Natural bodybuilders fitness for arms

Biceps

Remember that it is extremely important to train your wrists before doing biceps because they are very prone to injury. The best exercise is WRIST CURLS which will not only strengthen your wrists but also build your forearms. To do this exercise see WAYS OF AVOIDING INJURY. When you train biceps you also indirectly hit your forearm muscles.

ALTERNATE INCLINE BICEPS CURLS

Sit on a bench with a slight incline and let two dumbbells hang by your side. Then without moving your elbows curl one dumbbell at a time up to your shoulder and squeeze the biceps as hard as you can. Slowly lower the dumbbell to the starting position and repeat the movement with your other arm. Keep your body still on the bench and emphasise using your biceps to bring the weight up and not by swinging the weight up with the force of your whole body. Swinging can be beneficial (see the cheat principle) when your biceps have gone beyond the failure point and you want to raise the intensity.

The idea of doing this exercise sitting on an incline bench is that you will get a better stretch in the biceps.

21s (or sometimes known as b**tard curls!)

Hold a barbell and curl it up so that the bar is parallel to the floor. Do 7 reps and then curl it all the way up to the top of the movement ie) your head. Do seven more reps from the top to the middle position. Finally do 7 full reps from the hanging to the top position.

When you have done all 21 reps you will know why they’re called b**tard curls.

CONCENTRATION CURLS

Sit on a bench and hold a dumbbell in one hand. Curl the dumbbell up to head height and squeeze the biceps as hard as you can. Slowly lower the weight down again until you feel the stretch and then repeat the movement. The idea is to build the peak in the biceps and give it shape.

CABLE CURLS

On the cable machine (found in most gyms) hold the cables with your arms in the crucifix position. You should be able to feel a slight pull in the biceps muscles. Then squeezing your biceps muscles as you do it, pull the cables to the sides of your head. Continue squeezing the biceps and hold the position for one second. Then return your arms to the starting position.

This is an excellent exercise for getting a peak on the biceps muscle.

Triceps

TRICEPS PRESS

Hold a dumbbell in one hand above your head. Slowly lower it down behind your neck without letting your elbow move from side to side. Feel the stretch in your triceps muscle and then quickly press the dumbbell back to the starting position and squeeze the muscle as hard as you can. When you have reached complete failure you can do a few shoulder presses to raise the intensity and stimulate growth.

TRICEPS PULL-DOWN

You need the proper gym equipment to do this. The idea is to pull the weight down as far as it will go and squeeze the triceps muscle at the bottom. Then without moving your elbows from side to side let the weight back up so you can feel a stretch. Then quickly repeat the movement. After doing this exercise with two arms try doing it with one arm because you can really concentrate on squeezing the muscle.

In the gym you can do this exercise either with a metal bar or with rope. I recommend rope because you can squeeze the triceps harder and therefore get a better contraction.

Like for chest to really make sure you have trained hard enough do a set of 50 press ups to finish. But this time do press ups with your legs on the end of a bed and your arms CLOSE TOGETHER.