My quest for big arms
I feel like this will be a post that I will update as I write more about it. Like at first, there will be the text about the biceps. And this is the way I like to hit my biceps with different exercises. And it will be focused on exercises I am able to perform at home using a barbell and dumbbell.
When we get to the triceps part though it will be more about specific equipment that I do not have at home.
This will be seperated in two parts, biceps and triceps, obviously.
Lets start with the small part, biceps!
Part 1 Biceps
Lets start out by making something clear. Biceps is the muscle on the front side of your upper arm. When using a screwdriver for example, you can see how the biceps is working.
And another announcement. Many people are working out their biceps way too often when trying to grow big arms. The main focus should be triceps simply because it is a bigger muscle.
This is probably the one muscle that you can exercise at home, as efficient as you can do at the gym. Personally I got a small barbell and a dumbbell for the job. I got a pair of kettlebells as well but I can't say I have any use of those when training biceps.
Lets just say I haven't really tried to learn different tecniques with them.
When standing in front of a mirror it is easy to see the biceps muscle work. Using the dumbbell there are different ways I like to work out.
Starting with the dumbbells
To get strict form and isolation I just elevate the dumbbell without any turning movement. That is not however what ignite the devil inside.
When standing up in front of a mirror and lifting the dumbbell, turning it while elevating. That is where I lift the heaviest weights. Yes, it is definitely not an isolated biceps workout. To be able to lift heavier dumbbells my back needs to keep my position straight. And as I go as heavy as that I am also activating the muscles nearby like shoulders and chest.
If you are to combine a lot of different body parts together in a weekly schedule you might want to consider how much you want to allow the exercises to wear out other muscles. But my focus now is biceps, which means that I am allowed to do whatever the fuck I want. And I do love lifting heavy dumbbells.
Another thing that makes me feel really good when lifting is to lift more towards my chest than just straight up beside the body. It will activate the chest muscles to some degree but I love it.
When using dumbbells you can lift them straight up. You can rotate them or turn like I described it earlier. But there is one more thing. Hammercurls!
The name is almost self-explainatory, you simply lift them straight up like you would hold a hammer.
This has been a part of my biceps workout over the years. I used to have like one isolated exercise, one with a turning motion and the hammer curls. Besides those I could throw in whatever I felt like. But exercises like the hammercurls were standard in every biceps workout.
Careful though, you don't want to drop the weights on your feet. My dumbbells are not suited for that exercise. Sometimes I put some tape on it to make them more safe. The locking mechanism is not something I can trust.
At the gym though I have never seen dumbbells that are not completely safe. It is those dumbbells that you "build" yourself by adding weights that can be tricky.
And we also have the barbell
When using the barbell you can't make the turning motions. There are however some things you can do to hit the biceps with different exercises when you use a barbell.
When it comes to biceps. It can be more comfortable to use a so called EZ-kind of grip. While elevating a straight bar, your wrists might feel an uncomfortable twist. I can honestly say that I don't fully appreciate the motion at times. But it is not an exercise that I do very often which makes it okay.
But that is another story. The one I am having at home is a regular one.
To get a different feel when lifting it you can simply alter the distance between your hands when you grip the bar.
Since I mentioned the way the dumbbell exercises can affect other parts of the body. That is very true when it comes to the barbell as well. Since you are lifting the same weight using both arms, you can lift a lot heavier weights.
And it is easy to understand that when you hold a heavy weight in front of your stomach/chest, your back has to work hard to stay straight.
When lifting lighter weights you can make strict movements to get a isolated result on your biceps. And using heavier weights, you will get more help from other muscles.
Here is the thing though. Biceps is a small muscle. To do isolated exercises you most likely won't need heavy weights at all. But the thing is, and there are stories I have heard from people starting an education to become personal trainers regarding this.
You need to "shock" the muscles with heavier weights than you can handle in isolated strict movements. It can be called cheating when you use other muscles to be able to lift the weight.
But the workout your biceps get when slowly lowering the heavy weights is great!
So I have heard people feeling disappointed at themselves when they have started their education. Because they have been told to do isolated exercises and not cheat.
They have not been very satisfied with their results in the training as a result of this.
I honestly think that it could have been something like the trainer that introduced them wanted to make sure they did not work out too hard at first to avoid injuries. And then they never told them that with time, they can add more weights.
