Weight Training Tips and Articles

Best Triceps Exercises

When it comes to building bigger arms, the biceps seem to be king. Many weight trainers focus most of their arm building efforts on biceps exercises. However, the triceps actually make up more of the upper arms size. Because of this, you need to do the best triceps exercises for optimal arm size.

The close grip bench is considered one of the best triceps weight training exercises. It will certainly work your triceps muscles hard. However, you will be working the inner pecs when you do close grip benches, and you may feel pain in your wrists if you lower the bar all of the way down to your chest. If you want to avoid these things, you can try another one of the best triceps exercises - reverse grip bench presses. It’s basically a bench press done with an underhand grip on the bar. Once you learn how to do these right, you won’t feel it as much in the chest or the wrists.

Triceps extensions are among the best triceps exercises and can be done many different ways. The most popular form of triceps extensions are called “skull crushers”. These are basically lying triceps extensions. They get their name from the fact that you have to lower the bar to your head. Overhead triceps extensions done with a barbell, dumbbell, or cable are also very popular.

Some of the best triceps exercises involve cables. You’ll see many weight trainers doing triceps pushdowns, usually with a straight bar. Another popular variation is to do them with a rope. Both of these exercises will allow you to contract the triceps muscles hard at the end of a rep. They make great finishers to a triceps workout.

Many of the best triceps exercises can be done one arm at a time. Overhead triceps extensions with a dumbbell in one hand and kickbacks are the most popular. You can also do cable exercises one arm at a time.

Once you start doing the best triceps exercises, you’ll certainly notice an overall increase in the size of the upper arms. Do these exercises with high intensity to coax them into more growth.

Best Biceps Exercises

There isn’t a male weight trainer alive who doesn’t want to build bigger biceps. Big arms will give you a powerful look, especially when wearing a short sleeved shirt. Anyone who wants to build bigger and thicker arms needs to do the best biceps exercises.

All of the best biceps exercises involve curling a weight using the upper arm muscles. You can use a lot of variety in how you perform exercises for the biceps, with the ability to change the angles and grip with which you lift the weight.

The most popular of the best biceps exercises is the basic barbell curl. Most biceps workouts are started off with these. You simply curl a barbell towards your chin to perform it. Once you get to a point where you can’t get any more reps with good form, you can use a little body english to get some extra “cheat” reps.

Another one of the best bicep exercises is the dumbbell curl. Most weight trainers start this exercises with their arms at their sides and the palms facing them while they grip the dumbbells. As you curl the weight, you turn your wrists so that they are in the same position as they would be in with a barbell curl. You can do them while standing or seated on a bench.

Hammer curls are the best biceps exercise for building the brachialis muscle that’s located on the sides of the upper arms between the biceps and triceps. You start out in the same position you would with a normal dumbbell curl, but keep the wrists in the same position as you curl the weight. They sort of look like you’re using a hammer.

Some of the best biceps exercises to finish off your workouts with are preacher curls and cable curls. Preacher curls will give your biceps a nice stretch at the beginning of a rep. This is great for building fuller looking bicep muscles. Cable curls are a great exercise to do some high rep sets or drop sets to end your biceps workouts off with a nice pumped feeling in the arms.

Target The Brachialis Muscle For Thicker Arms

  If you’re trying to build bigger arms through weight training you obviously need to do biceps and triceps workouts. However, there is a small muscle called the brachialis that lies between the bis and tris that you also need to train for optimal arm muscle size. Targeting the brachialis with a few sets during your biceps training will help give your arms a thicker look.

  While most biceps exercises will hit the brachialis indirectly, there are some exercises that you can do that will target it more specifically. Hammer curls are the best exercise for building the brachialis. To do them you take a dumbbell in each hand with the palms facing you and your thumbs forward like you were going to do normal dumbbell curls, but instead of rotating your wrists on the way up you keep your hands in a fixed position as you do the reps. At the end of a repitition your hands should be in a position like if you were using a hammer. Some gyms have curls bars with grips that allow you to do hammer curls with both arms at the same time. Do some sets of hammer curls during your biceps workout to target the brachialis.

  Another exercise that will hit the brachialis is the reverse grip barbell curl. You basically do a normal barbell curl but with an overhand grip rather than an underhand one. You won’t be able to use near as much weight while doing reverse curls as you would for normal ones. This exercise will also hit the back of the forearms.

  Make sure to do some exercises targeting the brachialis as part of your weight training routine and you will gain a thicker look in your upper arms.