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Exercises

Bodyweight bicep exercises: no equipment, then a bar

Published October 19, 2026

The best bodyweight bicep exercises are the chin-up and the close-grip chin-up, because pulling your whole body with your palms facing you is the heaviest load your biceps can get without weights. With no equipment at all, the doorway curl is the one direct biceps exercise: hold a door frame, lean back and curl yourself in. Add a neutral-grip pull-up for the brachialis, then progress to commando and archer pull-ups once chin-ups get easy. Take the sets to 0 to 2 reps in reserve.

  1. Chin-Up Lats
  2. Bodyweight Bicep Curl Biceps
  3. Close-Grip Chin-Up Lats, Biceps
  4. Neutral-Grip Pull-Up Lats
  5. Archer Pull-Up Lats, Upper Back
  6. Commando Pull-Up Lats, Upper Back

Bicep exercise without any equipment

Without a bar, a band or a weight, the only way to load the biceps directly is to hold something fixed and pull your body toward it. A sturdy door frame does that: the more you lean back, the more of your bodyweight the curl has to lift. Train it one arm at a time to get enough load, and take each set close to failure.

Biceps, no-equipment curl

Bodyweight Bicep Curl

Biceps

Gripping a door frame and leaning back turns your body into the weight, so it is the one true curl you can do with nothing at all. Walking your feet closer to the frame makes it harder, which gives you a way to add load without buying anything.

How to do it

  1. Stand in an open doorway and wrap one hand around the edge of the frame at about waist height, palm turned up or in.
  2. Walk your feet forward toward the frame and let your body lean back until your working arm is straight and holding you.
  3. Keep your body rigid from heels to head and bend the elbow to pull your chest toward your hand.
  4. Straighten the arm slowly to lean back out to full length, then repeat. Finish all reps, then switch arms.

Cues

  • Upper arm stays still, only the forearm moves
  • Body moves as one board
  • Feet closer to the frame to make it harder

Common mistakes

  • Pulling with your back by turning your shoulder toward the frame: keep your chest facing the doorway and let only the elbow bend.
  • Bending at the hips to shorten the lean: squeeze your glutes so the angle you set at the start is the angle you work against.

Swap for: Dumbbell Curl, Hammer Curl, Inverted Row

Build a session with Bodyweight Bicep Curl

Chin-ups: the main bodyweight biceps builder

A pull-up bar is the one purchase that turns bodyweight biceps training from a light workout into real loading. Palms facing you keeps the biceps strongly involved through the whole pull, and narrowing the grip pushes the work further into the arms and away from the back.

Biceps and lats, underhand pull

Chin-Up

Lats

Turning your palms toward you puts the biceps in its strongest pulling position, so the chin-up is the heaviest biceps exercise you can do without weights. Your whole bodyweight is the load, which is more than most people curl with a dumbbell.

How to do it

  1. Take an underhand grip on the bar, hands roughly shoulder-width, and hang.
  2. Pull your shoulders down away from your ears before your elbows bend.
  3. Drive your elbows down toward your ribs until your chin passes over the bar.
  4. Lower yourself until your arms are fully straight, then start the next rep from a dead hang.

Cues

  • Shoulders down first
  • Chest toward the bar
  • Every rep starts from straight arms

Common mistakes

  • Stopping short with your elbows still bent at the bottom: the stretched part of the rep is where the biceps works hardest, so lower all the way.
  • Swinging your legs to get the last rep: once you need momentum, the set is over.

Swap for: Close-Grip Chin-Up, Assisted Pull-Up, Reverse-Grip Lat Pulldown

Build a session with Chin-Up

Biceps, narrow underhand pull

Close-Grip Chin-Up

Lats, Biceps

Bringing your hands close together keeps your elbows in front of your body for longer, which shifts more of the pull from your lats onto your arms. If regular chin-ups light up your back but not your biceps, this is the version to try.

How to do it

  1. Grip the bar underhand with your hands a few inches apart, closer than your shoulders.
  2. Hang with straight arms and brace your stomach so your legs stay still.
  3. Pull until your chin clears the bar, keeping your elbows pointed forward rather than out to the sides.
  4. Lower under control to a full hang and repeat.

Cues

  • Elbows forward, not wide
  • Squeeze the bar hard
  • Slow on the way down

Common mistakes

  • Letting the elbows drift wide as you tire: it turns the rep back into a lat pull. Keep them in front of you.
  • Using a grip so narrow your wrists bend back: set your hands just far enough apart that your forearms stay straight.

Swap for: Chin-Up, Neutral-Grip Pull-Up, Reverse-Grip Lat Pulldown

Build a session with Close-Grip Chin-Up

Neutral and overhand grips for the brachialis

Turning your palms in or away from you moves part of the work from the biceps to the brachialis underneath it and to the forearms. These grips are worth a slot each week for fuller-looking arms, and they give your elbows a break from the same underhand angle every session.

Biceps and brachialis, palms-in pull

Neutral-Grip Pull-Up

Lats

With your palms facing each other, the brachialis and the forearm muscle along the thumb side do more of the work, which builds the thickness you see from the side of the arm. Many people also find it easier on the wrists and elbows than a straight underhand grip.

