Thanks to his recent success, Dutch bodybuilder Wesley Vissers has become a major factor in Classic Physique. In a YouTube video, Vissers broke down his top three exercises for golden era biceps and provided rep and set ranges for each movement.
“We want biceps just like Arnold Schwarzenegger. So how are we going to create those peaky biceps? Today, I’m going to show you three of my favorite movements for the biceps and the way to do them to create not just peaky but full biceps in case you haven’t got those already.”
Wesley Vissers shocked the world in March, having dispatched former champion Ramon Queiroz on the 2024 Arnold Classic Ohio stage. Considering Vissers placed seventh at the 2023 Olympia show, he wasn’t on the radar by most to pull off the massive upset.
Even reigning five-time Classic Physique Olympia Chris Bumstead acknowledged that Vissers was ‘beyond his best’ at 120 percent. After Vissers claimed the 2024 Arnold Classic UK title, he sent another warning shot to the Canadian titleholder. In between his preparations, Vissers discussed his top exercises for building Arnold Schwarzenegger-worthy biceps.
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Wesley Vissers Shows You How To Build Golden Era Biceps With His Top 3 Movements
Check out his exercises below:
- Cable biceps curl — 2-3 sets 12-20 reps
- Concentration curl — 2-3 sets 15-20 reps
- Dumbbell hammer curl — 2-3 sets 15-20 reps
Cable biceps curl
According to Vissers, he completes biceps training after warming up with a back workout.
“I like to do biceps movements at the end of a back workout to make sure the biceps are already warmed up so you can get started with a slightly higher weight but also warm up the biceps before going to the heavier weight.”
He emphasizes the importance of stretching with tension during reps on the cable biceps curl.
“Right here, there’s not much tension so the contraction part has minimal tension but the stretch right here is very difficult to do and the more tension you get at the stretch, the better growth, and the more stimulus will occur.”
Concentration curl
Vissers prefers to train his biceps twice a week. While cable biceps curls focused on the stretch, he explained that the concentration curls demand significant contractions.
“The more often you can train the biceps in my opinion, the better it is. I personally train it twice a week. It’s a strong muscle group.”
“The first movement was the focus on the stretch, this one will be the focus on the contraction. With this contraction, be aware, you have two bicep heads, the short head and the long head, or the outside head and the inner head. Here, we truly want to focus on the outside head by making it contract as hard as we can because once the outside head is larger than the inside, you create a much better peak.”
He adds that concentration curls can be performed sitting or standing up though he prefers the latter because that was how Arnold Schwarzenegger used them.
“You can do this standing up or sitting down. But I like to do this of course the old-school way like Arnold used to do it.”
Dumbbell hammer curl
Vissers also favored an ‘old school dumbbell-style’ hammer curl for bigger biceps.
“You have different kinds of varieties of hammer curls but I like of course the old-school dumbbell-style,” says Vissers. “It’s still a hinge joint your elbow and that is what is required to move it properly towards the direction it wants to go to prevent any elbow pain.”
“Once I’m holding the dumbbell you want to go all the way up. I’m going towards that side and not straight forward in order to fully contract the biceps, go all the way down, and all the way up again.”
He likes alternating on each arm and feeling the contraction for a better pump.
“I like to do it alternating for each arm so you can do your weaker arm first and terms of the smallest arm and then the strongest arm but make sure when you go up you feel that contraction and then go all the way down and you can really feel the pump starting to increase in size and the bigger the pump will be the better the results,” Wesley Vissers shared.
Vissers shares why keeping the wrists straight during the movement helps the forearms grow.
“Also try to keep your wrist straight on your lower arm if you do this, but then you don’t train the forearm, you want to keep the wrist straight on the forearm to ensure you’re also getting a forearm contraction in because who doesn’t want big forearms with big biceps?”
In addition to laying out his potential improvements for the season, Vissers underlined that he wanted the shape, conditioning, and proportions of a golden era talent like Schwarzenegger. As a leading candidate to challenge Chirs Bumstead on the 2024 Mr. Olympia stage, anticipation for the showdown continues to build.
From opening up on his diet and supplementation to his ‘Victory Meal‘ recipe, Vissers has ambitious plans for 2024. Feel free to try out his top three movements for golden era arms!
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