12 Best Bodyweight Bicep Exercises to Blast Your Biceps

The biceps are the show muscles of the body. To build them, we naturally think of weight-based exercises like the barbell curl, cable curls, and incline dumbbell curls.

Yet, there is another way. And you don’t have to step foot inside a gym to do it. In this article, we present the 12 best bodyweight bicep exercises to build your arms fast.

Most people would scratch their head when it comes to bodyweight moves for the biceps. Many of the moves detailed below, you will never have heard of. But they are all effective at targeting the biceps and they require nothing more than your body, a towel, and a chin up bar.

Training biceps by just using your bodyweight has numerous advantages over training with weights. You can train anytime you wish and anywhere you happen to be. Bodyweight training is also more time efficient – you don’t have down time looking for and changing plates.

Training with your bodyweight is also a safer way to work your biceps. A lot of guys in the gym tend to go too heavy in their biceps training, with the result that they end up injuring themselves. Often the lower back is damaged as a result of excessive momentum and swinging. However, when you use your bodyweight as the resistance, you eliminate the dangers that come with using heavy weights.

Now that you know how good bodyweight training can be, here are the best bodyweight bicep exercises to blast your biceps into submission.

4 Beginner Bodyweight Bicep Exercises

Exercise #1: Door Way Curl

This is an excellent exercise for creating a peak contraction on the biceps muscle. This will allow you to start building height to the bicep when in a flexed position. It will also develop mid biceps mass in the brachialis area. This exercise allows for supination of the arm to work the biceps during both of its functional motions.

As you get proficient at this exercise, you can add resistance by stepping through the door, straddling the wall with your feet. This lowers the body, increasing the dead weight resistance that the arm has to pull.

Muscles Involved:

  • Primary: Biceps peak
  • Secondary: Biceps brachii

Execution method:

  • Position yourself in a doorway, straddling the door jamb. Grab the door jamb with one hand at chest height. Your feet should be close to the bottom of the door jamb and together. Now lean back so that your arm is extended.
  • With your hand on the inside of the door frame, pull yourself up towards the door frame. As you come up, try to turn your pulling hand away from your body. This will cause the forearm to turn slightly, providing supination.
  • Focus on feeling the contraction in the bicep as you pull in and forcefully contract the muscle at the top of the movement.

Exercise #2: Isometric Towel Curl

Muscles Involved:

  • Primary: Biceps brachii
  • Secondary: Brachialis

Execution method:

  • Step on one end of the towel. Grab the other end and grip it tightly. You want the forearm to be parallel to the floor and your elbow to be close in at your side.
  • Contracting your bicep tightly, you pull the towel up as hard as you can. Of course, the towel won’t move, but you will feel the contraction in the bicep and the forearm.
  • Hold the contracted position for 10 seconds, counting them off in your head. Make sure that the force is fully applied for the entire 10 seconds. Don’t let your elbow stray out from your side during the movement either.
  • Repeat on the other side

Exercise #3: Self Curl

Muscles Involved:

  • Primary: Biceps brachii
  • Secondary: Brachialis

Execution method:

  • Stand with your hands in front of you. Your right should be palm up. Place your left hand palm down into your right palm.
  • Curl your right arm across your body toward your chest. Use your left arms to provide resistance.
  • Lower and repeat.

Note: You have the ability to vary the resistance throughout this movement by simply applying more or less pressure to the working arm.

Exercise #4: Static Bicep Curl

Muscles Involved:

  • Primary: Biceps brachii
  • Secondary: Forearm flexors

Execution method:

  • Position yourself alongside a counter top positioned at around mid bicep level.
  • Place your arms under the counter top with your palms pushing up into the counter.
  • Flex your biceps tightly as you push into the counter to perform a 30-second static hold.

4 Intermediate Bodyweight Bicep Exercises

Exercise #5: Inverted Curl

Muscles Involved:

  • Primary: Biceps brachii
  • Secondary: Latissimus dorsi

Execution method:

  • Set up a bar or equivalent between two uprights so that it is positioned horizontally at waist height. Place a towel or cushion under the bar on each bench to prevent any marking.
  • Grasp the bar with an underhand grip at shoulder level and lower yourself so that you are hanging underneath it with feet extended out.
  • Now, with your back arched, pull up so that your chin comes past the bar. Lower to full extension and repeat. Breathe in as you lower yourself and forcefully breathe out as you lift yourself.

Exercise #6: Leg Curl

Muscles Involved:

  • Primary: Biceps brachii
  • Secondary: Brachialis

Execution method:

  • Stand against a wall, leaning forward slightly, and cross one foot across to the opposite knee.
  • Grab the ankle of the crossed foot with the opposite hand. This leg will now act as your resistance.
  • Now lean forward with your upper body, while keeping your butt up against the wall. Curl your leg up towards your shoulder until you feel a peak contraction in the bicep.
  • To increase resistance, simply push your leg down. You can also do eccentric training for your biceps by resisting strongly on the way down. This allows for adaptable resistance, which no bar can possibly provide you.

