Bicep Exercises

Bicep Exercise:
The following exercises are three basic exercises that can be done, at the gym, to build muscle in the biceps. The biceps are comprised of two muscles (latin prefix "bi") that control the contraction of the arm (triceps control extension). For these exercises it is important to notice and feel the contraction within the highlighted muscles.


Bicep Curl:

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The Bicep curl focuses on strengthening the Brachii muscles, which is one of the two muscles in the bicep (pic 1 and 2). This is the more dominant muscle within the bicep.

The starting position for bicep curl is:
Hands holding dumbbells at waist.
Hand for first movement turned out, palm up.
Back straight.
Feet at shoulder width.
Head straight

The movement is performed by raising one hang after the other straight up to shoulder hight, and then lowering it again. It is important to keep the body still, back straight, and elbows in.

The ending position (at hight of motion)is:
Hands holding dumbbells.
Hand for first movement facing shoulder.
Back straight.
Feet at shoulder width.
Head straight

Hammer Curl:

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The Hammer curl focuses on strengthening the Brachialis muscles, which is the other of the two muscles in the bicep (pic 3 and 4). This is the less dominant muscle within the bicep.

The starting position for hammer curl is:
Hands holding dumbbells at waist.
Both Hands turned in, palms facing legs.
Back straight.
Feet at shoulder width.
Head straight

The movement is performed by raising one hang after the other straight up to shoulder hight, and then lowering it again. It is important to keep the body still, back straight, and elbows in.

The ending position (at hight of motion)is:
Hands holding dumbbells.
Hand for first movement raised, palm facing perpendicular to shoulder.
Back straight.
Feet at shoulder width.
Head straight

Concentration Curl:

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The Concentration curl again focuses on strengthening the Brachii muscles (pic 1 and 2). This exercise functions to work on building big muscle and getting the last bit of contraction from your muscles at the end of a bicep workout.

The starting position for concentration curl is:
Hand holding dumbbell on floor.
Seated on bench.
Arm on inside of thigh, with elbow just below thigh.a
Back straight.
Palm facing out
Feet planted on floor

The movement is performed by raising dumbell to shoulder hight, and then lowering it again to about half hight and then continuing the motion within that range. It is important to keep the body still, back straight, and feel the contraction in the bicep.

The ending position (at hight of motion)is:
Hand holding dumbbell at shoulder hight, palm facing shoulder.
Seated on bench.
Back straight.
Feet planted on floor

Note: these three exercises pair very well with exercises that focus on the the back and/or other bicep exercises. I suggest pairing these with the back exercises listed in the "Back Exercises" blog post.

    I perform these three exercises once every 4 days (ideally) in combination with ~4 bicep movements.

    I perform each bicep exercise 3-4 times (3-4 sets) with roughly 10, 8, 8, then 6 repetitions (10,8,8 then 6 reps) respectively each time before moving to the next exercise.

    If your goal is to build leaner muscle, it would be good to decrease weight a little nit and increase each set but 2-4 reps. 

    If your Goal is to build bigger muscles, it would be a good idea to increase weight as much as possible while doing 2-4 fewer reps.

Dieting Bulking Up

Dieting-Bulking Up

      Bulking up is something that I see many naturally skinny people struggle with. They are always saying "Im trying to bulk up" but they always seem to struggle with achieving any increased muscle growth. Bulking up is very difficult for many people because they don't know how to do it. The common perception of what it means to bulk up is eating anything and everything in an effort to get bigger. This is a very old concept of bulking out and will only be effective in a select few body types. If that is you than you probably don't need to read this blog. I would, however, suggest that anyone interested in the things that this blog talks about continues reading. Even if your goal is not to bulk up there will still be a great deal of useful information in this post. I would also suggest that you read my post called "Dieting- What to Eat" because much of the information in that post will be useful here.


Increased Caloric Intake
      The goal of bulking up is to put on a significant amount of muscle mass with minimal fat increase. Some degree of fat increase is however inevitable because one part of bulking up is an increased caloric intake (eating more food). By eating more food you provide your body with more nutrients to build muscle. The food you eat, however, must be good food or it will only be stored as fat and not muscle (see "Dieting-What to Eat" post to learn what to look for in food). An increase of Proteins, Carbs and Fats are all necessary for affective bulking up. Proteins are the most important because they are directly responsible. 30-40 grams of protein per meal is a good goal, anything over 40 will send you into fat production. Carbs are also important for muscle growth for two reasons. 1) They give you energy to fuel your workout. 2) They increase insulin levels, which move amino acids to your muscles. Fats are also very significant factors o muscle growth. Fats are important for the production certain hormones. Fats from avocado, almonds, olive oil, and flax seed are all very good for the production of hormones that build muscle. They also support brain function.


