If every guy who ever stepped foot in a gym was completely honest, I’d almost
guarantee at least one of the prime motivators was “arms like Arnold”, or something to
that effect. Most women also are strongly motivated to achieve “toned” triceps and
biceps. There are many schools of thought on how to properly train to achieve strong
arms that deal with different intensities, weights, and combinations of movements.
Charles Atlas even recommended purely isometric contractions that consist of no
movement while muscles are under tension. With so many opinions out there,
it’s beneficial to take a step back towards the basics and universal truths while allowing
for what "Dr. Squat" would call the Law of Individual Differences: what works for
one person may not work for another. These are a few things that one should understand.
There are more muscles in your arms than just your biceps and triceps
To achieve your best arms, all of the muscles should be trained. When I was a
young teenager, I spent a lot of time on various bicep curls and achieved pretty good
bicep development. However, I reached a point where my arms stopped growing.
Why? I hardly ever trained my triceps, and when I did, it was maybe 3-4 sets of press
downs with terrible technique. Not only were my triceps nearly non existent, but I had a
hard time fully extending my arm because my biceps were so much more developed
than my triceps. Once I started giving my triceps more attention, my arms looked a lot
bigger. Now this concept can apply to the other muscles of your upper and lower arms.
The muscles responsible for the curling movement of the arm (also called elbow flexion)
are the Biceps Brachii, Brachialis, and Brachioradialis. The pronator teres, flexor carpi
radialis, and extensor carpi radialis longus, three small muscles in the forearm, are also
involved in elbow flexion, just not to the same degree.
Your Biceps Brachii (biceps) are more active when your hands are supinated (palms facing up) and less active when your hands are pronated (palms facing down)
This is why you use your biceps more in a chin-up compared to a pull-up, or a normal curl over
a reverse-grip (hands pronated) curl. So for optimal development of this muscle, you
should include curls where your hands are in this position, palms facing up, since this is
the position where it is most active.
The short head of your Biceps Brachii is not as active during a curling movement when your shoulder is flexed
This is one of the reasons you should strive to keep your shoulders relaxed when you preform curls.
Your Brachioradialis is more active when your palms are face down (pronated) and less active when they are face up (supinated)
Curls where your palms are face down, like reverse curls and reverse preacher curls,
as well as pull ups will lead to greater recruitment of this muscle compared to palms
facing up curls and chin ups. Hands in a neutral position, such as a hammer curl, will also
lead to greater recruitment of this muscle.
Keep each muscle's function in mind when training
Since the Brachialis doesn’t play a role in hand pronation or supination (how your hands
are facing), it is equally active through any elbow flexion movement.
The Triceps Brachii and Aconeus are the muscles responsible for extending your
forearm at the elbow joint. Therefore, any exercise that involves straightening your
arms at the elbow joint will use these muscles to some extent. Examples of exercises
that do this are: Bench presses, shoulder presses, dips, and tricep press downs.
Motor units coordinate the contraction of a muscle
Your body will only recruit the necessary amount to be equal to the force required.
A relatively lighter weight will result in less motor recruitment than a heavier weight.
Motor unit recruitment is very important for muscle development, so training with
relatively heavier weights (even the 1-6 rep range) at least some of the time can be beneficial
for muscular development.
You cannot change the length of a muscle
Every muscle has it’s origin (where it starts) and insertions (where it attaches).
No exercise will make your biceps longer, triceps shorter, etc.
You can maximize muscle development with proper, consistent training and nutrition
Using different angles, rep ranges, rest periods, lifting tempos (speed of lowering and
raising the weight), and exercise combinations can all be beneficial for maximizing
muscle growth.
No comments:
Post a Comment