overtraining biceps

Is it ok to train biceps more than once a week? Reason I ask is cause I see the bicep boys in the gym training them loads and their biceps are bigger/out of proportion to the rest of them. Is overtraining biceps therefor advantageous?

Personally I always think the tricep makes the arm look bigger. I'm not sure the bicep really does.

I know mate but you must have seen the ones who clearly have bigger biceps than triceps.

No problem training any body part more than once a week provided you do it sensibly & don't do it to the detriment of other body parts.

To me nothing looks more ridiulous than some dude with big arms but legs like my five year old daughter.

Only need to do them once a week directly.,

They will get worked on heavy back movements indirectly remember.

I stick to about 3 exercises for biceps, first two exercises to beyond failure.

I do seated DB curls (both arms together)
EZ bar curls

Either single arm cable preacher/single arm DB concentration curl/high pulley cable curls

Last exercise I like to use higher reps.     

At the moment I'm just doing bb curls 3x8 directly after chest and triceps session. I do it there because I can lift more than after back session. Should I do more after the back session as well?

maybe chuck in some DB curls after the back session if you are worried. To be honest, i find that close hold chins are the best work for my biceps - and these count as a decent compound movement involving the back as well - if you do these try adding some weight to your body when doing it - this worked well for me.

I find twice a week works for me. Once directly in an arms session and the other indirectly with back.

Also don't forget you reverse curls/hammer curls.

Yes do them after your back workout. Overtraining does not contribute to muscle mass, its OVERLOAD.You say your only doing 3x8 of bb curls? Incorporate  a few more exercises after your back workout instead of 1.

What do you mean by "overtraining"?

Well it's a term I hear used often, I assumed it meant training a muscle too much therefor having a negative effect. I guess I was wondering how much training is overtraining for biceps... then again I guess it's different for everyone!

Mine just seem very stuborn so I will try doing them after back as well as after chest day, provided no one discourages this as a bad idea....

overtraining is more of a nervous system thing - you become overtrained simply by doing too much total volume in the weight room, or training too often without recovering

for instance - if you were to train nothing but biceps, it would be practically impossible to overtrain, as the biceps are very small. however - if you did seven days a week of mega heavy squatting, you'd overtrain quite quickly

but this doesn't help your original post...


yes, there will be an optimum amount of training for your biceps, but I think it depends on what else you're doing in your routine. your options essentially come down to 
(1) doing some more
or
(2) doing some less
and seeing what happens - either option may or may not produce faster growth, you have to experiment

CHRISLA,
how the hell can you go beyond failure?

infidel


CHRISLA,
how the hell can you go beyond failure?

Assisted reps and then partials to fry every last fibre- have a look at HIT.

Thank God for Monkfinger's response.
 
There's way too much overthinking going on in this thread; just pick which exercises and reps/sets you like, and try that for a bit. In the real world, the difference between training your biceps once or twice a week will make absolutely no difference

Once a week is train then 6 days rest.
What is considered twice a week?

Thanks for the replies, I didn't realise overtraining was a CNS thing that only happens when doing big compounds, I thought it applied to any muscle that wasn't given enough recovery time. so it seems training smaller muscles can be done as frequently as you like!

What are the actual problems that arise from overtraining? How does it affect your CNS?

mikejm


What are the actual problems that arise from overtraining? How does it affect your CNS?

Feeling like sh.it basically: potential illness, fatigue and not growing any.

i just have one good session on a monday for biceps and then leave them until the following monday. Really easy to over train biceps especially if you are doing compound exercise aswell.

MonkFinger


overtraining is more of a nervous system thing - you become overtrained simply by doing too much total volume in the weight room, or training too often without recovering

for instance - if you were to train nothing but biceps, it would be practically impossible to overtrain, as the biceps are very small. however - if you did seven days a week of mega heavy squatting, you'd overtrain quite quickly

but this doesn't help your original post...


yes, there will be an optimum amount of training for your biceps, but I think it depends on what else you're doing in your routine. your options essentially come down to 
(1) doing some more
or
(2) doing some less
and seeing what happens - either option may or may not produce faster growth, you have to experiment

 


I agree. I prefer to do my bi's with my back. I'm just aiming for progressive overload each week and I'm happy. If I hit a sticking point I might think about introducing some more on another day. I don't think you'd have a problem introducing bi's to another session as long as it didn't turn into a long drawn out session i.e. sticking within the hour workout time.