Blow Up Your Biceps & Triceps
Blow Up Your Biceps & Triceps with these exercises! Here’s 4 of the best biceps exercises and 4 of the best triceps exercises, and most likely you haven’t used some of these! Plus, there’s nutrition guidelines and supplement suggestions. If you’re ready to roll, let’s get going!
Biceps Anatomy
We’ll start with the showpiece muscle, biceps. The biceps brachii is a 2-headed muscle that is located on the front part of the upper arm, right between your shoulder and elbow. The biceps assist in bending your arm at your elbow (called elbow flexion). It also moves your arm and hand from palm down to palm up, as in twisting a lid off a jar (called supination). Finally, your biceps assist in raising your arm in front of you (called shoulder flexion, as in lifting an object from a table to a higher shelf or cabinet.
The brachialis muscle lies underneath the biceps brachii. This muscle helps build biceps thickness. To directly hit this muscle, use a “hammer” style grip, as in Hammer Curls or EZ bars that feature a hammer grip. As well, many of the biceps exercises presented in this article directly involve the brachialis.
A Quick Look At Rep Performance
I want to clarify this right at the beginning. When you do your reps, do not rush through them like you’re a NASCAR race car driver. Also, if your set calls for 8 reps but you could easily knock out 12, you need to add weight.
Make sure you are implementing progressive overload by adding weight to the bar. Use the 2 x 2 rule. This rule says to increase the weight by 5% once you can perform 2 additional reps beyond your rep goal for your last set, for 2 workouts in a row.
Finally, perform full reps, no half or quarter reps allowed. Here’s your tempo: a 2-second concentric contraction, a 4-second eccentric contraction, and a 4-second pause at the fully stretched position.
4 Biceps Exercises!
Biceps Exercise # 1 – Drag Curls
This is an exercise that was promoted by Vince Gironda back in the 60s and 70s. The reason he came up with this is that regular curls lose tension at the top of the movement. Drag Curls are a great answer to this problem. This is an exercise you can add in after a set of regular curls (it will ramp up the intensity big time), or you can do it by itself. The EZ bar is great for this exercise, but you can do it using a regular straight bar or dumbbells.
How To Do This Exercise
A very big advantage of this exercise is that it eliminates cheating. Begin by picking up the bar (or dumbbells) of your choice like you were going to perform a regular curl. Instead, pull your elbows back, keeping them very close to your body, and pull the bar close to your body. Now “drag” the bar up towards your shoulders. Slowly lower and repeat. The bar should be an inch or less away from the front of your body. It goes without saying that this exercise has a very limited range of motion, but you’ll definitely feel it.
Muscles Worked
This exercise directly works the biceps and the forearms. It also involves the front deltoids and traps.
Biceps Exercise # 2 – Underhand Close Grip Pulldowns
An underhand grip pulldown is a regular pulldown using a palms-facing-you grip no more than 3-4” apart. The machine you need is a unilateral lat pulldown machine with individual D-handles (L-handles work also). It can be a weight stack machine or a plate-loaded machine. Regardless it should be understood that this exercise is a biceps movement as well as a lat-builder. Additionally, to hit the biceps hard, use the underhand grip. You can also use a close hammer grip.
How To Do This Exercise
You’re doing normal lat pulldowns, but turn the D-handles so they are facing you. This directly hits the biceps. You can also use a hammer grip. Try them both during your sets!
Muscles Worked
This may be a lat exercise but the simple change in your grip hits the biceps hard. This exercise also hits the traps and rear delts.
Biceps Exercise # 3 – Supinating Dumbbell Curls
As you no doubt guessed, supination, or twisting your wrists, is the key to this exercise. As you perform this exercise, focus on twisting your wrists as you come up to the top, then reversing it as you come back down. Let your biceps do all the work on this, no swaying or cheating the weight up.
How To Do This Exercise
Supination just means twisting your wrist in towards your body. This exercise imitates this movement. Begin this exercise with your palms facing forward. Slowly begin to curl the dumbbells and, as you curl, twist your hands in and up. When you reach the top of the movement, your palms should be facing up like a regular curl. Then slowly return to the start position and reverse the twisting motion on the way back down. It might take some practice to time the twisting motion to the full range of this exercise.
Tip: Add a little more intensity to the rep by twisting your hands out at the top and squeezing before starting back down.
Muscles Worked
This is a functional exercise that directly targets the biceps. It’s functional because it’s a movement you will use in daily life.
Biceps Exercise # 4 – EZ Curls
Some of the exercises listed so far allow the use of an EZ bar. There are some definite benefits to using this bar. First, it changes the angle of the exercise and hits the biceps a bit differently. Second, this bar takes unnecessary pressure off your wrists. Finally, the EZ bar allows for different grips and hand placement. Some EZ bars have very exaggerated grips (like the hammer-style grip mentioned earlier), others not so much.
Intensity Tip: Most barbell or dumbbell curls let the tension drop off in the final third of the movement. You can counteract this by stopping the rep right before you reach this phase, and performing a static hold for a 3-4 count.
How To Do This Exercise
As noted, this is a standard EZ curl, but when you reach the point where tension drops off, stop and hold the bar for a 3-4 count. Lower from this point and repeat. This is along with the regular stretched position static hold talked about earlier.