Exercise #7: Towel Curl

Muscles Involved:

  • Primary: Biceps brachii
  • Secondary: Brachialis

Execution method:

  • Hook the towel around the object so that you are able to grab both ends of the towel at a height of about five feet off the ground.
  • Make sure the towel is gripped so that it is on the outside of your hands. Bend your knees to drop down so that your head is in line with the towel.
  • Lean back so that your dead weight is supported by your arms. Now curl in to bring your body towards the support object. Keep your elbows in and forcefully contract the biceps, squeezing tightly in the top curl position.

Exercise #8: Towel Hammer Curl

Muscles Involved:

  • Primary: Biceps brachii
  • Secondary: Brachialis

Execution method:

  • Hook the towel around an object so that you are able to grab both ends of the towel at a height that is parallel to your head.
  • With a neutral grip (palms facing each other), curl your forearms up to the sides of your head.
  • Hold the contracted position for count of two and then slowly return to the start position.

4 Advanced Bodyweight Bicep Exercises

Exercise #9: Side Lying Curl

This is one of those movements that may look a little awkward but will prove to be a fantastic muscle belly shaper and builder of peak contraction. It all relies on isolation of the working bicep.

Muscles Involved:

  • Primary: Biceps brachii
  • Secondary: Brachialis

Execution method:

  • Lie on the ground on your side. One arm should be flat on the ground with the other arm tucked behind the head so that it is out of the way. Your knees should be bent and your head and shoulders up.
  • Grip the hamstring. Now bring your legs up slightly so that they are off the ground. This will also bring the forearm off the floor. Your upper arm will be the only part of the arm that has contact with the floor. Now use the power of your bicep to pull your upper body up as far as you can. Allow the knees to come in a little bit to accentuate the peak contraction on the bicep. Concentrate on keeping the abs out of the lift, making the arm do all the work.
  • Return back to the start position and repeat.

Exercise #10: Reverse Push Ups

This is a fantastic movement to build up the mass in your mid bicep. It will take a little getting used to this push-up variation, but persevere. You will be able to build up your reps quickly.

Muscles Involved:

  • Primary: Brachialis
  • Secondary: Grip Strength

Execution method:

  • Assume a standard push-up position, but have your hands very wide, twice shoulder width apart. Turn your fingers so that they are pointing towards your feet.
  • Now perform your push-ups, going as low as you can and feeling the isolation in the biceps.

Exercise #11: Head Bangers

Head Banger Pullup

Head bangers is a challenging move that is performed at the level of the chin up bar. It involves horizontal movement of your arms while in a top chin up position.

Muscles Involved:

  • Primary: Brachialis
  • Secondary: Forearm Flexors

Execution method:

  • Take a hold of a chin up bar with palms facing toward you. Your hands should be about six inches apart.
  • Perform a chin up to get to the top of the bar.
  • Extend your arms out to move your head away from the bar.
  • Immediately pull yourself back towards the bar. Work hard to keep your head at the level of the bar.

Exercise #12: One Arm Pull Ups

This is a very difficult move that will build up a huge amount of bicep strength. It is also a fantastic move for creating the split in the biceps that so many guys are after.

This exercise should only be attempted if you can handle 15 regular pull ups. To work your way up to doing this move, begin removing the fingers of one hand as you are doing regular pull ups. Before long you’ll be repping out with just a single finger of your assist hand on the bar. That’s the time to give one arm pull ups a go.

Muscles Involved:

  • Primary: Biceps Brachii
  • Secondary: Biceps split

Execution method:

  • Grab a hold of the pull up bar with your dominant hand. The other hand should be at your side.
  • Pull from the bicep to bring your chin up and over the bar.
  • Slowly lower to the start position.

Conclusion

You now have an arsenal of the best bodyweight bicep exercises that will allow you to hammer your biceps anywhere, anytime. No longer are you restricted to barbells and dumbbells when your intention is to blast your guns.

The exercises have been presented in graduated blocks of four. We suggest spending three weeks on each phase. In week one your focus will be on perfecting the form. Follow the instructions carefully, making sure to isolate the biceps as much as you can.

In the second week, concentrate on the speed of your repetitions. For maximum benefit, follow a 1-1-4 cadence. This means that it will take you one second to do the positive (lifting) part of the exercise. You will squeeze the fully contracted position for one second, and then your will take 4 seconds to lower back to the start position.

In the third week, concentrate on getting as many reps as you can on each set.

Train your biceps twice per week, with a 48-hour rest period between each workout.

Do 3 sets of each exercise.

Have a 30-second rest between sets.

In weeks one and two, do 10-12 reps per set.

In week three, do your sets to failure (until you cannot do another rep).