Blast those Biceps!

There is a belief among some (I'm not necessarily one of those) that focusing on your shoulders and biceps is a shortcut to great arms.  My belief is you need to stay balanced and work all major muscle groups which I am in the process of posting about each. I started with triceps and after today's biceps will hit the last two which are chest and back.  A word about all of these exercises: Think about your abs with every exercise you do.  Keep them engaged as it keeps your core strong, "works" your core and also protects your back. Ok, so now onto biceps:

Stand with feet hip width apart and hold dumbbells in front of the thighs with palms facing out. Focus on the biceps muscle and bend your elbow while squeezing the biceps to lift the weight. Elbows should stay at your waist without moving out. Leave about a fist distance between the weight and your shoulder. Going further usually brings your elbow out and takes pressure off the biceps. We don't want that.  Now slowly lower the weights, keeping a slight bend in the elbows at the bottom. In general, you want to protect your joints by not locking them out or hyper extending them. 

Here are a couple variations to work you biceps.  First the "hammer Curl"

The hammer curl will challenge the muscle in a different way, so you can do these in combination with regular curls. The principles of the hammer curl are the same as the above biceps curl except you are turning the palms so that they are facing each other.









Do this next one last.  The "concentration curl" will really get the blood to your muscles for that "pump" or "burn".  Once again to really break down the muscle for new growth and definition it's important to fatigue the muscle.  That's when you're getting the most intense work.

The picture is pretty self explanatory - just bend forward keeping the abs engaged and prop the right elbow against the inside right thigh. Contract the hand towards the shoulder without moving the elbow. Lower all the way down and once again keep a very slight bend in the elbow at the bottom of this move.