6 Tips for Bigger Gunz

Having a well developed arm muscles adds to your physique and looks great on both ladies and guys. After all, it is the only part of your upper body that you will be showing all throughout the summer wearing t-shirts and other short sleeve attire. In addition, strong tricep and bicep muscles will help you during your press and pull exercises, respectively. Of course, you will train your arms while performing any press or pull, but in this article I will give you 6 major tips on how to develop arms through isolation (or at least partial isolation) exercises.

1. 1. Don't Swing! The three golden rules of any exercise are: i. ISOLATE, ii. ISOLATE, iii.ISOLATE!!! Then why, oh why 99% of the fitness enthusiasts perform the mating dance with an EZ bar while performing the good old bicep curl? Swinging back and forth with your hips while curling takes away the pressure that is supposed to be imposed on the bicep brachii muscles, reducing its efficiency. You want your time in the gym to be effective, right? Then, tuck these elbows into your sides, engage your abs, bend your knees and contract your glutes (remember: Isolate!) and the most important: take a weight that you can perform your set without swinging.
2. 2:1 Ratio: Perform your arm workout with the 2:1 ratio of dumbbell vs barbell exercises. Most people have an imbalance between their left and right arm strength and mass. Usually, the dominant side is either (or both) bigger or stronger. Using unilateral exercises with dumbbells will eventually even out this imbalance and barbell exercises will increase the ability of your arms to work in-synch.
3. Slow Down on the Negative: Muscle has three types of contraction; isometric (muscle contracts, while static), concentric (contracts and shortens) and eccentric (contracts and elongates). The eccentric contraction generally has more capacity than the concentric one. It also creates more micro-tears than the concentric contraction. In other words, eccentric contraction is very effective in developing muscle mass.
4. Dip it Up! Many people neglect the good old dips. Too bad, as this is perhaps on of the best exercises for your upper body. Dips not only work your triceps, but also your front delts and chest as well. It builds a strong and proportionate upper body. Dips should be incorporated in every workout program to achieve a great upper body.
5. Try Ceps: Triceps compose the major part of your humers musculature and thus needed a lot of work. It is a shame that most people (especially guys) are incorporating what's called a T-shirt workout, neglecting all the back muscles and conctentrating only on the muscles that they can see in the mirror. However, overall development is necessary to a balanced and proportionate physique. This is true to the arm muscles as well. Hit your triceps with the same intensity you hit your biceps and your arms will grow like the impudence of the Wall Street brokers. Perform overhead tricp extensions as well the push downs to hit both, your short and long tricep heads, this will add a lot of size to your arms.
6. Short and to the point: biceps and triceps both receive a great amount of work when you perform your compound upper body movements (like bench press, pull downs, military press and so on). Therefore, you should not dedicate more than 15 minutes for each, biceps and triceps. Keep it short, intense and effective. If you go longer than that, you simply risk overtraining, as each additional set will diminish your muscle's ability to recover.
   

To give you an idea of how a good arm workout should look like, check out the routine below.

Preacher Curls with EZ Bar: 3x12

1A. Seated Hammer Curls: 3x10

2B. Wide Dumbbell Curls (elbows tucked into your sides): 3x10

Dips: 3x to failure

2A. Overhead Tricep Extensions: 3x10
2B. Underhand Grip Tricep Extensions: 3x10

Have a great pump!

Ivan K

www.ivankfitness.com