Muscle mechanics dictate that our muscles are strongest in their mid-range. Plus, isometrics are a great way to increase time under tension. And, help bodybuilders better hold flexed positions, which is what they have to do when they pose in competition.
Of course, these are all done in the same manner as the above, back-to-back, without putting the weight down. One of the fundamental concepts in muscle physiology is the length-tension relationship, which is: how much force a muscle can generate relative to its length. As you can see in the chart below, muscles tend to have the lowest potential to generate force when they're either fully elongated stretched or fully shortened contracted.
And, as I stated above, muscles tend to generate the highest possible force in the middle — halfway through the range of motion aka. The mid-range. Not only are muscles able to produce the most force in the midrange, they also have the potential to activate the highest percentage of motor units. A motor unit is a nerve cell and the set of muscle fibers it's responsible for activating. Now that you understand that muscles produce the most force in the midrange, where they also have the potential to activate the highest percentage of motor units, you can better appreciate how to exploit these concepts and transform exercise science into practical exercise application with what we call Constant Tension Mid-Range Biceps Curls.
Although most research would argue against working smaller muscles first, this may be your best option because it stimulates all the elbow flexors and increases total muscle recruitment right out of the box. Remember, muscles eventually get bored by the same old workout. They learn to be more efficient, and they just flat out quit growing in the absence of new challenges.
By working smaller muscles first in your workout, you burn them out and require the larger muscles to work even harder to recruit more muscle fibers. And while this may seem contrary to the physiological standards for muscle expression, continual stress forces continual recruitment, which should translate into greater strength and size gains in the long run. The below routine starts with a handful of rep sets of hammer, cable and Scott curls to get your arms gassed before heading to the traditional mass-building straight-bar curl.
The workout finishes with a strong semi-isolated lift—seated dumbbell curl—that will help round out your biceps peak. If you prefer to train your biceps on their own day, use the higher volume Workout 1.
If you decide to add them in with other bodyparts, choose Workout 2, which includes half as many sets to ensure maximum recovery for maximal gains. However, when the difference in arm size is more significant—some guys have more than a 1-inch difference in their arms—it can be downright embarrassing, and at the very least frustrating.
The key to bringing up the smaller arm lies in two training variables: volume and frequency. Those heavily involve the biceps as well. Next, you want to manage your recovery. In fact, you'd want to bias it to favor your biceps growth throughout this period. Just like our biceps, all of the other muscle groups we train require energy, effort, and nutrients to recover and grow. So if our main goal is to increase the size of our biceps? In fact, we can reduce the volume we dedicate to our other muscle groups.
The end volume we do should be just enough to maintain their size or stimulate a little bit of growth in them throughout the weeks. But exactly how many sets should we do, though? Multiple papers have shown that cutting volume down to about 9 weekly sets seems to be enough to maintain or in some instances even grow a muscle.
And is therefore a good recommendation to stick to. So for muscle groups like your legs, chest, back, and shoulders, allocating around just 9 or so weekly sets to each of them would be a good idea if you really wanted to favor the recovery and growth of your biceps. And for example, this could look something like the following weekly routine for the chest. Steer clear of this mistake with our 3-on-1 coaching program. My team of BWS experts - along with myself - are going to personally coach you so you get the most out of your training.
To find out more:. Click the button below to find out more about the 3-on-1 coaching program:. Find Out More! Next, we want to ensure that the weekly volume we do has the right variety of exercises to build your biceps. We want to do this so that it helps:.
Why is this important? As a general rule of thumb the best exercises for any body part are the ones that recruit the most motor units within that muscle. After all, a muscle fiber can only grow bigger and stronger if it is first recruited during the workout itself.
If you correct this mistake then your biceps gains will shoot through the roof! In fact, I believe so strongly in these 2 biceps exercises that I have written numerous comprehensive guides about them. Check it out:. So what makes incline curls and preacher curls so effective? Reason 1: Both of these exercises are performed sitting down. This is necessary to keep you standing but ultimately it reduces the number of motor units you can recruit in the biceps brachii muscle.
This way you waste no energy activating motor units in the rest of your body and can direct all of that neurological activity towards the biceps. Reason 2: Incline curls and preacher curls make it almost impossible to cheat! Most trainees use their lower back and anterior deltoids just as much as their biceps to curl the weight up.
I have absolutely nothing against this bodybuilder. Unfortunately he has chosen to lift with his ego rather than his biceps! Just look at how much he is using his lower back and anterior delts during this set! That should really tell you something! The only muscle that can possible move the weight on preacher curls is the biceps! I promise you that you will the difference right away when you start focusing on preacher curls and incline curls.
Cheating is naturally kept to a minimum which means your biceps have to work that much harder. Reason 3: Incline curls and preacher curls are superior exercises for targeting the long and short heads of the biceps brachii, respectively.
The biceps muscle has two heads: the long head and the short head. Ideally you want exercises that maximally target each of these heads. Of course, i n order to isolate each head of the biceps you need to know their specific functions.
Each head of the biceps brachii is responsible for flexing the elbow. However, there are some key differences that you need to be aware of.
These differences can make the difference between having an average pair of biceps and a pair of biceps that would make Arnold Schwarzenegger jealous! Incline curls work perfectly for accomplishing this. Preacher curls have the added benefit of preventing any cheating during the movement as the elbows are totally fixed to the bench.
Of course, you need more than just two exercises to train the biceps over the long-term. This is one of the reasons I like incline curls and preacher curls so much: They are incredibly versatile! Take incline curls for instance. You can easily adjust the incline of the bench to target a different portion of the biceps motor unit pool. To be honest I sometimes have a hard time myself believing how versatile incline curls can be! This is without even counting other variations such as incline cable curls etc.
Preacher curls are also quite versatile in their own right. You have at least the following 6 variations at your disposal to train the biceps brachii:.
Of course you could use a pronated grip with either a dumbbell or ez-bar, but the pronated grip is a very poor choice if you are trying to target the biceps brachii. Remember, the brachialis functions as the primary elbow flexor on all exercises featuring a pronated grip. Some gyms even let you adjust the angle of the preacher bench. This gives you exponentially more variations of preacher curls to play around with!
There is no excuse for using the same-old, same-old routine of standing barbell and standing alternating DB curls. Not only are incline curls and preacher curls superior exercises for recruiting the biceps, they are more versatile as well. Even in the most poorly equipped commercial gym you should have at least 16 different variations of incline curls and 6 different variations of preacher curls to choose from!
If you are less than satisfied with the size of your biceps then I have a simple recommendation for you: make incline curls and preacher curls the foundation of your long-term biceps programming. They seem to strike the perfect balance between volume and intensity for a large portion of the training populace. It seems like every time I place one of my clients on a tri-sets arm routine they rave on and on about how incredible their pump was in the gym. After all, they were being used to great effect by the first ever Mr.
Olympia winner Larry Scott in the s! Larry was famous for his monstrous arms complete with un-freaking-believable bicep insertions.
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