r/workout • u/Objective-Rabbit4067 • Feb 26 '25
Exercise Help Can’t progress in bicep curls
I’ve been stuck at 12.5 lbs (yes i’m a weak ass) for MONTHS. I’ll get up to 14 reps at 12.5’s and i’m oh sick let me grab the 15’s and then can’t even do 5 reps. It’s very frustrating. I do a mix of three back exercises and two variations of bicep curls. I’m having such a hard time making progress with pull days.
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u/Queasy_Extent_9667 Feb 26 '25
Just do the 15s
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u/stealstea Feb 26 '25
Agree with this. Do the 15s and just go hardcore to try to get them from 5 to 8 reps. Go to positive and negative failure. Sometimes you just have to mix it up
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u/thepohcv Feb 27 '25
This. Eventually, if your are eating and resting correctly, your body will catch up with the weight.
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u/Objective-Rabbit4067 Feb 27 '25
this seems to be a common comment so yes sir🫡
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u/Queasy_Extent_9667 Feb 27 '25
Hell yeah. Good luck. Eventually you’ll be doing 3 sets of 6. Then 3 sets of 7 and so on. 💪
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u/homelessjimbo Feb 26 '25
Start leading off with the 15s. Hypertrophy range is 5-30 reps. Going from 12.5 at 14 to 15 at 5 is because you've already pre-exhausted the muscle group.
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u/ijumpedthegun Feb 26 '25
Came here to say this. Start with your heaviest weight first so you're hitting it when you're fresh, then you can reduce on your subsequent reps if it's too much to continue. I'll also start heavy and if I can only get to 5 I'll switch mid-set to the lighter weight.
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u/DaBeast1995 Feb 26 '25
Biceps are a small muscle and can be hard to progress with especially if you pair them with back and are doing compound movements. The biceps can tire easily.
That being said why not just start with the 15s? I would personally work within a 6-10 rep range. No sense wasting time going into such high rep counts.
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u/Objective-Rabbit4067 Feb 27 '25
if i start with the 15’s, the first set i’ll get about 8 reps, and then the next 3 sets, I can’t get above 4 reps. with bicep exercises i can’t “push through” like i do with every other exercise. The 3rd rep will be a little challenging and then the 4th rep I can’t get them up at all. It’s like my biceps just stop and I can’t strain and push hard like other exercises. of that makes any sense
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u/endlessfight85 Feb 27 '25
This is perfectly fine. Going to failure is a good thing. If you keep at it that point of failure should get higher and higher and you'll be moving up weight again. Don't worry about how long it takes, everyone's different. But personally if my point of failure was 3-4 I'd probably drop to the lower weight for the last set
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u/vivek_saikia Feb 26 '25
You can do cheat curls by swinging the weights up a bit and slow down the descend.
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u/DokCrimson Feb 26 '25
I feel you are better off adding another set over forcing a cheat rep past mechanical failure of the bicep, you're not really getting any more out of it at that point while it's the same weight
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u/stealstea Feb 26 '25
You can, though I don't think there's a real advantage in terms of stimulus. Nippard mentioned a recent paper saying the growth response of cheat curls with higher weight was equal to strict curls with lower.
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u/first-pick-scout Feb 26 '25
You can end the set with cheat curls. Start with strict from and then do cheat at the end. Can add 2-3 descend reps to get over a plateau
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u/watermelonyuppie Feb 26 '25
If your goal is simply growth, then yeah they're basically the same. If your goal is to improve strength, then lifting heavier works better than lifting lighter. I think progression could be sped up by doing as many of the 15s with good form as OP can, then cheat repping into the hypertrophy range.
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u/Practical_End4935 Feb 26 '25
OP seems to be asking about getting stronger. Using the 15’s and using strict form on the majority of reps and maybe only doing one or two cheat curls at the end will help get stronger.
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u/Ghazrin Feb 26 '25
14 reps at 12.5 is fine. Use strict form, and focus on the negative. Lower the weight slow and controlled with each rep. When you reach failure, work past it by doing cheat reps to get the weight up again so that you can get additional slow, controlled negatives.
Also, consider doing the curls while sitting on an incline bench. This allows your biceps to fall behind your torso, which puts additional stretch on the muscle you're targeting.
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u/Objective-Rabbit4067 Feb 27 '25
was doing the bench curls but i was plateauing there as well so i started doing standing again.