Eating Frequency
      In order to affectively increase muscle, with minimal fat increase, it is important very important to eat many meals spread throughout the day. Most people, especially in college, are eating only 2-3 meals a day. In order for bulking up to be affective you must eat between 6 and 8 meals a day. This may sound like an extreme commitment but this is something that is a fundamental of all dieting and, when done in combination with the principals of the "what to eat" post, this will give you the best results in loosing fat or gaining muscle. When you only eat a few meals a day your bodies' metabolism (food digestion) slows down, and what happens is many more of the calories you consume are stored as fat instead of burned as energy or used to build muscle. By eating frequently your body uses all the nutrients so you stay much healthier and build muscle.


Exercise
      When bulking up it is imperative that you are working out at least 4 times a week and a maximum of six times a week. Working out is key to bulking up that many people who are not dedicated to building a better body miss, and it is so important because working out is what causes muscle growth. Each time you go to the gym you should be doing at least 24 sets with 3-5 sets per exercise. All of this should be done within 60 minutes because any time you go over can cause your testosterone levels to suffer. Their are a variety of different exercises to do for bulking up and a variety of different ways to break up your work outs. For example I do back and biceps on day 1, legs on day 2, chest and triceps on day 3, and I rest of the 4th day. Many of the exercises are valid and many of the break ups are valid as well. I will not go into the specifics of that in this blog post because it is long enough as is but what you need to know for bulking up is that you should stick to movements that use mostly one body part at a time. You also want to focus more on doing high weight and lower reps. Always keep good form but rather than doing between 8 and 12 reps per set, do between 4 and 8 reps per set. This will cause you to build bigger muscle.

More Information
For Further Reading visit these two webpages which provide excellent detail on bulking up.

Bulking Up Rules For The Natural Bodybuilder!

The skinny man's guide to bulking up

Back Exercises

Back Exercise:
The following exercises are three basic exercises that can be done, at the gym, to build muscle in the upper and middle back.



Pull Ups:

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Pull ups focus primarily on strengthening the lower back, specifically the lower trapezius (pic 1) and upper latissimus (pic 2).

The starting position for a pull up is:
Hands on the bar above your head.
Hands spread roughly 6 inches past shoulder width.
Head up and chest expanded.

The movement is performed by pulling on the bar to raise your body to the bar.

The end position (at hight of motion) is:
Eyes just above the level of the bar.
Chest raised towards bar
Lower back contracted (as seen in pic 1).

If a regular pull up is too difficult perform a pull down.

Incline Bent Over Row:

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This type of bent over row, which I will call incline bent over row, focuses primarily on strengthening the middle trapezius (pic 3) and the upper trapezius (pic 4).

The starting position for incline row is:
Knees bent at a little over 45 degrees.
Back straight and chest expanded and raised.

Head up, butt out.
Hands on bar bell (both over or both under).

Bart bell resting on knees and arms straight.

The movement is performed by pulling the bar up to touch the lower abdomen/hips.

Make sure to contract the focused on muscles (pics 3 and 4).

The end position (at hight of motion) is:Bar touching just below belly button.
Back, legs, chest butt, and head in same position as start.
Shoulder blades pinched together (pic 3) and shoulders raised (pic 4)





Bent Over Row:

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This type of bent over row, which I will just call a bent over row, focuses primarily on the lower trapezius (pic 1) and middle trapezius (pic 3). However, this movement uses tall of the muscles in the back, specifically the muscles in the two previous exercises. It uses the entire trapezius muscle (pic 5) and the upper latissimus (pic 2).

The starting position for this movement is:

Weights on one end of the bar bell and other end in a corner.
Bar between legs and hands on bar just beneath weights.
Crouching over bar so back is straight, head is raised and chest is expanded.

The movement is performed by standing up (keeping back straight) so that legs are just past 45 Degrees and chest is expanded and positioned over weighted end of bar. Then the weighted end of the bar is pulled towards chest while other end remains in corner.

