When we reach a goal that is very hard to surpass, we call that a plateau. It?s the same thing in bodybuilding as it is with nature, most notably the appearing and disappearing of the sun on the horizon, except a lot smaller in both size and meaning. When your muscle growth halts, your number one option should be to try and maintain what you already have and not lose it while you?re not working out. You don?t have to like it or dislike it, but if you want to keep your muscles, you have to give it a shot.

More often than not, it won?t be hard to do. The crucial thing to remember is that your muscle tissue has grown used to your current stimuli, which means you need to try something new and throw it off, just so it has a reason to grow. Here are four classic, but modified exercises to get that done.

Preacher Spider Curl

Take an EZ-curl bar and sit facing the seat of the bench. Put your elbows on the vertically flat part of the seating pad. Extend your arms straight down and straight up. In their most flexed position, your arms should be perpendicular to the floor.

Wide-Grip Barbell Curl

Grab a very wide grip on the bar, resembling an underhand snatch grip. When you lift the weight to its maximum height, you will notice that this type of grip works extra hard on the inside of your biceps and the point where the muscle connects with your shoulder. Make sure to hold off a little when you?re putting weight on the bar ? lifting this way is much more difficult than doing a standard barbell curl, so keep some weight off there.

Incline Dumbbell Curl With Supination (Wrist Rotation)

Make sure to keep your hands choked all the way down on the dumbbell and your little fingers should be touching the bottom plate. When you do the lift, the dumbbells are going to attempt to rotate because that?s how the laws of physics work, but when you work against this you are stabilizing your muscle fiber in the biceps which isn?t a part of any other bicep exercise.

EZ Reverse Cable Curl

When you work out on a cable machine, you have the added benefit of tension provided by the cable station. This tension is awesome for growing your muscles, but when you add an EZ-curl attachment and reverse grip, it becomes impeccable. When you do your lifts, make sure that your elbows are down by your side ? just picture them duct-taped there. If you let them hang loose, the intensity will scatter and you will be left with a less efficient workout. Switch between wide and narrow grips every set.

All things considered, this combination would constitute your workout:

Preacher Spider Curl: Four sets of 10 reps each.
Wide-Grip Barbell Curl: Five sets of 8-10 reps each.
Incline Dumbbell Curl With Supination: Four sets of 10-12 reps each.
EZ Reverse Cable Curl: Two sets of 25 reps each.