Bodybuilders have developed lots of tricks and techniques for increasing the intensity of their upper-arm workouts past the point where inexperienced weight lifters would fail. Here are three of the best ways to make sure you are not wasting your workouts: Grip strength is the key to progress Your forearms are the key that unlocks upper-arm size. Without a strong grip, your upper arms — the biceps and triceps — won’t get enough training stress to really make them grow. In short, unless you have a strong grip and lots of muscular endurance in your forearms, they’ll give out before your larger, stronger biceps and triceps are fully exhausted. And when that happens, growth in your upper arms stops dead. So, with that in mind, let me show you how to keep your upper-arm gains coming, long after they would have stalled if you don’t use these techniques. One, you must work on your forearm conditioning. Forearms are responsible for grip, and without a strong grip you’re not going to get anywhere. High-rep sets of forearm curls are the best way to build strength and prevent injuries in the forearms, wrists, and hands. Since there is very little muscle in this part of the body, you’ll want to work out in a way that builds strength and resilience in the connective tissue (the ligaments and tendons that facilitate your grip) of the lower arms, wrists, hands, and fingers. Using an ez-curl bar (or, less ideally, a straight barbell), sit on a bench with your forearms resting on your knees and perform high-rep sets of wrist curls. Keep the reps above 20. Remember that you’re not training the muscular strength as much as you are training the endurance and the tendons. Reverse wrist curls are good too, but they mostly train the muscles and connective tissue that strengthens the thumb, and as such aren’t quite as important as orthodox wrist curls. Behind the back forearm curls are a favorite of most advanced bodybuilders. Use them when you’re after strength rather than conditioning.

Full Article

For More Information Visit: http://www.precisionpersonaltraining.com

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 3rd, 2010 at 6:54 pm and is filed under Personal Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.