The end position (at hight of motion) is:
Back straight and chest expanded.
Head up and butt out.
Legs just past 45 degrees.
Weights on bar are touching chest.
Shoulder blades are pinched together.

Note: these three exercises pair very well with exercises that focus on the biceps or other back exercises.

    I perform these three exercises once every 4 days (ideally) in combination with 4 bicep movements.

    I perform each back exercise 4 times (4 sets) with roughly 10, 8, 8, then 6 repetitions (10,8,8 then 6 sets) respectively each time before moving to the next exercise.

Dieting- What to Eat

Dieting- What to Eat:

Why Diet:
    Dieting is almost always associated with loosing weight or "cutting." A better definition of dieting, however, is ANY means by which you control your consumption of energies for improved health. For this reason dieting is important for all fitness goals weather it be gaining or loosing weight. I will however be focusing on cutting techniques in this post so bare that in mind if you are trying to "bulk up."
    There are many theories on dieting. Some are effective and some are not but most are unhealthy, unsustainable, or both. Many companies are created to sell weight loss shortcuts  commercials sell meal plans, diet pills, or exercise equipment that will make you thinner but most of these are designed to be unsustainable so that you have to buy more from the company to remain skinny. I will not go deep into this area of things because I want to focus on what you should do and not what you shouldn't do, but besides the fact that these products may be unhealthy, their primary flaw is that they don't teach you how to eat for yourself in a sustainable and comfortable way. In order to loose weight and keep it off, or eat healthy in general, you need to understand what about your diet is healthy so that you can continue to do it on your own. It also has to be comfortable for you to do because the goal of healthier living is for you to be happier.

Calories:
    Dieting is very important for cutting. The body uses different types of food in different ways because of their chemical make up. Certain foods are used to strengthen different parts of your body (not like carrots make your calves bigger, but more like bananas make your muscles stretchier), and certain foods are stored as fat by your body. Its important to know what does what in regards to fat production so that you can avoid the foods that your body will store as fat. The fact that your body uses different foods in different ways is why calorie counting, the practice of limiting the amount of calories you consume, can be ineffective or unhealthy.
    Calories are the energy that is found in all food and they are measured in grams. 
Here is a short video to help you understand what a Calorie is.

    Calories are a broad term for all energy and so the problem with calorie counting is that it does not take into account the different types of calories. These different types are what one will see on a nutrition facts label. The three main types of calories are as follows: Fats, Carbohydrates, and Proteins. Within fats and carbohydrates (carbs) there are also both good and bad types,but if you are just learning how to diet it is easier to start by staying away from these two types of calories and stick more towards proteins.The reason to stay away from these two types of calories is that they both are the most likely to be stored as fat. Fat is already fat so it is easy for your body to keep it that way and carbs (particularly sugars) are stored as fat because  they are not easily used energy, so they take longer for your body to process. Your body will burn calories that are easier to breakdown into usable energy first and then it will only use carbs and fats if it needs to. If your body doesn't need them right away it will store them as fat so it can use them, if it needs them, later.
    It is important to know where the bad calories are so you can avoid them. The best way to do this is to read the nutrition facts for all the food that you eat. Nutrition facts can usually be found on the packaging for any food that can be purchased. If the nutrition facts are not available for any reason, they can almost always be found online.
   
 It is important for me to note a few final health points:

1. Make sure that you are not cutting out carbs and fats all together. your body needs all kinds of nutrition, it just doesn't need as much as we sometimes give it. Also many vitamins and nutrients are found in food that contains a lot of fats or carbs. Fruits for instance have many vitamins that we need but they also have a lot of sugars in them. For this reason try to get your carbs and fats from natural foods. Nuts and olive oil contains healthy fats and fruits contain healthy sugars.
2. Eat your carbs and fats in the morning. Since we must eat some carbs and fats for health reasons it is useful to eat those in the morning. Eating them in the morning ensures that you have the most possible time to burn them off. If your body doesn't need them right away you still have a lot of opportunities to burn them before the night comes and your body stores them as fat.
3. Eat proteins for muscle growth. Your muscles are comprised of proteins. The proteins are wound tightly around each other and when you work out, or contract your muscles, the proteins are torn apart a little. If you eat enough proteins then your body has plenty of proteins to fill in the gaps after you work out. Even if you are not working out your body can still use those proteins to strengthen your muscles, though not as much.