Biceps: Darrem Charles’s workout plan
Your biceps don’t always need a long, exhausting marathon. Darrem Charles’s thinking is simple: with focused, precise work, a shorter workout can pack just as much punch as a drawn-out two-hour routine.
Here’s his old-school approach to biceps training, broken down so you can actually use it in the gym. The focus is on intensity, rest intervals and a weight you can truly control.
Why your biceps don’t need endless sets
Darrem Charles, who has competed in the IFBB professional league since 1992, doesn’t see the biceps as a muscle you should train the same way as your back or legs. Large muscle groups can handle more volume. The muscles at the front of your upper arms are smaller and also take on training load during pulling exercises.
By his reasoning, you might do four or five exercises for large muscle groups, totaling 14-16 sets. For your biceps, three to four exercises and a maximum of 9-12 sets are usually enough. That isn’t laziness. It’s keeping your training volume in check.
Frankly, that’s a useful reminder for many recreational lifters. If your elbow hurts, your pump fades and the weight only moves because your shoulders are doing the work, extra sets are no longer doing your muscles any good. They’re just adding fatigue.
How to work your biceps the Darrem Charles way
Charles likes to combine two heavy basic exercises with one so-called shaping exercise. That means doing the heavier work at the start of the workout, when you’re using more weight and your body is still fresh. You finish with a more precise, controlled movement, aiming to feel the muscle working.
A key part of his approach is Joe Weider’s rest-pause technique. The idea is to break one heavy set into smaller segments. You complete some of the reps, rest very briefly, then continue with the same weight. This gives the muscle a strong stimulus without having to increase the total number of sets in your workout.
So what actually happens? The muscle goes through several short bursts of effort in succession. You get a moment to catch your breath, but your biceps never get a proper rest. That makes the set hard, even if the whole exercise takes relatively little time.
The barbell curl sequence
Here’s how to do it: for the first of your three sets of barbell curls, do 5 reps, rest for 10 seconds; do 5 reps, rest for 10 seconds; do 5 reps, rest for 10 seconds; do 5 reps, rest for 10 seconds, then do the final 5 reps. That’s one seriously demanding set.
After resting for no more than a minute, follow the same pattern, but this time do 8 reps 4 times. In the third set, do 10 reps 3 times, resting for 10 seconds in between. All the numbers stay the same, but the feel changes: the rep count and fatigue make the weight a much more honest test.
Choosing the weight for your biceps
For each set, use the heaviest weight you can handle at that point. That sentence matters. Not the heaviest weight you can swing up using your body. Not a weight that makes your wrists buckle and your elbows drift forward. The weight should be heavy, but controllable.
Adjust the weight to suit the reps. When the plan calls for 5 reps, you can go heavier. When you’re facing 10 reps 3 times with just 10 seconds between each segment, you need to leave your ego behind. Otherwise, your form will break down before your biceps really get to work.
It’s a good sign when the final part of the set is hard but your form stays strict. The barbell comes up without you heaving it with your back. You lower it under control instead of letting it drop. Your elbows stay close to your body. The simple truth is that the less your body helps, the more work your biceps have to do themselves.
Practical tips to keep the training load on your biceps
Before a heavy set, do a couple of lighter warm-up sets. They don’t need to be long or tiring. The aim is to get your elbows, wrists and shoulders ready to move. Going into a rest-pause set cold is a bad idea, especially if you’ve been training in the gym for a long time and your joints are starting to complain.
Keep the tempo steady. You can lift forcefully, but lower the weight under control. If you let it drop, you lose much of the work. Keeping tension on the muscle as you lower makes the same exercise much more effective.
Don’t keep using this sequence in every biceps workout indefinitely. Rest-pause is an intensive technique. Use it for one main exercise and see how well you recover. If you’re still sore and your strength is low at the next workout, the training load was too high.
A workout can be short, but it can’t be sloppy. Charles’s point isn’t to do less just to make things easier. It’s to do exactly as much as you need and put real effort into those sets.
FAQ: biceps and rest-pause training
Should beginners follow this plan?
If you’re a beginner, you can learn from the idea without using the full rest-pause sequence straight away. First, master strict barbell curls, wrist positioning and controlled lowering.
Are 9-12 sets enough for your biceps?
Yes, if you put enough effort into the sets. Your biceps also work during rows on back day, so a separate arm workout doesn’t always need a lot of volume.
What should you do if your elbow starts hurting?
Reduce the weight, check your form and avoid any grip that causes pain. If the pain returns, set the intensity techniques aside and let the joint recover.
Author: joker
Source: WHO – physical activity.
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