How Dennis Wolf Got Bigger Bi's

Build Massive Biceps Like the Big Bad Wolf

Few men in pro bodybuilding today can lay claim to shoulders as impressive of Dennis Wolf, who won the Arnold Classic in 2014. Dennis has not competed since the fall of 2015, but will be making his much-anticipated comeback from a serious neck injury at the Arnold Classic in just a few weeks.

While it’s tough to see a downside to having incredibly developed deltoids, it can be a problem if it interferes with building your arms. Competitive bodybuilding rewards complete, balanced physiques over those with a couple of freaky body parts that overshadow others and make them appear weak. The Big Bad Wolf faced this issue early on in his training. His shoulders grew faster than anything else, and he also found they would tend to take over on biceps movements. Eventually Dennis figured out how to remedy the situation, as is evidenced by the 21-inch guns he proudly flexes onstage today. Here were the main solutions:

Cut the Weight, Tighten Up the Form

“When I started training at a small gym in Germany, I just imitated what I saw all the other guys doing,” he says. Unfortunately, the universal instinct for men in any nation when it comes to biceps seems to be throwing up far more weight than they can handle via horrendous form. Eventually, frustrated by the lack of growth in his arms, Dennis tried using less weight and emphasizing quality contractions and stretches. “I was using not much more than half the weight I had been before, but I saw 10 times the results,” he reports. That was all the evidence he needed to confirm that his biceps needed better form to grow.

Take the Shoulders Out of the Movement

While Dennis never stopped doing traditional biceps builders like barbell and dumbbell curls, he also learned to always include exercises that braced the working arm and locked it in place, such as barbell and dumbbell preacher curls, and concentration curls. “For anyone with big and powerful shoulders that always want to do the work, it’s critical to do one of these at all your workouts,” he notes. “They don’t have the same reputation for adding mass to the biceps, but I give them a lot of credit for my biceps development today.”

Let the Biceps Recover

Common “quick fix” suggestions for lagging biceps often involve working them twice or even more each week, and assaulting them with excess volume, on the order of 20-30 sets per workout. Dennis dismisses both of these as well-intended but misguided advice. “The biceps are a small muscle group, and you also have to remember that they work very hard when you train your back on everything from chins, to pull-ups, rows and deadlifts,” he explains. “Any muscle must recover fully between workouts to grow, and working biceps more often and with many sets is going to prevent most guys from seeing gains, the exact opposite of what they want.”