Bicep help
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Seem to have hit a bit of a wall.<br />
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Made some good gains (in terms of size and shape) early on, but seem to have stopped.<br />
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Am wanting to get a some better definition in the arms and wondering what the best plan of attack is.<br />
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Have been doing bb curls, db curls, concentration curls and straight bar curls.<br />
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Been putting the weight on the bar, and even days when I really struggle, the biceps never seem to burn for days after like the shoulder, chest or legs.<br />
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Or am I being a bit premature expecting to see better results this soon? -
Dont forget to work the triceps mate. They are make up about 2/3 of the volume in the arm there so make senses to work them at least at hard as the biceps.<br />
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I've found pullups with narrow grip (palms facing) a good one for the biceps in addition to the standard old curls.<br />
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For triceps, dips are pretty dam good, especially after you have down a few sets of either tricep extensions or push downs. Narrow grip bench press too is also good for the tris.<br />
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Having said all that......my arms are fairly shite so keen to here what Bart has to say. -
I've always been told weighted chins are the best for guns that's what I'm trying to do at the moment.<br />
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....and yeah skull crushers and close frip bench for the triceps. Skulls burn the shit out of them I find and pretty humbling having to lower the weights on those quite a bit. A mate of mine has a good set of cannons and is a real stickler for doing the weights really slow to get the burn..... -
The only thing that ever made my arms burn was drop sets.
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TR - for "better definition" it's about lowering body fat and you know what that means a combination of nutrition and interval training. <br />
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Unless you are going to go completely hardcore like Bart, then the quickest way that I've read and seen is combining in supersets big compound exercises (ie deads and squats) with the isolation exercises (eg tricep cable stuff, bicep curls). <br />
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One bicep isolation curl that I don't mind is getting an adjustable bench put it around the 45 degree mark and instead of sitting on it sort of stand with your back resting on the bench and curl. The range of motion is greater than just standard sitting or standing curls. Try both slow and medium speed to trigger the different twitch fibers also. -
antipodean makes a good point about drop sets. Might try that with the chins ie doing weighted then not weighted then finish off with some pussy weighted curls for a good burn.<br />
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Lots of machines on infommercials in the 90's wanked on about "isolating" the bicep but surely for bigger cannons targetting as many muscles as possible is more the go ? -
[quote name='BartMan' timestamp='1331671883' post='275012']<br />
so you're chinning close grip underhand for biceps? AS opposed to overhand wide grip for your lats?<br />
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On "guns" day this is what I do Bart yeah but also rip out the overhanders every now and again. Not as strong on these but then again due to muscles used no one is ! There is a nice beam in the garage which caters for all my pullup/chinup needs. -
yeah the tri's are fine, just seems the old guns arent making the progress I'd like <img src='http://www.daimenhutchison.com/rugby/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' /><br />
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@ACT yeah am still working on the lowering of fat still, just I find it hard to really get them felling it the next day still, be it by increasing weight or high reps. Am sure I'll get there, just am an impatient type! -
TR give some of this a go.......<br />
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[url="http://www.daimenhutchison.com/rugby/index.php/topic/31964-bicep-buster-tricep-tearer/"]http://www.daimenhut...-tricep-tearer/[/url]<br />
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Also there is a bit of a school of thought ( Bart probably knows more ) that giving the muscles a really good stretch afterwards helps. -
depends on what you're chinning for - we do it as part of our back day, so we're wide grip overhand. Almost never, well, in fact have not for the last 3 years, have we done the bicep version!<br />
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MN - I thought you were legend with 30kg on these, thinking you were doing them for lats!!! I don't feel so bad with my 5kg chins now!!!<br />
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have not heard much about that stretching, but that soreness is from the muscle fibres getting torn in your workout, no amount of stretching is going to fix that (just been learning via FB on that one)! <br />
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Have heard along the line that stretching during your workouts is NOT good though!! Why, don't know, just something I read and recall! -
Bart - do you find out why that soreness is delayed though? Surely you tear the muscle in the workout or is the soreness from the repairs taking place and new muscle growing?<br />
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Re the pullups / chins up. Wide grip for me on back day too. Narrow grip for the arms mainly -
ha, while struggling through pulls up (which I might add I have always sucked at) with no weight I was thinking how the fark can MN5 do them with 30kg when he reckons he's 100kg and 6ft odd!! <img src='http://www.daimenhutchison.com/rugby/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />
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MN5 - 6 foot 2 and 3/4 or 1.9 metres ( in all honesty just under 6 3 but usually claim that height anyway, always good to round up ) about the same height as Jerry Collins, marginally taller than Conrad Smith and Hosea Gear, heaps taller than DC and heaps shorter than Jason Eaton ( all of this according to the wife ) <br />
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Weight - very, very late 90's depending on the time of day.<br />
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Doing them with 6 x 5kg weights round the belt in a mitre ten bag ?<br />
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I can struggle through six of the fuckers ( underhand grip, close together )......I promise !!!! -
Yeah JK, that it basically, will google tonight, have no mad scientist answer from facebook yet!! Speaking of whcih, calves today, as of now, and too tender to even touch. All good!! <br />
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we're on weighted chins tomorrow, wide grip overhand. I'll be strapping on my 5kg again! maybe even ramp up to 7.5 by the end of this 4 weeks!!! Just loop through a cahin looped through a weight belt - the only time aI use one! -
[quote name='BartMan' timestamp='1331779540' post='275268']<br />
Yeah JK, that it basically, will google tonight, have no mad scientist answer from facebook yet!! Speaking of whcih, calves today, as of now, and too tender to even touch. All good!!<br />
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we're on weighted chins tomorrow, wide grip overhand. I'll be strapping on my 5kg again! maybe even ramp up to 7.5 by the end of this 4 weeks!!! Just loop through a cahin looped through a weight belt - the only time aI use one!<br />
[/quote]<br />
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What's a cahin ?
