Exercise #1 - Nilsson Curls - The
Best Bicep Exercise EVER...

Just so you know up front, you'll need to be able to do probably 6 to 10 or so regular chins before you can really use this exercise. If you can't yet do that many chins, don't worry! I'm also including a "standing" version below that allows you to set your feet on the ground and spot yourself throughout the movement.

I mean think about it - imagine the kind of growth response you'll get from an exercise that puts the full tension of almost your entire bodyweight directly onto your biceps...

That's the beauty of this exercise - it's a bodyweight exercise, which means increased muscle fiber activation AND you use your entire bodyweight to do it.

How To Do It:

To do this exercise, you'll need a rack or a chin-up bar that allows you to set another close underneath it. Alternatively, you can also use the metal ladder of playground apparatus (that works quite well, too).

Set the racking pins (where you would normally rack the bar on a squat, for instance) to the highest point you can on the rack.

Now move the safety rails to a point that is about 8 to 12 inches below that (you can play with this height when you try the exercise to get the best dimensions for you).

Set a bar on the top racking pins and set another bar on the safety rails, pushed up against the uprights. It's going to look like two rungs of a ladder.

In my own setup, I load the top bar with weight plates to keep it from moving. You may find you need to do this with yours, too.

Quick note on setup...if you have a power rack that has pins that you can slide in and out of the frame (I don't - mine are integrated right into the rack) you can also more easily get this set up by setting one safety rail in the top set of holes then the other safety rail in a set of holes below (making your own ladder, essentially). That's the easiest way to set this up and how I used to do it when I had access to a rack that I could do it with.

Now get in the rack and take a close, underhand grip on the top bar. Your forearms should be braced up against the bottom bar, just above your elbows. Your arms should be straight when you're at the bottom.

Now start doing a chin-up. As you pull yourself up, your forearms will press against the bottom bar. THIS is what changes it into a biceps-oriented movement.

Pull yourself all the way up until your nose is at the top bar then lower slowly.

That's the exercise! And it's a TOUGH one...I don't care how strong your biceps are. It's going to challenge and you will LOVE the way it feels.

When I used to train at a commercial gym, I showed this one to a guy who was built like a gymnast...HUGE biceps, not very big legs. He did 5 reps, his arms swelled up like balloons and he couldn't wipe the grin off his face.

So as you get stronger with it, you can also add weight by holding a dumbell between your feet or wearing a dip belt. But that's VERY advanced. This exercise is just BRUTAL even with just your bodyweight.

Do it FIRST in your bicep routine (trust me). You won't need to do a whole lot of anything else for bi's when you do 3 or 4 sets of this one...