Arm Training Guide
Bigger biceps from a pair of dumbbells and a plan.
The best exercises, a two-day routine, and a simple way to progress every week.
The best bicep workouts with dumbbells combine three kinds of curl: a standing or incline curl to stretch the long head, a hammer curl for the muscles under and beside the biceps, and a preacher-style or concentration curl for the short head. Do 3 to 4 hard sets of two or three of them, twice a week, in the 8 to 15 rep range, and add a rep or a little weight whenever you can. That is the whole recipe. The rest of this article explains why and how.
What Your Biceps Actually Do
The biceps brachii has two heads. The long head runs over the front of the shoulder, and the short head attaches at the shoulder blade a little lower and closer to the body. Both heads join into one tendon at the forearm, so both bend your elbow and both turn your palm up (supination). That matters, because it means no curl works one head completely alone.
Underneath the biceps sits the brachialis, which also bends the elbow and adds real thickness to the upper arm. The brachioradialis runs along the forearm. A good bicep workout trains all three, which is why it should include more than one grip.
Bicep Workouts With Dumbbells: The Best Exercises
Dumbbells are enough for complete arm training. You can change the grip, the arm position and the bench angle, and each change shifts where the curl is hardest.
Dumbbell Curl
The baseline. Stand tall, elbows by your sides, curl up and turn the palms toward the ceiling. Alternate arms or curl both together. Hits both heads.
Incline Curl
Sit back on a bench set to about 45 to 60 degrees so your arms hang behind your torso. This stretches the long head at the bottom and is the best-known long head exercise.
Hammer Curl
Palms face each other the whole way. It shifts work toward the brachialis and brachioradialis, which helps arm thickness and grip.
Spider Curl
Lie chest-down on an incline bench with your arms hanging in front. No swinging is possible, so the top of the rep is hard and honest.
Preacher Curl
Arm supported in front of the body on a pad (a single-arm dumbbell version works well). Strict and tough in the stretched position.
Concentration Curl
Seated, elbow braced on the inside of the thigh, one arm at a time. Covered in detail below.
If you want a drill to rehearse the pattern first, the general bicep curl page covers the basics, and the drag curl is a barbell or dumbbell variation that keeps the elbows back.
Short Head Bicep Workout
A short head bicep workout leans on curls where your upper arm is in front of your body or pinned in place: preacher curls, spider curls and the concentration curl. In those positions the long head, which crosses the shoulder, starts out shortened, so the elbow bend has to come more from the rest of the elbow flexors, including the short head.
Be careful with the claim, though. EMG studies comparing curl variations show differences in how hard each head is working, but those differences are modest and not consistent from study to study. Think of "short head exercises" as a way to vary the stimulus, not as a switch that turns the other head off.
Short head dumbbell block
- Preacher or spider curl: 3 sets of 8 to 12
- Concentration curl: 2 to 3 sets of 10 to 15 per arm
How to Do a Concentration Curl
The concentration curl is a seated, one-arm curl with the elbow braced against your inner thigh. The brace removes momentum, so a lighter dumbbell feels heavy.
- Sit on the end of a bench with your feet wide and a dumbbell between them.
- Lean forward slightly and rest the back of your upper arm against your inner thigh, arm fully straight.
- Curl the dumbbell toward your shoulder, turning the palm up as you rise.
- Squeeze at the top for a beat, then lower for 2 to 3 seconds until the arm is straight again.
Keep the shoulder still. If your torso is rocking to finish the rep, the weight is too heavy. Use it as a finisher after heavier curls, not as your main lift.
Long Head: Why Stretch Matters
When your arm hangs behind your torso, as in an incline curl, the long head is stretched before the rep even starts. Training a muscle hard at long lengths is a promising way to build it, and there is one study on exactly this comparison for the biceps. In a 9-week trial of 38 recreationally trained women (31 finished), one group did incline curls and the other did preacher curls, both for 4 sets of 12 to failure three times a week. The only arm region that grew significantly was the one nearest the elbow in the preacher group, which loads the muscle hardest when it is stretched in front of the body. The authors found no significant differences between regions, and the incline group did not show a significant increase anywhere (Zabaleta-Korta et al., Journal of Human Kinetics, 2023).
What to take from that: it is a small study in one group of women, ultrasound measured the whole front of the upper arm (brachialis included), and it cannot tell you which head grew. It does not prove incline curls are weak or that preacher curls are magic. It does support using more than one arm position, because the two curls do not load the muscle the same way. Use both.