How to do it

  1. Take hold of parallel handles, or the two sides of a narrow bar attachment, with your palms facing each other.
  2. Hang with straight arms, then set your shoulder blades low.
  3. Pull your chest up between your hands until your chin passes the handles.
  4. Lower to straight arms and pause for a moment before the next rep.

Cues

  • Thumbs up
  • Chest between the handles
  • Full hang between reps

Common mistakes

  • Shrugging your shoulders toward your ears at the top: keep them pinned down even on the last rep.
  • Kicking your knees up to finish: keep your legs quiet and accept fewer reps.

Swap for: Chin-Up, Hammer Curl, Lat Pulldown

Build a session with Neutral-Grip Pull-Up

Lats with biceps assisting, overhand pull

Pull-Up

Lats

The overhand grip makes the lats do more and the biceps less than the chin-up does, so it is not the first choice for arm growth. It earns a place because it adds pulling volume your biceps still has to contribute to, and it balances the underhand work for your elbows and back.

How to do it

  1. Hang from the bar with your palms facing away and your hands a little wider than your shoulders.
  2. Brace your trunk and set your shoulders down.
  3. Pull until your chin is over the bar, leading with your chest.
  4. Lower until your arms are straight and repeat.

Cues

  • Chest up to the bar
  • Elbows toward your back pockets
  • Dead hang every rep

Common mistakes

  • Half reps that never reach straight arms: a full hang is part of every rep.
  • Craning your neck to get the chin over: pull higher instead, or count the rep as missed.

Swap for: Chin-Up, Assisted Pull-Up, Lat Pulldown

Build a session with Pull-Up

Harder variations when chin-ups get easy

Once you can do 12 or more clean chin-ups, extra reps stop adding much. Instead, shift more of your weight onto one arm at a time: the commando pull-up does it with a side-on grip, and the archer pull-up does it by sliding toward one hand.

Biceps and brachialis, side-on pull

Commando Pull-Up

Lats, Upper Back

Gripping the bar side-on with your hands close together and bringing your chin past it on alternating sides loads the arm closest to the bar more heavily on each rep. It is a step toward uneven, one-arm-biased pulling for people who have run out of room on chin-ups.

How to do it

  1. Stand under the bar side-on and grip it with both hands close together, one in front of the other, palms facing each other.
  2. Hang with straight arms and brace so your body does not spin.
  3. Pull up and steer your face past the left side of the bar until your chin clears it.
  4. Lower to a full hang, then pass the right side on the next rep.

Cues

  • Alternate sides every rep
  • Body stays square under the bar
  • Grip tight with both hands

Common mistakes

  • Twisting your hips to get past the bar: brace your stomach and squeeze your legs together.
  • Always pulling to your stronger side: alternate strictly so both arms get the same reps.

Swap for: Neutral-Grip Pull-Up, Close-Grip Chin-Up, Chin-Up

Build a session with Commando Pull-Up

One-arm-biased pull

Archer Pull-Up

Lats, Upper Back

Shifting your body toward one hand while the other arm stays nearly straight puts most of your weight on one biceps at a time, so the effort climbs without adding any load. It is the hardest exercise on this page and the next step for anyone who can already do 12 or more strict chin-ups.

How to do it

  1. Grip the bar with your hands well outside your shoulders.
  2. Pull up toward your right hand, letting your left arm straighten out along the bar as you rise.
  3. Bring your chin up beside your right hand, then lower back to the middle with control.
  4. Alternate sides each rep, or finish all reps on one side and then switch.

Cues

  • Working arm bends, other arm slides out straight
  • Chin to the working hand
  • Lower to the center under control

Common mistakes

  • Bending both arms equally, which is just a wide pull-up: the assisting arm should end almost straight.
  • Dropping out of the top: a slow way down is where the strength for the next level comes from.

Swap for: Commando Pull-Up, Chin-Up, Assisted Pull-Up

Build a session with Archer Pull-Up

Put them together: example sessions

Each session below picks from the exercises above for one situation, with the sets, reps, rest and RIR filled in. Open one in the session builder to change a pick, price it from a recent set, and add it to RIRLift.

Session 1

No equipment, just a door frame

Open in the session builder
  • Workouts3× a week
  • Working sets15 a week
  • Per workout~10 min
  • EquipmentBodyweight

You have no bar, no bands and no weights, and want to train your biceps at home today.

The doorway curl is the only direct biceps exercise that needs nothing, so this plan uses it alone and gets its variety from foot position and tempo instead of from more exercises. One arm at a time lets each biceps carry more of your weight. The first block uses a steeper lean for 8 to 12 hard reps at 1 RIR; the second is a lighter lean with a 3-second lowering for 15 to 20 reps at 0 RIR, which is how you make a fixed load feel heavier.

