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By Clint Eastwood wouldn’t have been a very intimidating Dirty Harry if all he pulled out was a little .22 caliber pistol to make his point. He knew that to really make the bad guy’s knees shake and the lady’s legs quiver, a .44 Magnum was the weapon of choice?! So when it comes to bicep development, why should you settle for second rate pea-shooters when you can pack some really big guns? Let’s face it, all men want big biceps. They’re the easiest muscle to show off without getting undressed, women love to wrap their arms around them when walking down the street, and they’re small! Whoa, hold up there sparky…I didn’t mean YOURS were small. I simply mean that compared with other muscles of the body, like your chest, back, and legs, your biceps are a relatively small muscle. That’s good news for you and me because it means that it’s much easier to target your biceps for growth than it is to take on larger, more complicated muscle groups. So why aren’t YOURS the size of softballs yet? One quick look around any local sweatbox and the answer becomes clear…most guys have absolutely no clue how to effectively work their arms! But these 3 EASY STEPS are guaranteed to make sure you don’t end up on the "loser list". STEP 1: DIAL THE RIGHT "FREQUENCY" Because the biceps are a smaller muscle, and because they’re used in compound exercises when working other muscle groups, your arms are more prone to overtraining than any other muscles of the body. I’m sure you understand by now that your muscles grow when they’re at REST, rather than work. So if you keep your biceps at work by targeting them more than once a week, you’re setting yourself up for major disappointment! This is where the "more is better" crowd will lose every time! Stick to only one targeted arms workout per week and you’ll give them the much needed recovery time to pack on new muscle. STEP 2: UPGRADE YOUR R.O.M. No, I’m not talking about your computer…I’m referring to your muscle’s range of motion. If you ever want to grow your bi’s to their full potential, you must concentrate on hitting all of the muscle fibers. The only way to do this is to take the muscle from full "pronation" (arm extended, palm facing body) to full "supination" (arm curled, pinky turned in toward body). Look, you’re not impressing anyone, especially that cute red head over by the water cooler, by stacking up the EZ curl bar with massive weight and flopping your body all over the place like a hooked bass, your arms barely lowering the weight to full extension.
You MUST start every single repetition with your arms fully extended. (Yes…I know this makes the exercise harder, now grab a tissue, wipe away the tears, and get back to work!) A little trick to help you accomplish this is to first briefly (like a split-second) flex your triceps before raising the weight each rep. Since the only way to do this is to fully extend your arm, you’ll know you’ve begun each rep in the optimum starting position to stimulate new muscle growth. STEP 3: RECRUIT YOUR "MAIN SQUEEZE" To get your biceps to become bigger, you first have to show them what it’s like to be bigger. Here’s how it’s done… At the very top of your curl, when your bicep has peaked, squeeze the muscle hard for approximately 1-2 seconds. Your curl will make the muscle contract, effectively setting up a "road block" in your bicep. That final squeeze you add will literally force blood, water, and lactic acid into the contracted muscle, causing an intense "pump". In response, the muscle cells themselves begin to thicken, the capillaries within the muscle grow in number and size to hold more fluid, and stem cells split off to form new muscle fibers, already pre-programmed for growth. SUMMARY: Well, there you have it…but now comes the hard part. And NO, I’m NOT talking about picking the weight up and starting your curls. The hard part will be forcing yourself to actually DECREASE the weight you currently use because, chances are, you’ve been padding your ego by working too heavy, while sacrificing the most effective ego-booster…BIGGER BICEPS! But trust me, the growth you’ll get from incorporating these 3 principles will more than compensate for your initially bruised ego. = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Jeff Anderson (better known in the bodybuilding community as the "Muscle Nerd") is the creator of Optimum Anabolics, the ground-breaking new bodybuilding program that has taken the entire industry by storm! For more information on Jeff’s controversial new mass-building principles, go to www.grow-muscle-now.com. = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
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