Things You'll Need:
- dumb bells of assorted weights
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Step 1
Your starting position is important. You should stand with your feet shoulder width apart. Grab a pair of light dumb bells and let your hands hang naturally at your sides. Curl one hand up to shoulder height while turning your wrist toward you. As you lower that hand curl the other up at the same time. When you have curled both arms you have done one rep. You can also curl both arms at the same time. It shortens the workout but is less effective. You are more likely to cheat by bending your back and whipping the weights up. It is better to curl each arm individually. Be sure not to put down the dumb bells at any time during this exercise.
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Step 2
Start by doing a set of 10 reps at a warm up weight to get the blood flowing. Now it's time to climb the ladder. Pick up a pair of moderately heavy dumb bells. Do 1 curl then pause for 1 second. Then do 2 curls then rest for 2 seconds. Follow this pattern with 3, 4 and 5 curls. After the fifth set of 5 reps your biceps should feel pumped but not exhausted. If they don't, increase the amount of weight.
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Step 3
Rest for one minute then start climbing the ladder a second time. With the same amount of weight do 1 curl followed by a 1 second pause. 2 reps with a 2 second rest and so on until you get to 5 reps. At this point you should not be able to complete 5 curls. If you can, then increase the weight.
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Step 4
By now you should be pretty fatigued. It's time to climb down the ladder. Try to do 4 curls. It's OK if you can't but try. Pause 4 seconds then try to do 3 reps. Again, it's fine if you can't quite get there but try. Attempt 2 reps then 1 rep. You should be crying for mercy and probably unable to do that final rep. If not it's time to increase the weight.
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Step 5
The key to great gains in the biceps is getting blood into the muscle fibers when you have pushed them to failure. Put down the weights you used for your ladder curls and grab a pair of dumb bells 10 pounds lighter. Crank out a fast set of 10 reps. Your biceps should be screaming for relief. Without rest grab the next set of dumb bells 5 pounds lighter. Pound out another fast set of 10 curls. Keep moving on down the weight rack using lighter and lighter dumb bells. Do not rest between sets. By the time you hit 15 pounds you should barely be able to lift your arms. This is great. Be sure to stretch out those biceps and rest them for several days. The next time you do ladder curls you will definitely be stronger.
