Reg Park’s Favourite Biceps Routine

Reg Park is considered one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time, developing a herculean physique that to this day is impressive and just screams strength. His arm development was just as impressive, and today we are going to look at his favourite biceps routine, so let’s get straight into it.

Firstly, some background. When Reg Park first visited America after winning the Mr Britain in 1949, he trained with several champs like Marvin Eder, Clancy Ross and Floyd Page, all which taught him advanced silver era bodybuilding techniques. What amazed Reg most of all was that the US bodybuilder’s used a large number of exercises together, with every conceivable type of equipment. Essentially, he realized that to completely develop a bodypart, one had to use a variety of exercises to stimulate muscle growth. In this routine that will now be explained, Reg Park made sure to combine exercises with a set and rep scheme that develops both size and power in the biceps. To do so, he believed in combining heavy weights for many sets of low reps for developing power and strength, whilst using lighter weights for higher reps and sets were good for developing size.

Reg Park’s Favourite Biceps Routine

Two Hands Barbell Curl 4 sets x 8 reps

Swinging Simultaneous Seated Dumbbell Curl 4 sets x 8 reps

Supinating Single Arm Incline Bench Curl AMAP*

Strict Standing Dumbbell Curl with Supinated Grip 4 sets x 8 reps

Dumbbell Concentration Curl 4 sets x 8 reps

Reg Park did not indicate how many times a week he would train in this fashion when specializing in biceps development, but I would assume that for a natural lifter, twice a week would suffice.

Two Hands Barbell Curl

Reg Park’s favourite exercise was the regular two hands barbell curl performed with a slight cheating form. He would take a weight that he would find difficulty in curling in a strict style. He would start by leaning forward to begin the curl, as the weight came up he would straighten up, and then lean back slightly at the end of the curl. As Reg put it, this type of curling did not mean that you performed an “underhand clean”, and it is not necessary to handle such weight that it requires gigantic heaves and back bends….much like Arnold Schwarzenegger would famously do trying to handle 270 odd pounds in his 1960s exhibitions in England. Instead, only a slightly looser form is required, with only a slight bend forward and backward. This technique was later mastered by Arnold as seen in his 1975 Pumping Iron footage. With such a technique, Reg Park was able to perform a slow two hands curl with 180 lb, a British record in 1952, and at the time of writing this article, he felt he was capable of even more.

Swinging Simultaneous Seated Dumbbell Curl

This second exercise was taught to Reg Park by Marvin Eder. Marvin would sit down with a pair of dumbbells, and using a backward swing, he would swing the dumbbells vigorously forward and up in a simultaneous fashion. Reg Park recommended having a training partner hold you down, as heavier weights could be used. Reg Park also leaned back slightly to allow the bells to come up. At the end of the curl, Reg Park would also bring his elbows up without moving the dumbbells from the shoulder, to really cramp the biceps, much like Leroy Colbert did. Knowing that, I have no doubt now that Marvin Eder taught Leroy Colbert this technique too. According to Marvin Eder and Reg Park, this was one of the best exercises for developing  peak in the biceps.

Supinating Single Arm Incline Bench Curl

Clancy Ross taught Reg Park this movement, and it is an incline dumbbell curl with a twist. Originally, it was performed much like an alternating incline hammer curl. Clancy had Reg Park stand at an Incline, and the dumbbells were curled up strictly, starting with the hands at neutral and supinating as the forearms reached parallel to the floor. Reg would use a weight that would allow him to perform ten straight reps with one arm, without alternating, and then he would perform 10 straight reps with the other arm. He would then alternate back to the first arm, and perform as many reps as possible, then switch back to the second arm and repeat until you can only do 2 reps per arm. It is a killer exercise!

Strict Standing Dumbbell Curl with Supinated Grip

The next exercise performed by Reg Park was a strict standing dumbbell curl with a supinated grip, that is, palms facing forward at all times. Curls were performed simultaneously, that is, no alternation. The dumbbells are curled together up and lowered as slowly as possible. In this fashion, Reg Park was sure to mention the importance of working the concentric and eccentric portions of the repetition. To think that this concept of training all portions of the repetition came from the Silver Era, as it is often associated with Arthur Jones in the 1970s.

Dumbbell Concentration Curl

The final exercise Reg Park used was the dumbbell concentration curl, as taught to him by Floyd Page. Floyd Page attributes this exercise to creating a split in the biceps, and this is obvious when we look at footage of Arnold using the concentration curl in the movie Pumping Iron. Bending over, pick up the dumbbell, hang the arm  and keep the upper arm still, and bend only at the elbow, bringing the dumbbell up to the shoulder. Then, bring up the elbow keeping the dumbbell in place to cramp the biceps. Although Floyd Page enjoyed performing concentration curls with high combinations of reps and sets, Reg Park found more benefit using heavier poundages for 4 set of 8 reps.

As a final note, Reg recommended posing practice after any workout, specifically practicing muscle control and peak contraction of the biceps to bring out biceps separation.

So that was Reg Park’s favourite biceps routine, and if you are interested in purchasing Reg Park apparel, these designs are available on my website as tanks, shirts, sweatshirts and hoodies. Also available on my website are many of Reg Park’s original booklets as ebooklets as well as his publication, the Reg Park Journal.