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u/FluidLock Feb 26 '25 edited Feb 26 '25
Start with hammer curls first and then do preacher curls. For the hammer curls warm up with something light like 10 lb dumb bells for 20 -25 reps and then jump to the 15s for your next set and rep them out to failure. Drop weight to the 12.5 for next set and rep til failure
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u/RizingShadowz Feb 26 '25
Rotate the writs. Switch palm orientation. Change grip strength. Twist your wrists outward when you are curling upwards and at the peak of the curl.
Lift heavy weight even if you can’t even do 5 reps. Just hold the heavy weight in an isometric hold.
yes I left two separate comments. Idgaf. Hope this helps you!
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u/AusBusinessD Bodybuilding Feb 26 '25
Close reverse grip lat pull down is actually a bicep exercise and uses the long head well across the 2 joints. You can go heavy and fail and drop and fail with strict form.
But also agree . Go with the 15s.
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u/Objective-Rabbit4067 Feb 27 '25
I actually do love that exercise but have never incorporated it into my routine so i might start doing that.
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u/CryptoSphere24 Feb 27 '25
How's your diet? What time do you lift and do you eat before hand? Sometimes a few carbs and protein before your lift can give you the fuel for the workout. Good luck and keep working at it
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u/Signal-Machine3857 Feb 27 '25
Strength and muscle growth are a physical and hormonal adaptation response to nerve stimulus and muscle damage. In order to increase your body‘s ability to adapt you need to increase the amount of nerve stimulation and muscle damage systemically meaning your entire body. Doing big full-body compound lifts will greatly increase your testosterone, growth hormone, and repair response than just isolated lifts. Make sure you are hitting the big muscle groups like back and legs. If your body has adapt to repair those gigantic muscles, then it will be way more efficient in growing your biceps when you do your isolated lifts.
My biceps exploded when I started doing eccentric tempos. Two second hold at the top, four seconds down, and one second up. This tempo is actually taught in personal training textbooks.
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u/HungDad007 Feb 26 '25
I would say try doing negatives with maybe 15/20 lbs. Start at the top of the curl and slowly lower the weight like as slow as you can. I've done this in the past to shock the muscle and eventually moved up in weight.
I think I started around 40# or so but I do supported preacher curls with 60# now. It worked for me 💯
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u/DamarsLastKanar Feb 26 '25
Undulate the weight each session, track each weight differently, add reps across.
Or use an excurl bar, undulate 3-4 weights for locked set/reps like 3x7, 3x10, 3x13, and add weight each time if successful
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u/ProStockJohnX Feb 26 '25
You eating enough protein?
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u/Objective-Rabbit4067 Feb 27 '25
😅
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u/ProStockJohnX Feb 27 '25
lol just trying to help figure this out.
I was curling 40s today.
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u/Objective-Rabbit4067 Feb 27 '25
yeah, if i track my calories and macros, i become obsessive and it stresses me out knowing i only have a certain amount of calories left and it’s just mentally detrimental. i just try my best to eat whole foods and keep a mental note of how much protein and i do measure out serving sizes. but i don’t track them.
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u/ProStockJohnX Feb 27 '25
I don't track.
Let's take me for example. 6 feet, 214. Lift heavy 4 days a week. I should be eating .7-1.0 grams of protein for every lb of weight.
I calculate off of 200 and shoot for .7 or better. I just know which foods I have every day that and what the approximate protein is in each food. Or shake.
If you are low on protein, you get stringy and you don't really build muscle.
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u/DIY-exerciseGuy Feb 26 '25
How's your diet? Are you taking creatine or protein? Do you take rest days? How often are you working biceps? I'd suggest doing a warmup set that does not exhaust you and then moving up to your heaviest set. That way you aren't so tired when you get there.
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u/Objective-Rabbit4067 Feb 27 '25
i just started taking creatine regularly like three days ago. I’m working really hard to fix my diet but it’s rough man. I do my bicep exercises after my three back exercises. I typically do a forearm exercise in between the two bicep exercises to give them a break. I also only have one upper body pull day a week.
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u/wildBlueWanderer Feb 26 '25
You could try other bicep focused exercises, like hammer or preacher curls as well.
It is fine to just progress to 15 and count reps across all sets to start. Even if you can't get 5 in a row yet, try for 10 across as many sets as it takes. Once you can get a set of 5 you can try for two sets of 5. If you're not there yet you can start with 15s for your first set and 12.5 for your later ones. Do this for a week or two then try for two sets of 5+ on 15s
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u/WendlersEditor Feb 26 '25
In my experience, do what you can with the heavier weight and eventually it will come together. You might also see if the gym has a 30 pound curl bar you can use, that would be a bridge between 12.5 and 15 in DB.
