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)

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.

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.