That is exactly like the way I constantly tell you guys to go really slow in the beginning. But as your body is getting used to the workouts you can start to "cheat" to make the muscle grow more efficiently. Muscles grow by being challenged by heavy weights. And by cheating, you are doing exactly that!
Wow, that was starting to get off topic. Back to the barbell biceps exercises I like.
I use slightly different grip between the sets to get different angles in the elbows and so on. And I really like to stand in front of the mirror and watch the biceps work as I lift a heavy barbell.
But truth be told, after doing the heavy sets. Then I go lighter and really goes for broke. Hopefully I have been doing it well enough to make the biceps feel like they are burning.
This is the point during the workout I don't like to see hot chicks walk by watching me lifting these light weights looking like I am about to crumble from the weights.
You can watch videos on different HERE! It is a link to another part of my blog where I gathered a lot of exercises by which body parts they are hitting. Use that "database" to find new exercises, new ways to train your different muscles.
Triceps
This is a beautiful muscle. Before googling for pictures and finding this one with Arnold I had not made the connection with the horseshoe shape. But hey, it does look like that!
And here is another picture showing the triceps that I will be talking about in this post. The main muscle on the arm when we talk about mass.
Some favorite exercises
The cable cross is where I often spend quite some time during the triceps workout. The exercises I am referring to is pushdowns with a rope and with a straight bar.
Lately I have been asking myself why these exercises are so important to me when it comes to, 'how I work out my triceps'.
And to answer my own question, I have been doing it for so many years that it feels like, 'it is how it is to be done'. But as the years have gone and I have been learning more about how to create better workout schedules I have been doing other exercises a lot more than these pushdowns.
And saying that I have been doing less of these, is not saying that I am not doing them. I really enjoy this exercise, using the rope in particular. I can find it uncomfortable for the wrists to use a straight bar which makes me want to use the rope when my arms are really tired. Therefore I can really get that last energy out of my triceps by using the ropes where my grip is really flexible.
The exercises that I have been focusing more during the last few years are benchpress with a "less wide grip" to hit the triceps.
I do not lower the bar all the way down to the chest as well. That is a really nice way to hit the triceps with heavy weights.
It is easy to use a "Smith machine" as well. That one is actually perfect to use at first since you can get used to the exercise without having to think about balancing the bar in all different directions. And if you fail to lift the weight, there are a safety function allowing you to lock the bar in place.
Dips is one of the most classic exercises when people talk about triceps. This is actually something that people are competing in. There are perhaps no world championships but there are strict rules on how to perform a correct dip.
I have to admit that I haven't really got a clue on what that means. I just do it without feeling any pain in the shoulders or elbows. Since when doing this exercise, those areas might actually hurt if done wrong.
With a wider grip, you hit the chest a bit more as well. So depending on what you are after, just alter your grip!
There are different ways to perform dips using different weights than just your bodyweight. You can either use a belt where you attach more weights. Or if you want to lower the weight you can use a machine where you stand on a plate that makes it easier. I prefer to use a machine where I sit and push down handles.
When I am done with the workout I enjoy sitting down in that one and just get that last bit of energy out of the triceps.
In the section called 'Gym Exercises' you can find the videos of different exercises. There are a lot of ways to work out your triceps. Basically just find the ones that you enjoy doing. There will always be people saying that some exercises are the best but I would say that the exercises that you enjoy and really master - those are the ones that will help you with your muscle growth.
It is possible to exercise the triceps at home as well. But since muscles grow from being challenged with weights this exercise is a bit tricky to work out at home since it is mostly pushing exercises that activates it.
A normal pushup but with a less wide "grip" is targeting the triceps. But the lack of weights make it less efficient. If you are however just starting out your life around training and building muscles it might not be a bad exercise to use in the beginning. Since you will most likely not use very heavy weights at the gym, the difference in weights is not that big.
Pushups can always be done. If you are watching TV, playing games or just stare at a wall. You can take a 2 minute break and do as many pushups as you can and then continue with what you were doing. I am rarely doing these nowadays, maybe if I know that I will not go to the gym for a while for some reason. Then it could be a way to maintain the muscles.
After a nice triceps workout at the gym when I walk around feeling "pump" in both arms it is simply a great feeling. It is one of the reasons why I keep coming back to the gym. Except for the obvious result of getting in shape, these small kicks of awesomeness is small rewards along the way.