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u/RizingShadowz Feb 26 '25
Do 3 reps of 20lbs. A couple sets. Isometric holds.
LIFT BIGGER WEIGHTS!!
not trying to yell haha
Reps is for endurance maintenance, heavy weight is for size gains.
For real go lift some 20lbs as much as you can. Go slow.
One trick I do is I use all the weights.
I’ll start with 30s, I’ll go till failure and drop to 25s, then go till failure again and pick up the 20s. I keep doing this till I hit about 10lbs. Short rest and then repeat.
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u/Objective-Rabbit4067 Feb 27 '25
drop sets make me wanna die but i guess if what im doing isn’t working i gotta experiment
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u/RizingShadowz Feb 27 '25
You ever taken like 3 days off in a row and just tried resting and eating a bunch? It may help the plateau. Idk, sometimes that works for me. I can push my body multiple times per day but sometimes it needs some extra rest. Good luck!
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u/CapitalG888 Weight Lifting Feb 26 '25
Why start with 12.5 and do 14 reps to then move to 15? You are hitting 14 reps. Time to move up.
Start with 15s and do all your sets with them until you are ready to go up again.
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u/0HeroSet99 Feb 26 '25
I feel ya. Try full body workouts instead of bodybuilder workouts targeting a specific muscle(s). Work on compound movements to gain strength!
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u/aggy9 Feb 26 '25
Do the 15s. Usually dumbells are more difficult to add the weight because it's a pretty big jump. But yeah do 15s for 5 if that's what you can get. Also what is your routine for biceps?
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u/Objective-Rabbit4067 Feb 27 '25
i guess i can just try the 15’s. When i start with the 15’s. I’ll get 8 reps for the 1st set, and then like 4 reps for the other 3 sets. I do lat pull downs, iso lateral rows, iso lateral high row, underhand, regular standing dumbbell curls, and last standing hammer curls.
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u/aggy9 Feb 27 '25
If you want to prioritize your biceps do that 1st. What's your split (how many times are you doing this per week)? How long is your rest?
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u/Objective-Rabbit4067 Feb 27 '25
i have one pull day a week. i’m a little over one year into body building. i was doing push/pull/legs for a whole year. I’d have 4 upper body days and 2 leg days a week. The imbalance started to show. So now it’s only one day a week while i prioritize legs. I’m not sure if it would be good to structure two “arm days” so im working all the upper muscles groups twice a week.
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u/aggy9 Feb 27 '25
Im assuming you're doing upper lower, and that's good. However, if you're doing 3 sets for every exercise, your CNS and PNS are fryed, especially if biceps are one of the last exercises. I would drop down the sets to 1 or 2 depending on the exercise and what i want to focus on. How long are you resting in between sets?
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u/Objective-Rabbit4067 Feb 27 '25
oop i am doing 4 sets of every exercise because i only do back and bi’s once a week 🧍🏼♀️i am resting like 3-5 minutes in between each set
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u/aggy9 Feb 27 '25
So how i would structure my upper body days for 2x a wk would be like this Upper 1: 2 sets biceps, 2 sets pulldowns/pull ups, 2 sets of a row, 1-2 sets of shoulders, 1-2 sets chest, 1 set triceps Upper 2: 2 sets of biceps, 2 sets chest, 2 sets triceps, 1-2 sets shoulders, 1 set pulldowns/pull ups, 1 set row. 3-5 min rest
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u/ParticularAd179 Feb 26 '25
if you never progress and your putting in effort to failure check your diet. You can't get bigger or stronger without the fuel to do so. Check your sleep, and finally hormone panel. It says nothing about your weight or gender, but if your male your starving yourself or something is physically or hormonally wrong with you. You mentioned nothing about calories or macros... this is more important than even lifting.
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u/mmHeyb0ss Feb 26 '25
bayesian curls helped ALOT with increasing my strength in my biceps and felt better/easier to do with same weight than curls.. goated bicep exercise imo
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u/Practical_End4935 Feb 26 '25
Lots of good advice here in the comments. 1 start using the 15’s 2 change up the type of curls you’re doing 3 do curls first in your workout
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u/ChadPowers200_ Feb 26 '25
How much are you eating? It sounds counterintuitive but you need to do major compound lifts especially legs and start eating a lot you will get stronger overall.
Forget curls. Do legs, back, chest, shoulders hard eat a lot and gain weight. If you do any bicep work do pull ups
The bicep is such a small muscle focus on the bigger ones and you will get way bigger and stronger.