A Dumbbell-Only Bicep Routine
Train biceps twice a week with at least a day between sessions. Each day takes about 20 minutes and can be added to the end of a push or pull workout, like our push day workout.
| Day | Exercise | Sets x reps |
|---|---|---|
| Day A | Incline curl | 3 x 8 to 12 |
| Hammer curl | 2 x 10 to 12 | |
| Concentration curl | 2 x 12 to 15 per arm | |
| Day B | Standing dumbbell curl | 3 x 8 to 12 |
| Spider or preacher curl | 2 x 10 to 12 | |
| Hammer curl | 2 x 12 to 15 |
That is 7 hard sets per day, 14 per week, the top of the range below, which is plenty for most people once their back and pulling work is counted too. Finish each set 1 to 3 reps short of failure, with the last set of each exercise close to failure. Rest 60 to 120 seconds between sets. If you want to save time, pair two curls back to back as a superset.
How Many Sets and Reps?
A meta-regression of weekly training volume found that more weekly sets per muscle group went with more growth, with the clearest benefit up to 10 or more sets per week and little data beyond that (Schoenfeld, Ogborn and Krieger, Journal of Sports Sciences, 2017). Your biceps already work during rows, pull-ups and lat pulldowns, so 8 to 14 direct sets a week is a sensible place to start. Add sets only if you are recovering well and progress has stalled.
Sets close to failure in the 8 to 15 range work well for curls. Heavier or lighter sets can also grow muscle, so use whatever your elbows and wrists tolerate.
How to Progress Your Curls
Curls use small weights, and dumbbells often jump 5 pounds at a time, which is a big step on an exercise you do for 10 reps. Use double progression instead.
- Pick a rep range, such as 8 to 12.
- Start at a weight where you hit 8 reps on all sets.
- Add a rep each session until every set reaches 12.
- Then move up to the next dumbbell and start again at 8.
Other ways to progress include slower lowering (3 seconds down), a longer pause at the stretched position, and adding a set. Our guide to progressive overload covers each of these in detail. To do any of them you need to know what you did last time, so write it down, as explained in the weight training log template guide.
Common Mistakes
- Swinging. Momentum takes the work off the biceps. Lower the weight and keep elbows near your sides.
- Cutting the bottom short. Straighten the arm fully each rep, especially on incline and preacher curls where the stretch is the point.
- Doing only one curl. A mix of grips and arm positions covers more of the elbow flexors.
- Never changing the weight. If you did the same dumbbell for the same reps last month, nothing new is telling the muscle to grow.
- Neglecting the other side of the arm. The triceps make up most of the upper arm. They get their own plan in a coming article, but keep them in your push days.
Benefits and Downsides of a Dumbbell Bicep Plan
Dumbbells are cheap, work at home, and let each arm lift on its own, which can reveal and fix side-to-side strength gaps. The downsides are real, too. Heavier weights come in jumps, so progress can feel slow, and tension drops at the very top of a free-weight curl, where cable curls hold constant load. If your gym has a cable, a cable bicep curl is a good addition. Heavy barbell work such as the barbell curl also lets you load more total weight. Dumbbells are plenty, but they are not the only tool.
Track Your Curls and Beat Them Next Time
Double progression only works if you can see last week's numbers when you pick up the dumbbell. GymGod has auto-progression, which calculates your next weight from what you actually lifted, so the curl that stalled last week comes with a target for this week. A plain notebook works as well if you keep it up. If you are unsure where your overall strength stands, the How Strong Am I calculator is a useful check.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best bicep workout with dumbbells?
Combine an incline or standing curl, a hammer curl and a preacher, spider or concentration curl. Do 3 sets of 8 to 12 on each, twice a week, and add reps or weight over time.
How do you train the short head of the biceps?
Use curls with your upper arm in front of the body or braced, such as preacher, spider and concentration curls. Both heads still work in every curl, so treat this as variety rather than isolation.
Are concentration curls worth doing?
Yes, as a finisher. They are strict and easy to feel in the biceps, but you cannot load them heavily, so keep heavier curls in the routine too.
How often should I train biceps?
Twice a week works for most people, with 8 to 14 direct hard sets in total. They also get work from rows, chin-ups and pulldowns.
When should I go up in dumbbell weight?
When you reach the top of your rep range on every set with good form, such as 3 sets of 12, move to the next dumbbell and start again at the bottom of the range.
