Simple Back and Biceps

Simple Back and Biceps

     Sometimes you don't have a chance to get to a gym. Sometimes all you have time for is a quick work out in you own room. This is a sample of a Back and Bicep workout you can do if you don't have the time to get to the gym. All you need for this is a pull up bar, or a beam, or anything you can do a pull up on, and you will need some dumbbells, or any heavy object that you can curl. In fact, you will get every muscle in the back and biceps with just a pull up bar, but having dumbbells and a real pull up bar, like the one below, will really help you get a good workout.

Wide Grip Pull Ups: 4 sets- max reps
(Lats and Traps)

Reverse Grip Narrow Chin Ups: 4 sets- max reps
(Biceps)

Hammer Pull Ups: 4 sets- max reps
(Brachialis)

Concentration Curls/Hammer Curls: 4sets- 5curl/5hammer
(Biceps/Brachialis)

Rear Delt Raises: 3 sets- 10 reps
(Rear Delts- Shoulders)

Side Delt Raises: 3 sets- 10 reps
(Side Delts- Shoulders)

Front Delt Raises: 3 sets- 10 reps
(Front Delts- Shoulders)

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:

12

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:

34

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:

5

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.