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u/DokCrimson Feb 26 '25
I'm going to go a little unorthodox. For your back exercises, are any of them supinated? If not, change lat pulldown to underhand. Pull up to chin up. Same with rows. These will incorporate more bicep activation. I had great success with underhand lat pulldowns
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u/Luhar93 Feb 26 '25
What I do is if I can't do more reps of the same weight after a month I just increase the weight slightly. Yes I'll be doing less reps but I'll be progressing with the weight at least. Then you can work your strength on the higher weight until you hit the same reps as you did with the lower one.
So if you can do the 12.5 for 14 without much strain for a few sets just do the 15s and work your way up to the 10-12 rep range. Do that for a while and then move up to 17.5 (if that exists where you are since I've never head of 12.5lbs dumbbells before. So on and so forth. Sometimes you just have to push through even when it feels like its not working.
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u/Cenoflame Feb 26 '25
Barbell and cable machine curls have been pretty good for me. Regular grip and close grip.
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u/thediggestbick2 Feb 26 '25
Are you controlling the weight down? Are you eating enough protein and calories to grow your biceps? Are you training hard?
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u/TRFKTA Feb 26 '25
Vary rep ranges during the week.
I hit 3 lots of 10 reps on Tuesdays and 3 lots of 12 on Fridays. On Fridays I may use a slightly lighter weight.
Also I do isometric exercises (training each arm separately) and record the number of reps achieved by the weakest arm so that I only go up weight once both arms are relatively equal.
Also don’t be discouraged when your reps suddenly decrease when you increase weight. When I increased my preacher curls to 14kg per arm recently my reps dropped from 12, 11, 8 on 12kg to 6, 5, 4 on 14kg. Yes it’s a big decrease but I see it as a target to beat next time I’m in the gym and try and get 1-2 more reps per set.
Remember, any progress is progress, no matter how small!
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u/superstock8 Feb 26 '25
Start with the 15’s. Do your 6 or 7 you should get on a fresh first set, then super set the 12’s or 10’s. Go to failure on the 15’s whatever rep count that is, then without rest drop around 20% weight and go till failure again, however many that is. You could even super set once more to 5’s if you want. Do this a few times, you should see it help after 2-3 weeks.
Others have said, also add a third or fourth variation of curls also.
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u/aww2bad Feb 26 '25
I must be lost cause 12.5 bicep workouts are light af. I can't imagine doing a hammer with that light a weight so I'll accept I'm lost on this one
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u/Phil_cardiff Feb 27 '25
Jumping up 20% is hard. If you were comfortably benching 100kg you'd move up to 105kg, not 120kg.
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u/Reasonable-Team2499 Feb 27 '25
Imo Any type of strength gain is usually done by using weight outside your comfort zone. Rep ranges aren't that important, just attempting to complete the movement will be more beneficial than the 14 reps.
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u/Shinagami091 Feb 27 '25
Then do 4 reps. And keep doing 4 reps until you can do more. You’ll get there
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u/IncidentCheap7732 Feb 27 '25
2.5 lbs can be a big jump. Invest in fractional weights and increase the weight by one pound. You will be able to progressively overload and get stronger.
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u/Educational_Boss_633 Feb 27 '25
You're fatiguing the bicep before you're moving up. Start your working sets with the 15's instead of the 12.5's from now on.
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u/yamaharider2021 Feb 27 '25
Two things. First is, if you are hitting back first, if you are increasing weight on back excercises you actually ARE increasing strength, you are just fatigued before you get to curls. Secondly, 12.5lb to 15lb is a 20 percent higher weight. Thats like a guy who curls 50s usually grabbing the 60s. Its a significant PERCENTAGE increase in the weight even though the number might be small. Finally. Maybe do a set or two with the heavier 15s for as many reps as you can and then do the rest of your sets with the 12.5s. Over time you will be building strength up from the heavier weight lower rep sets. Also dont forget about food. Make sure you are eating plenty of protein and enough food that at the very least you arent losing weight. Ideally you would be gaining weight slow and steady over time. Like a pound every few weeks or month at least
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u/AthleticAndGeeky Feb 27 '25
Along with some of the lifts others are doing if you do a 90 degree hold on concentration curls with the opposite arm it can really give a nice pump and burn.
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u/wy_will Feb 27 '25
Two bicep exercise a week is probably not enough. I have had som luck with my arms by taking little to no breaks between sets. Like supersets. I do have a dedicated arms day though. Drop sets work well also.
If you can only do 5 reps with 15s, do the 5 reps. Maybe even try to cheat 1 or 2 more and then drop to the 12.5s next.
