A favourite of mine and all guys a like, and ladies, if this isn’t one of your favourites, it soon will be. All men want big, full, peaked biceps and horseshoe tri’s. For the ladies, tight and toned does the job. Nobody wants flabby arms, the fix? Read on.
Section A – The Anterior (Flexor) Arm Muscles
First we will take a look into the flexor muscles in the arm known by normal people as biceps and by gym rats worldwide as guns. As you can see, there are 3 flexor muscles that make the “biceps”. These are the:
- Biceps Brachii
- Brachialis
- Pronator Teres
The largest muscle you’ll notice is the biceps brachii. The term bicep means two heads, and the biceps brachii has both a long head and a short head. These heads work together to allow flexion at the elbow and shoulder, as well as supination (holding with an underhand grip). The brachialis is the main flexor of the forearm and the pronator teres flexes the forearm at the elbow and allows us to pronate at the forearm. What does this all mean? Essentially, it means that the main job of the bicep is to allow the arm to flex at the elbow.
How do we work them out? Well this one is pretty self explanatory. We’ve all seen pictures of massive men with bulging biceps curling heavy looking weights. As flexors, the best way to build and develop the biceps is to add weight to any movement that involves flexing the arm. With that said, there are a variety of exercises we can perform to hit the biceps from all angles and get em growing, or in the case of women, tight and toned. My favourites include:
- Supinated Dumbell Curl
- Barbell Curl (*Works wonders for adding size to the guns)
- EZ Bar Curl (Wide Grip/Close Grip)
- Preacher Curl ^
- Concentration Curl ^
- Spider Curl ^
- Incline DB Curl ^
- Overhead Cable Curls
- Cable Curls
- Hammer Curls
- Pronated Curls
- One-Arm Cable Curls
- 21’s ( These are DEATH)
^ – These four lifts limit the amount of momentum of the movement and therefore really isolate the bi’s and are effective in giving your biceps that highly sought after peak!
Section B – The Posterior (Extensor) Arm Muscle
If the term “bicep” means two heads, how many heads do you think the triceps have? If your answer was three, you’re correct! The Triceps Brachii, or more commonly referred to as triceps or tri’s, have 3 heads that make up the muscle. These are:
- Long Head
- Lateral Head
- Medial Head
The long head is the longest head of the triceps. As you can see in the photo, it runs down the arm alongside the body. The medial head is found in the middle back portion of the upper arm and the lateral side is found on the outer side of the arm, it completes the triceps and gives it that distinct “horseshoe” look. The main function of the triceps is to straighten the arm by extending at the elbow, while the long head of the arm also works simultaneously to bring the arm down toward the body.
The triceps are trained using push movements that require the arms to be extended at the elbow. Some of my absolute favourite tricep exercises are:
- Overhead DB Extension (*great burn)
- French Press
- Close-Grip Bench Press (*beast for adding size to them tri’s)
- Skull Crushers +
- Cable Extensions +
- One-Arm Extensions^
- Rope Extensions +
- Bodyweight Dips
- Weighted Dips +
- Dumbell Kickbacks
- Overhead Barbell Extension ^
- Bent Overhead Cable Extension^
^ – These exercises are great for burning out the triceps
+ – These exercises are great for adding size to the triceps with heavier working loads.
There we have it folks, the complete go-to guide to building your arms. Now that you have a better understanding of the anatomy of the arms, lets get to growin! Until next post everyone, stay jacked!!
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