Triceps Workouts - Balancing the Biceps

The triceps are another set of muscles that are very popular to work out, and which must be worked out to balance any gains in your biceps. There are several popular triceps exercises that can get the job done, and just as with the biceps, some of the most commonly learned and basic workout routines are designed to specifically to work out the triceps.

One of the popular triceps muscles workouts is called the “close grip” bench press. This bench press exercise is done the same way as a regular bench press designed to work out your biceps and chest, except it is done with a lot less weight because your hands are placed close together, only 4-6 inches apart, in the middle of the bar. These presses require far less weight, but the effect on your triceps is great, and this lift still affects the outer edges of your pectoral muscles, helping to have a more balanced chest workout.

A note on this exercise: just like with the “diamond” push ups that emphasize different muscles, with the close grip bench press you don’t necessarily have to lower the bar all the way to your chest the way you would with a regular bench press. This can be harmful to your wrists and lower arms. Your hands may even stop several inches above your chest, and that’s fine. You don’t want to feel any pain or stress on your wrists. If you do, you’re bringing the bar down too far.

This is an exercise that doesn’t require a lot of weight. Using proper technique for this lift alone is enough to increase your triceps, and help to balance out the muscles to insure optimum growth of all the arm muscles, and the top effectiveness of all your weight lifting workouts. While the close grip bench press might be one of the most popular and common exercises to improve the triceps, there are others, as well.

The reverse grip bench press is another bodybuilding exercise that does great work on the triceps. This lift is done by using a normal or slightly wider grip on the bar, but with your hands holding the bear in an underhand position like you would with a bicep curl. This exercise also requires less weight to be effective, and strong appropriate technique is of paramount importance. If you are performing the reverse grip bench press correctly, then there should be less stress on your wrists and you won’t feel the effect on your chest muscles as much as you do with a close grip bench press.

Triceps extensions can be done in many different ways, and are gaining popularity. This is when you take a dumbbell overhead with your arms straight, then lower it behind your head before raising it again. This can be done standing up or sitting down, one arm at a time with a smaller weight, or both arms together, with fingers knitted, on one larger weight. All these styles work.

These are just a few of the great workouts that build up your triceps and help keep your arm muscles balanced and looking great.

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Biceps Workouts: Pumping Up Your Biceps

There are many different exercises and many different weight lifting machines that focus on exercises that help build up good looking biceps. Even with all the advancements in weight lifting and knowledge about how the body works to build new muscle, one basic bodybuilding exercise is still tops when it comes to building up the bulging biceps: the biceps curl.

Many bodybuilders like to use dumbbells for this exercise because they provide the maximum amount of effectiveness in building up bulky muscle mass. Dumbbells also make it easier to assure that each arm is getting a strong and equal workout. That being said, barbell curls are also very effective. These exercises don’t need fancy machines to be improved upon, but the one common mistake that many weight lifters make is to use poor technique. Nothing will get more frustrating than the complete lack of progress you experience when using an incorrect technique for this biceps exercise.

To properly perform a set of barbell curls, you will want to have a shoulder width grip on the barbell. Keeping your elbows close to your sides, and not out in the air, you then curl the weight up, contracting the biceps at the top.

One common mistake you will want to avoid is curling your wrists towards your main body at the top of a barbell. A lot of people do this, but not only is it not god for your wrists, but this also takes resistance off of the biceps, preventing you from getting the full benefit of this exercise, which can also be extremely frustrating as you keep lifting but don’t see any obvious positive effects. Curling the wrists as you lift is the biggest mistake many people make and that takes away pressure from the actual muscles that you’re working out, and so cheating you out of the full effect of the exercise.

There are biceps exercises that can target a specific section of the arm to look better, as well. For example, if you want to bulk up your upper arms, then you need to do exercises that specifically target the “brachialis” muscle, a muscle that is between the biceps and triceps. Just doing hammer curls, as opposed to biceps curls, targets these muscles and will result in big upper arms that you can show off to anyone with pride.

Another biceps exercises that work really well (and often work out a second group of arm muscles, as well), include the reverse grip barbell (or dumbbell) curls, which are like regular curls but with the palms facing in instead of out. Then do a normal curl. To avoid pressure on the wrists, this needs to be done with much lighter weights than you normally use for your other biceps exercises.

Biceps workouts are among the easiest and most useful for quickly bulking up, but on the other hand these exercises are also the easiest to “cheat” at, making it harder to see the quality results you should be getting. Concentrate on technique with your biceps exercises and you’ll be happy with the results.

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