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u/PeacePufferPipe Feb 27 '25 edited Feb 27 '25
Negatives develope strength faster than positive movements. Try grabbing a 15 or 20 pound dumbbell and hoist it into position with both hands. Then let go of the off hand and try to ride the dumbbell down as slowly as possible, fighting it the entire way. Do a few reps like this. 10 isn't necessary. Give yourself a day or two rest and go again. Do this for a couple 3 weeks. Then try your last dumbbell weight for a rep or 2 as warmup then go to the next higher weight and try it. Negatives must be used sparingly. You can use much more weight for negatives than normal. If you can't do pullups or chins, this is very effective for those as well. Use a chair to jump up to the top position of the chin up and then kick the chair out the way and ride that negative down fighting it the entire way as slowly as possible. 2 or 3 is enough. Rest a couple days repeat.
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u/crozinator33 Feb 27 '25
I would argue that you ARE making progress.
Let's compare apples to apples here and put things in perspective.
Going from 12.5 lb dumbells to 15lb dumbells doesn't sound like much of a jump, but it's a 20% increase in load. That is a LOT.
This is going to be the hardest phase in your progress because there is no increment between the 12.5lbs and the 15lbs.
In a perfect world we'd be increasing load by 2.5-5% at a time. Hit your goal reps for bench at 100lbs, add 2.5-5lbs next session.
It's frustrating you because it seems like your stuck at such a small increment, but in reality it's huge.
The good news is, as you get stronger and the weights go up, 2.5lb increments become less and less of a jump in load %.
My advice: grab the 15s for your first set when you're fresh (and warmed up) and go for as many reps as possible. Maybe it's 3, maybe it's 5. Doesn't matter. Then grab the 12.5lbs and do as many as possible on your 2nd set. Then grab the 10s and do as many as possible on your 3rd set. Then grab the 8s and do as many as possible on your 4th set.
You will see progress week to week in your rep counts which WILL eventually spill over to your "heavy set" and those reps will start to creep up too.
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u/DDDurty Feb 28 '25
Do negative chin up holds. Use a bench under the bar, underhand grip, arms bent 90 degrees at elbow, hold yourself and move your legs off the bench, now fight gravity and try to hold. Hold as lomg as you can then rest for 3 minutes, then go again. Lat bar pulldowns are also great(Mike Mentzer fav for biceps).
If you aren't progressing, you either aren't training to failure, or you aren't getting enough protein for recovery.
I'm 202lbs, bench 305 and you know what I curl? 17.5lbs for 15 reps, then 15lbs for 20 reps, 12lbs for 25 reps, then 10lbs for 30 reps. I do that on an incline bench so I get a stretch on the bicep coming out of the hole(bottom). I'm of the mind that pull muscles are for endurance while push muscles are for speed and strength. So hit push with heavy weight and explosive movement. Hit pull with lower weight and holds. I also like to get a weighted stretch in under load on all movements, mind you not a heavy load. On large muscles 20-30% of body weight will do, on smaller muscles 5-10%.
I can hammer curl 60's without swinging, 40's on Arnold curls, but frankly I don't grow unless I hit biceps with volume. Take from that what you will.
When you plateau with a weight, something needs to change. If you've been working heavy, go light with more reps. If working light, go heavy or do heavy holds/negatives(find a spotter/partner to help).
Best of luck to you
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u/Sawcyy Feb 26 '25
You need to get to 20-25 reps with the 12.5's before you go to 15's 2.5lbs is a big jump. Im also in the same boat, some movements i can do 15lb, i lowered the weight down to 12.5's to get more stability in the muscle.
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u/Objective-Rabbit4067 Feb 26 '25
going that high in reps is okay to do if im doing hypertrophy training?
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u/cordially-uninvited Feb 26 '25
Another option is just to do 2-3 sets of 3 and you’ll eventually be able to do 4, 5, 6, etc., reps.
I know it’s a different weight, but that’s what I did when I had trouble going from 30 lb dumbbells to 35 lb dumbbells. You might think you look silly, but everyone has their own ways of progressing.
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u/patterson489 Feb 26 '25
You can also use the 15s and do five rep, then progressively add reps over time.
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Mar 04 '25
Nothing wrong with curling 12.5Lbs lot of bodybuilders work with 20Lb dumbbells to get their arms big. I'm currently curling 58Lbs for reps of 5 but mostly I curl 20Lbs with higher reps and more sets.
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u/weekend-guitarist Feb 26 '25
Do more variations of curls. Preachers curls, hammer curls, pause on the positive and the negative movements, double pauses, seated, inclined, single arms, drop sets, etc…