Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Train Your Biceps - Don't Strain Them

By Jennifer King

Almost all weight trainers that start a body building plan are after bigger biceps. Biceps are the main part of the body that shows strength, and body builders like their shirts fitting tightly at the top of their arms. Because the biceps get so much attention they become the most over trained muscle which means for a lot of body builders their muscle growth actually goes backwards.

The most common reason why most weight trainers train their biceps too much is because they pay too much attention to body building magazines. Most magazines possess an article that will try and tell you how to get bigger arms within 6 weeks. When you read the article you'll discover a huge body builder, and he'll give you his workout routine for his arms.

A regular arm routine in a magazine will normally be a routine of around 20 sets of exercises. This is way too many sets to encourage growth in your biceps. You can give your back, cheat and shoulders a good workout with 20 sets, and your biceps don't require no where near this amount of training. After reading the article you'll usually see a photo of the weight lifter sitting their with his favorite supplement in his hand. The whole article is an ad for the supplement he's holding, and is in no way suppose to help you get bigger arms. They want you to buy the supplement.

When you exercise your shoulder and back muscles, all the pulling exercises that you do will have already given your biceps a decent workout so giving them another 20 sets will definitely train them too much. Body builders in magazines can give their arms 20 sets because they're usually on steroids and growth hormones. This kind of routine is impossible if you're a natural body builder.

After all the training you give your back and shoulders all you need to do to get your biceps to grow is about 4 sets of exercises a week. You don't have to risk any injuries to your arms to get them to grow, all you need to do is make sure you gain strength.

All you need to do is add more weight to the bar every time you train, and as you get stronger then your arms will get bigger. Getting bigger isn't achieved with adding more sets to your workout. If you don't add more weight or more reps every week then your muscles won't have any reason to get bigger.

If you don't gain the strength to add extra weight or extra reps every week then you need to look at what you're eating. To get growth you need to eat enough carbs, protein and healthy fats to aid the repair of your muscles. Without the right balance of the right foods, and enough of them you won't grow. Eating enough small meals spaced out through the day will cause a natural anabolic effect in your body that will cause you to get bigger.

Keeping a diary of hop your getting on will help you discover what is working best for you. Once you get all of the little things right you'll begin getting the gains you're after. - 15995

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