Doorway Biceps
ExerciseSets × repsRIRRest
Bodyweight Bicep CurlPer arm. Feet close to the frame. 3 × 8–12 1 45 s
Bodyweight Bicep CurlPer arm. Lighter lean, 3 s down. 2 × 15–20 0 45 s
How to run it
Do the session two or three times a week on non-consecutive days. Rest only as long as the other arm takes to do its set.
How to progress
When you reach the top of the rep range on every set, walk your feet a few inches closer to the frame. When you are close to standing under it, it is time for a pull-up bar.
Open in the session builder

Session 2

A pull-up bar, fewer than 8 chin-ups

Open in the session builder
  • Workouts3× a week
  • Working sets21 a week
  • Per workout~20 min
  • EquipmentPull-Up Bar

You have a bar in a doorway or at the park and can do a few chin-ups, but not many yet.

Low-rep chin-ups at 2 RIR build the strength to do more of them without grinding every set into failure, so you can repeat them often. The close-grip chin-up comes next because it keeps the work in the arms with a slightly different elbow path. The doorway curl finishes the session as the direct biceps work with a load you can adjust, which the chin-up cannot do.

Pull A
ExerciseSets × repsRIRRest
Chin-UpJump up and lower in 4 s if you can't pull yet. 4 × 3–8 2 2:30 min
Bodyweight Bicep CurlPer arm. 3 × 10–15 1 45 s

Open Pull A in the session builder

Pull B
ExerciseSets × repsRIRRest
Close-Grip Chin-Up 3 × 3–8 2 2:30 min
Neutral-Grip Pull-Up 2 × 3–8 2 2 min
Bodyweight Bicep CurlPer arm. 3 s down. 2 × 12–20 0 45 s

Open Pull B in the session builder

How to run it
Do Pull A and Pull B on alternate days, two to three sessions a week. If you can do fewer than 3 chin-ups, jump to the top and lower yourself over 4 seconds for each rep instead.
How to progress
Add one rep per set each week. When you hit 8 reps on every chin-up set at 2 RIR, move to the bar-and-belt plan's harder variations.
Open in the session builder

Session 3

Pull-up bar, 12+ chin-ups already

Open in the session builder
  • Workouts2× a week
  • Working sets20 a week
  • Per workout~25 min
  • EquipmentPull-Up Bar

Chin-ups are easy for you, and you want the bar to keep building your arms without buying weights.

When straight chin-ups go past 12 reps, they turn into endurance work. Commando and archer pull-ups load one arm more than the other, which brings the reps back into the 5 to 10 range where each set is heavy. Close-grip chin-ups stay in as the high-volume biceps work at 1 RIR, and the neutral grip and overhand pull-up round out the brachialis and back. Biceps get 9 to 10 hard sets per session.

Arms Heavy
ExerciseSets × repsRIRRest
Archer Pull-UpAlternate sides. Reps count both sides. 4 × 4–8 1 2:30 min
Commando Pull-UpAlternate sides. 3 × 6–10 1 2 min
Close-Grip Chin-Up 3 × 8–15 1 90 s

Open Arms Heavy in the session builder

Arms Volume
ExerciseSets × repsRIRRest
Close-Grip Chin-Up3 s down. 3 × 8–15 1 90 s
Neutral-Grip Pull-Up 3 × 8–15 1 90 s
Pull-Up 2 × 6–12 2 2 min
Bodyweight Bicep CurlPer arm. Feet right at the frame. 2 × 12–20 0 45 s

Open Arms Volume in the session builder

How to run it
Run Arms Heavy and Arms Volume on two days each week with at least a day between them.
How to progress
Add reps to the archer and commando sets until you reach the top of the range, then slow the lowering to 4 seconds before adding more reps.
Open in the session builder

Make it fit you

Questions

Can you build biceps with bodyweight?

Yes, if you pull. Chin-ups load your biceps with most of your bodyweight, which is heavy enough to build muscle in the 5 to 15 rep range when the sets end 0 to 2 reps short of failure. Push-ups and other no-pull bodyweight moves do almost nothing for the biceps.

How can I build my biceps without weights?

Buy a doorway bar and make the chin-up and close-grip chin-up your main exercises, with a doorway curl for direct work. Train biceps two or three times a week, 6 to 10 hard sets in total, and progress by adding reps and then moving to harder variations.

What bicep exercises can you do without equipment?

The doorway curl is the reliable one: grip a door frame, lean back and curl yourself toward it, one arm at a time. Any sturdy fixed edge you can hold while leaning back works the same way. Without something to pull on, there is no way to load the biceps directly.

Are chin-ups or pull-ups better for biceps?

Chin-ups. With your palms facing you, the biceps is in a stronger pulling position and works harder through the whole rep. Pull-ups still involve the biceps, but they hand more of the work to the lats.

Are 3 exercises enough for biceps?

Yes. Three exercises at 2 to 4 hard sets each is 6 to 12 sets, which is plenty for one session. With bodyweight, a chin-up, a second grip and the doorway curl cover the biceps from different angles.

How many chin-ups should I do for bigger biceps?

Aim for 3 to 4 sets that each end 1 to 2 reps short of failure, two or three times a week. If you can do more than 12 per set, switch to a harder variation rather than doing more reps.