Bicep Exercises Without Weights

The biceps are one of the body parts you really want to pack some muscle on. In fact, a lot of people spend more time on their biceps than they really should, but this is something I may discuss on another article.

The general conception is that to exercise your biceps, you need to have some dumbbells or a barbell handy, if not access to a specialized fitness machine. While I love the ol’ dumbbells and barbell, there are plenty of bicep exercises you can do without weights. You just need to find out some other form of resistance. This is great if you’re on vacation, stuck long hours at work, snowed in and can’t go to the gym, on a camping trip, or any other reason why dumbbells aren’t available..

First, there is your body weight. In fact, this is probably the best weight that you’ll ever own and many people believe that bodyweight exercises are in fact the best things you can do to get a nice, symmetrical muscle growth. You can and should use your body weight to exercise your biceps.

For instance, there’s nothing easier than to do some chin-ups or pull-ups. No weights required, just a horizontal bar you can use to pull yourself up. You’ll be working your back and your biceps. You can do tons of variations of the pull-up: close grip, wide grip, in front of the head, back of the head. Naturally, the position of your hands is also super important. Try a lot of variations to keep things interesting and diverse.

You need to think outside the box a bit and find other forms of resistance which aren’t dumbbells. It can be anything, from two filled water bottles to a heavy sack of potatoes. I know a guy who used to do two-handed bicep curls with his small baby girl. He said it was the only time he worked out with a smiling weight (-:

If you can call up someone to workout with you there is one way you can do some bicep exercises together: Stand with both hands at 90 degree angle to your body with both elbows tight by your sides. Keep your palms up and open. The other person needs to place his or her hand on to of yours with their palms facing down.

Now, they need to try to drive your hands down while you’re trying to drive their up, but you can’t move your elbows. Just use your biceps to try an ‘curl’ their hands toward you. Trust me, this can be a massive workout, and quite fun too. You can do this with one hand or both at the same time.

A similar exercise, but one which can become a bit frustrating, is more of a static bicep workout. In this exercise you just find something which is way too heavy for you to lift, like a piece of furniture, grab hold of it (or at least some of it) and try to lift it up in a curling motion. Naturally, this furniture or whatever isn’t going to budge, but you can still feel some pretty good exertion from it.

Naturally, it is a bit more challenging to find other ways to exercise your biceps without weights than to just pick up a dumbbell. If you do have some lying around then by all means, use them. However, these tips can help you get an effective workout even if you don’t have access to any equipment just now.

No excuses.