Muscles Worked
This exercise directly targets your biceps. The EZ bar puts your hands in a partially supinated position. Depending on the specific EZ bar, you can also use a close hammer-style grip to emphasize the brachialis more.
Triceps Anatomy
Ah, where the real upper arm size comes from! The triceps is a large muscle (it accounts for two-thirds of the upper arm) located on the back part of the upper arm between your shoulder and elbow. It consists of three heads:
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The Long Head – The largest triceps muscle.
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The Medial Head – Located a little deeper than the other two.
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The Lateral (Short) Head – Responsible for the horseshoe shape.
The triceps assist in straightening your arm at the elbow (elbow extension) as well as shoulder extension.
4 Triceps Exercises!
Triceps Exercise # 1 – Close-Grip Bench Presses
This is a fantastic mass-builder for the triceps. Many people do these inside a power rack with a 7 foot straight bar, but some will prefer dumbbells or the much shorter EZ bar.
How To Do This Exercise
This is a standard bench press done with a narrow (think 1” to 3”) grip. Choose a grip that works well for your elbows and size (I like to use a close, hands touching grip). Do not flare your elbows out. Your grip should naturally force them to stay close to your sides. Remember you can adjust your grip width if you experience any elbow pain.
Muscles Worked
This is an exercise that targets all 3 triceps heads. It also hits the chest and shoulders. Due to the fact it’s a variation of the bench press, you can use more weight than you could with isolation triceps exercises.
Triceps Exercise # 2 – Triceps Dips
There’s more than one way to do Triceps Dips. You can use a dip station, an assisted dip station, or the edge of a flat bench with your feet out and elevated. This version hits the triceps hard and is an excellent choice if you have problems performing regular dips. You can also use a seated dip machine, either facing out or the kind where you face the machine. I’ve used both and prefer the one facing the machine, but my elbows disagree. They like the facing out machine better.
How To Do This Exercise
If you plan on using a dip station, remember to keep your body as vertical as possible to fully work the triceps. Don’t lean forward, as this slight change hits the chest more. If you plan on using a flat bench, start by suspending yourself between the bench and another elevated surface. I have used the seat pad of a lat machine and the long safety pins of a power rack (home gym). In a public gym, you can only use what’s nearby. Your hands should be on the edge of the bench and as close together as possible. Bend your elbows and lower your upper body using only your triceps muscles.
Muscles Worked
This is an exercise that works all 3 heads of the triceps as well as chest, shoulders and lower traps.
Triceps Exercise # 3 – Triceps Extensions
This exercise is also known as the French Press. It can be done sitting, standing, or lying on a flat bench. You can use a straight bar, an EZ bar, a dumbbell, or your choice of specialty bars. The key to this exercise is to use a full range of motion on every. Also don’t confuse this with Skull Crushers, which are typically done lying down. Plus, you lower the bar to your forehead, not behind your head.
How To Do This Exercise
Begin by lifting the bar overhead. As noted, you can also use a single dumbbell using both hands and an overlapping grip, or a pair of dumbbells, or a low cable with bar attachment. Remember to keep your back straight, and slowly lower the bar behind your head by bending your elbows. Like all triceps exercises, if you experience elbow pain, adjust the position of your elbows. The ideal elbow position is close to your head.
Muscles Worked
This is one more exercise that works all 3 heads of the triceps, as well as the front deltoids and chest.
Triceps Exercise # 4 – Pressdowns
Here’s a tip: you will get more from this exercise by standing several steps back from the pressdown machine. Then, as you begin to struggle with the weight, move in 1 step at a time, it gets a little easier as you get closer, and you can get more reps. Here’s one more tip: besides using a static hold at the fully extended position, you can stop anywhere along the range of motion for a second static hold.
How To Do This Exercise
There are a number of attachments you can use for this, such as a straight bar, a close grip V-handle, a rope, or an EZ attachment. Begin by grabbing the attachment with an overhand grip. If you use a rope attachment, grab it using a hammer grip. You should start the exercise with the bar level with your upper chest, right below your chin. Push down using only triceps strength.
Muscles Worked
This exercise works all 3 triceps heads. It also works the front deltoids, lats, and chest.
Nutrition Guidelines
As many of you know, I suggest that you consume approximately 50% of your daily carbohydrates, and all of your simple, sugary carbohydrates, in the hours that surround your workout. In addition, I advise consuming at least 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight, and it should be evenly divided into several meals throughout the day.
Supplement Suggestions
The first supplement I suggest you use is a good protein powder. It’s a cornerstone product, as are all of my suggestions. The powder I recommend is Hi-Tech Precision Protein. This whey protein is different from every other powder. Why? It is designed to release leucine in the initial stages of protein synthesis (a direct trigger of muscle growth).
I also advise using a good pre-workout, such as Gorilla Mind Gorilla Mode. This pre-workout took the market by storm by starting the high dose citrulline wars. The entire formula is well-balanced and effectively dosed!
Finally I recommend adding creatine monohydrate to your supplement arsenal. This is the form of creatine that has been tested and proven time and time again. I suggest AllMax Nutrition Creatine Monohydrate.
Summary
Are you ready to blow up your biceps & triceps? Then use these exercises, follow my nutritional and supplement suggestions, and let’s go train!
References:
- Delavier, Frâedâeric. Strength Training Anatomy. Human Kinetics, 2010.
- ExRx.net: Exercise Directory