Building Muscles

THE BICEPS BUSTER

www. MUSCLEANDFITNESS.com

You’ve heard the drumbeat so many times that you read right over the words: “Use good form, squeeze the muscle at the point of peak contraction, use a full range of motion.” Yeah, you already do all those things … or do you?

Arguably, at least 90% of the people I see at the gym make one crucial error on biceps curling movements even though they think they’re working their arms the best way possible. And what they don’t know they’re doing can be counterproductive to their goals of trying to build big biceps. Here’s why.

During many curling exercises, you start with your elbows by your sides, contracting your biceps to raise the weight. But if you’re going all the way up to the point where the bar is beneath your chin or at shoulder height, your front delts have assisted in the move, pulling your elbows forward.

“People tend to bring their elbows forward for two simple reasons,” says Ernesto Osorio, CSCS, a personal trainer with One2One Fitness in Houston. “The first is trying to achieve a greater peak contraction of the biceps. The second reason is that of pride and ego – you can typically use more weight when you’re not isolating the target muscle, a nice way of saying you’re cheating. And while it’s okay to occasionally use cheating techniques to spark growth, doing so on every rep can hamper your progress.

“Bringing your elbows forward can increase the workload, but this brings in the front delts and increases tension on the biceps tendon,” he adds. “Ultimately, this could lead to impingement and cause undue wear and tear.” And Osorio points out that when you need to use your shoulders to assist in curling heavier weight, you tend to lean backward, which could cause low-back discomfort or pain.

When you allow your elbows to travel too far forward, the weight is directly over the elbows, meaning the bi’s don’t have to work as hard against gravity. You may think it looks good, but the overall effect on just the biceps is less than if your elbows were firmly planted by your sides. And for those looking for an incredible burn and pump, try this strict form for an entire set. You’ll be surprised how full your biceps get when you don’t let your shoulders become too heavily involved.

Osorio suggests that if you’re one of the 90% of those who want bigger guns but don’t pin your elbows at your sides as you curl, start by backing off on the weight you use. “Remember, the biceps is only a small muscle group with two heads, so the key is to work smart and efficient with various angles,” he says. Then, on occasion, allow your shoulders to assist in moving more weight than you could otherwise when using superstrict form.

And while it’s often easy to overlook training advice that seems redundant, always turning a single-joint move, such as a biceps curl into a multijoint exercise could be doing your physique more harm than good.

FROM THE FITNESS DIRECTOR: 12-SET ARM BLITZ

By: M&F Staff | Photo by Michael Darter

Blow up your arms with this pump routine, straight from the training log of the M&F Fitness Director

FOCUS: Pump

In this new weekly column, we plan to take you into the fitness journal—and mind—of our very own fitness czar, the venerable Jimmy Pena, MS, CSCS. Pena a former competitive bodybuilder, is the architect of many of the programs you find on the pages of M&F. Problem is, even when he’s not training himself, training others or writing about training he’s still talking about it. So we figured we’d exploit that to your advantage. Today, we had him chat his way through one of his recent arm workouts with you, the reader, in mind.

“This pump-focused routine attacks the long heads of both your triceps and your biceps,” said Pena. “The long head of your triceps is the meaty, inner part of your horseshoes, while the long head of your biceps is the one most responsible for that peak when you hit a back double biceps pose.”

The routine includes a few free-weight moves to start with but for only eight sets. From there, you’ll move into two high-rep supersets using cables.

—The cables will help you maintain constant tension, which helps you get a crazy pump, especially in this rep range,” Pena says. “And it goes without saying, but even though you’re aiming for 25 reps, make it a challenging 25—don’t pick a weight you can do 40 reps with or you’ll be limiting your gains.”

What sets this program apart is how it finishes.

“Instead of finishing with descending, or drop sets, like many people do on a pump day,” Pena says, enthusiastically, “you’ll do an ascending set at the end, doubling the weight you used on your supersets and going to failure, even if that means 4-5 reps.”

Exercise				        Sets/Reps
Lying triceps extension			        2/10
Narrow-grip barbell curl			2/10
Dumbbell overhead extension			2/10
Incline dumbbell curl				2/10
Incline lying cable triceps extension		2/25
	-superset with-
Standing narrow-grip cable curl
Incline lying cable triceps extension		1/To failure
Standing narrow-grip cable curl		        1/To failure

Bonus Tips

1) Make sure to do a full-body warm-up and a muscle-specific warm-up prior to your first working set.

2) Rest 1-2 minutes between all sets and exercises. The only exception is when you move from exercise to exercise in the prescribed superset.

3) Focus on achieving a peak contraction on every rep to draw as much blood to the muscles as possible.

4) Make sure you are adequately hydrated prior to this workout to maximize the pump.