25 lbs. I used 15-20 lb dumbbells for this bicep workout.
Follow along with the guided Bicep Workout video on YouTube, led by certified personal trainer, Lindsey Bomgren.
Your Workout Looks Like This:
Targets: The long (outer) head of the biceps, and the short (inner) head of the biceps.
One of the best bicep exercises to make the bicep muscles pop.
Targets: The long head of the bicep as well as the brachialis (another muscle in the upper arm located at the elbow joint) and the brachioradialis (a forearm muscles).
This exercises works multiple arm muscles at once.
Targets: The biceps brachii, as the name implies this move concentrates on the biceps muscles.
A great isolation exercise to build the bicep muscle.
Note, these concentration curls are done standing, but you could always perform true concentration curls from a seated position with the upper arm pressed against the leg (inner thighs) to better isolate the bicep muscle or using a preacher bench. This bicep exercise was found to be the best bicep exercise to increase bicep muscles; outperforming cable curls, barbell curls, chin-ups, preacher curls, incline dumbbell curl and more (American Council on Exercise).
Modification for Seated Concentration Curls:
Targets: Increased time under tension strengthens the biceps muscle and increase biceps hypertrophy (muscle growth).
Note, with isometric holds the shoulders tend to creep up into the ears. It’s important to keep the shoulder blades pulled down.
Targets: The biceps in a contracted position.
Keeping constant tension on the biceps during this isometric hold is meant to burnout or fatigue the bicep muscles to the point of failure (and that’s how true muscle growth happens).
Note, with isometric holds the shoulders tend to creep up into the ears. It’s important to keep the shoulder blades pulled down.
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AMAZING. Unbelievably compact workout. I was able to get in a very necessary sweat in such a short amount of time. Very simple moves but so effective.
Cynthia! So glad you liked this Bicep Workout! It’s quick and effective for sure. Nice work and I hope you come back for more challenging home workouts! -Lindsey
I loved this 20 min workout, as I have each of your workouts that I’ve done. Thank you!
Way to go Misi! I’m so glad you’re loving the workouts; keep up the great work and keep coming back for more! -Lindsey
Thank you so much for another fabulous session of blessed bananas! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the workouts and schedules you post, it takes the indecisiveness out of the equation. Please keep up the awesome work!
Way to go Kate! So glad you liked this Bicep Workout! Yes, I’m a big fan of having a plan (helps take the guesswork and easy option to bypass a workout out of the equation)! Keep up the great work! -Lindsey