Home Workout Biceps Without Equipment
Olegario Benford
Having strong biceps muscles will not only help you feel good about your physique and boost your performance in the gym with weightlifting exercises like chin-ups and rows but will also make everyday activities such as lifting your kids or groceries much easier.
Traditional push-ups and even diamond push-ups are upper body exercises that primarily target the pectoralis major and minor muscles in the chest and the triceps in the back of your upper arm while simultaneously working your lats and core.
Therefore, when do these negative biceps curls, you want to go as slowly as possible on the portion of the movement from your shoulders back down to the extended arm position with your elbows straight.
You will also target your lats (back muscles) and core. Assuming you do not have TRX suspension straps, you will need to get a little creative with how you can perform inverted rows in a biceps workout without equipment.
One thing that tends to work well is using a sturdy table. You can also use a rope or bedsheet secured behind the top of a door with a hefty knot, depending on your body weight. The latter option will basically replicate suspension straps.
However, as a certified personal trainer, I always tell my clients that with a little creativity and commitment to getting in a few extra reps of each exercise, you can maintain your gains in the gym with biceps bodyweight workouts.
The most important tip for doing no equipment bicep workouts is to complete each of the arm exercises to failure, especially if you are trying to trigger muscle growth to build biceps mass.
Traditional push-ups target your chest, shoulders, triceps, and abs. But making a few tweaks to your push-up form will let you target your biceps. Diamond push-ups get their name from the shape your hands take during the exercise and force your arms closer together to help you train your biceps.
If you have a pull-up bar, resistance bands, or even a towel to hang around a door, you can use pull-ups to build powerful forearms, back muscles, and biceps. We recommend also reading 7 Reasons to do Pullups Every Day.
Remember, if you ever have questions about your workout, your G&G Fitness Equipment Consultant is here to help! We are always available to help you make the most out of your fitness equipment. Have a question about fitness? Stop in to your local G&G Showroom or give us a call.
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Having strong biceps helps make day-to-day life easier by allowing you to lift and move objects with ease. That said, you may wonder how you can achieve stronger biceps without spending time in the gym.
Though the chinup mostly targets your upper back and shoulders, it also relies on your biceps for a hardcore workout. You will need a chinup bar or another horizontal bar that can hold your body weight.
This advanced move may be difficult at first, so be patient. You can modify it by anchoring a large resistance band around the bar, stepping into it, and performing assisted chinups. Even if you can perform only 1 chinup, make it a goal to progress from there.
Though traditional pushups mostly target your triceps (the muscle on the back of your upper arm), moving your hands closer together can help better target your biceps, and bending your knees makes the exercise easier for beginners.
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The following exercises target the various arm muscles as best as possible without the need for added weight. The exercises range from easy to difficult, listed in that order, and may involve multiple muscle groups (including your core muscles), as well as your arm muscles.
This beginner exercise focuses on the shoulder muscles and isometrically strengthens the biceps and triceps. You can make smaller or larger circles, but ensure that you maintain tension down your arm throughout the full set.
The classic pushup strengthens the chest, shoulders, and triceps with no equipment. You will also need to engage your core to maintain the position, which adds a bonus core component to this arm exercise.
Sometimes all you have time for is a quick workout at home that you can do without equipment. The good news is that, especially if you're looking for core workouts at home, there actually are plenty of ways to squeeze a solid no-equipment workout into a short amount of time.
"Bicycle crunches let the arms rest but create enormous work in the midsection by moving the upper body and lower body simultaneously," says West. "The emphasis is on bringing the opposite elbow and knee together while still maintaining a flat back on the floor."
"You'll definitely feel a minute of boat with the belly drawn in and the chest lifted," says West. It's tough to hold this for the full 60 seconds, but there's no better way to end a workout than with a challenge, right? (That being said, if you are struggling to maintain proper form for the full minute, take a break after 30 seconds, reset, and try holding for another 30.)
When you're at home, it's easy to train your chest and triceps with push-ups, that classic calisthenics move. Likewise, it's a very simple matter to train your core by doing planks, sit-ups or crunches, or your legs by doing squats.
However, training your biceps is a little bit more difficult. To train your biceps and back, you have to actively pull something towards you rather than push it away. This means that without proper equipment, such as the dumbbells and resistance bands, it's very difficult to begin training your pulling muscles. Luckily, both pieces of kit start out quite affordable, and you can check out our guides to the best adjustable dumbbells and best resistance bands right here.
However, if you're not yet comfortable taking the plunge or buying this kit, or heading to the gym, it's going to be difficult to train your biceps. Even pull-ups require a bar, or rings: it's tough to get any kind of bicep work in without the proper equipment.
Which is why we've put together a trio of tips for the enterprising fitness enthusiast: whether you're stuck in a hotel room, you're a complete beginner or you just don't have any kit right now, you never have to miss a good biceps pump again.
If push-ups against a wall are the "easy" alternative to doing them on the floor, the doorway curl is the equivalent for the pull-up. Rather than pulling yourself "up" per se, you're placing your feet against the base of a door frame, or pillar, or tree, and pulling your body into it.
For more experienced trainees, it can be made more difficult by lowering your arm's position on the doorframe, or using one hand instead of two. This video walks you through the exercise in more detail:
Don't have any weights to hand? If you've got two water bottles of the same size, you can easily make do. 500ml of water equates to approximately 500 grams, which means two half-litre bottles of water can substitute for two small dumbbells, ideal for most body pump or HIIT workouts. Larger water bottles can be used for heavier lifting moves such as rows, squats or curls.
Any tinned or bagged items or bottles of liquid would do the trick. As long as you know the volume of the contents, you know how much you're lifting. In the workout below, personal trianer Cat Taylor recommends using tins of beans to perform her workout if you're short on dumbbells. Even bags of plant food, compost or sand are ideal for using like a sandbag, although careful they don't split!
Wrapping a towel around your foot, you grab either end and pull, while simultaneously pushing away from you with your foot. The end result is something approaching a bicep curl, as you can see in the video below:
Matt Evans is an experienced health and fitness journalist and is currently Fitness and Wellbeing Editor at TechRadar, covering all things exercise and nutrition on Fit&Well's tech-focused sister site. Matt originally discovered exercise through martial arts: he holds a black belt in Karate and remains a keen runner, gym-goer, and infrequent yogi. His top fitness tip? Stretch."}), " -0-7/js/authorBio.js"); } else console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); Matt EvansSocial Links NavigationMatt Evans is an experienced health and fitness journalist and is currently Fitness and Wellbeing Editor at TechRadar, covering all things exercise and nutrition on Fit&Well's tech-focused sister site. Matt originally discovered exercise through martial arts: he holds a black belt in Karate and remains a keen runner, gym-goer, and infrequent yogi. His top fitness tip? Stretch.
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