Do you need free weights and rusty iron to build big biceps?
Negative. Barbells and clanking dumbbells are awesome, but your biceps don’t care about what tools you use, only how much effort you put in.
All you need to build a pair of great guns is a cable station and some elbow grease.
This cable biceps workout is more than a backup plan for when the dumbbell rack is crowded. It might actually be better for muscle growth than relying on only free weights.
Here’s how it works.
How Cable Biceps Training Works
If you’ve ever noticed how a dumbbell curl gets easy at the very bottom and the very top, you’ve experienced the limits of free weights.
Gravity only pulls straight down. Cables, on the other hand, don’t care about gravity. Cables keep your biceps loaded the whole time.
There’s constant tension on your biceps through the entire range of motion. No resting at the bottom, no resting at the top.
Your biceps brachii has two main parts:
- The long head is the outer part that gives you “peak” when you flex. It gets stretched the most when your arms are behind your body.
- The short head is the inner part that gives your arm width and thickness. It works a little harder when your arms are in front of your body.
In addition, the brachialis sits under your biceps and pushes it up.
Together, the biceps and brachialis flex your elbow and rotate your forearm (biceps only) so your palm turns upward.
The brachialis is actually the stronger elbow flexor of the two, but then again, it only has one job to focus on.
Cables make it easy to hit both muscles with both functions. The result: complete biceps development.
Cable-Only Biceps Workout
Here is how you put it all together. This is a three-exercise, cables-only workout designed to hit every single fiber of your biceps from fully stretched to fully contracted.
You can complete it in 25 minutes or less, and it’s free in our workout log app, StrengthLog.
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
| Cable Curl | 4 | 8 |
| Bayesian Curl | 3 | 10 |
| Rope Hammer Curl | 3 | 12 |
The Cable Biceps Exercises
These are the exercises you’ll be doing. Nothing super fancy, just the basics that actually work.
1. Cable Curl
The standing biceps curl is your heavy hitter for building mass, whether you’re doing it with a barbell or on a cable machine. You can use relatively heavy weights and hit your entire biceps.
- Setup: Set the pulley to the lowest setting. Stand facing the machine, lock your elbows to your ribs, and curl up.
- Sets & Reps: 4 sets of 8 reps.
You can use either a straight bar attachment or an EZ-bar attachment (if your gym has one). The latter can feel easier on the wrists, but your biceps won’t know the difference.
2. Bayesian Curl
The Bayesian curl is a relatively new exercise compared to classics like the dumbbell curl, but no less effective for it.
- Setup: Set the pulley to the bottom. Grab the handle, step forward, and let your arm hang slightly behind your torso. Curl the weight up without letting your elbow swing forward.
- Sets & Reps: 3 sets of 10 reps.
When you put your arm behind your torso, you put the long head of the biceps under a nice, loaded stretch. And training a muscle in a loaded stretch is an excellent way to trigger muscle growth.1
3. Rope Hammer Curl
The hammer curl is a classic for upper arm strength and mass, and makes your upper arms thicker from every angle. Doing it on a cable machine makes it easy to focus on the right muscles working.
- Setup: Pulley at the bottom. Stand facing the machine, grab the rope with a neutral grip (palms facing each other), and curl.
- Sets & Reps: 3 sets of 12 reps.
The neutral grip shifts the tension away from the biceps, so your brachialis has to work harder. Plus, it hits the brachioradialis, the meaty muscle on your forearm, as well.
Pro Tips for Maximum Results
- Don’t cheat the eccentric. Take a full 2–3 seconds to lower the weight on every rep. That constant tension only cables can provide? Don’t rush it.
- Pin your elbows. Your front delts will try to steal the show by swinging your elbows forward if you let them. Imagine a steel rod going through your torso and your elbows, locking them in place.
And remember to add weight or do one more rep when you can. Progressive overload is the ticket to long-term results.
How Often Should You Do This Cable Biceps Workout?
For most lifters, somewhere between 10 and 20 weekly sets per muscle group is ideal for hypertrophy.2 3
However, the biceps are special because you involve them a ton when you’re training back, too.
Doing this cable biceps workout once weekly might very well be enough, since you get 10 direct sets here plus ~50% indirect work from your back training.
And that’s plenty, if we go by what current strength-training research recommends.
If you want to do two biceps sessions a week, go right ahead, but keep track of your recovery so you don’t overdo it for this relatively small muscle.
Track This Cable Biceps Workout in StrengthLog
This is one of the many free workouts in our workout log app, StrengthLog.
StrengthLog remembers what weights you used in your last session and automatically loads them into your next one.
That makes it super easy to keep track of your weights and reps and make sure you’re on the fast road to progress.
Download it and start tracking your gains today!
StrengthLog is free to use, and so is this cable biceps workout.
Track Your Training. See Real Progress.
Log your workouts in one place and watch your numbers climb, week after week.
- Free to get started
- Fast workout logging
- Cardio and strength training
- Beginner-friendly
- Free weights, cables, and machines
- Progress over time, personal bests
- Free and premium training programs and workouts for every fitness goal
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Final Rep
You could realistically never touch a dumbbell again and still build world-class biceps using only cables, provided you progressively overload and do things right outside the gym (diet, sleep).
You don’t have to give up the free weights, because that’s the beauty of strength training: your choice of equipment matters far less than what you do with said equipment.
The point is that you have that choice. And choosing cables is an excellent way to go if bigger biceps are what you’re after.
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Last reviewed: 2026-03-02
References
- Sports Medicine and Health Science, Volume 8, Issue 1, January 2026, Pages 34-42. Does longer-muscle length resistance training cause greater longitudinal growth in humans? A systematic review.
- J Hum Kinet. 2022 Feb 10:81:199-210. A Systematic Review of The Effects of Different Resistance Training Volumes on Muscle Hypertrophy.
- International Journal of Strength and Conditioning, Vol 1 No 1 (2021). Resistance Training Recommendations to Maximize Muscle Hypertrophy in an Athletic Population: Position Stand of the IUSCA.
