Health and Beauty Les Halles

The most effective bicep exercises to build muscle

If you want to build muscle in your biceps, here are the best bicep exercises for building muscle.

Standing straight-bar curls

This is, without a doubt, the best overall bicep exercise you can do to build muscle.

It is the epitome of this muscle building program we are doing, which are low reps of heavy, intense, basic compound movements. Standing straight-bar curls allow you to directly hit the biceps with a great degree of overload.

Stand with your feet about shoulder width apart. Space your hands shoulder width and grip the bar with an underhand grip.

Begin with your arms straight, biceps fully extended, and your upper body leaning slightly forward. With an explosive motion, curl the weight towards you contracting the biceps.

During the curling motion, move your upper body back to an upright position. With control, lower the weight back to its original position getting a good stretch and lean slightly forward.

To make these the most effective at muscle building they can be, you need to lower the weight twice as slowly as you raise it.

Most of the muscle fiber stimulation actually occurs on the negative, or lowering, portion of the exercise.

So don’t just let the weight drop. This will not allow you to build muscle in the biceps as well. Control it all the way down.

Also, make sure you lower the weight all the way down so that the bar is touching your legs.

Do not get into the habit of doing partial reps on curls. You need a full range of motion in order to work the bicep.

Remember, the lowering portion actually works the biceps more than the lifting, so why wouldn’t you want to increase the range of motion and go all the way down with the bar?

If for whatever reason these straight-bar curls create a lot of stress to your wrists, try using the curved curl bar. The positioning of the wrists will reduce much of the tension.

Standing alternating dumbbell curls

These will also help you build muscle in the biceps.Hold the dumbbells at your side with your palms facing each other.

Curl one dumbbell at a time rotating your palm forward as you lift the weight.

After fully contracting the bicep, lower the dumbbell under control rotating your hand back to its original position.

Repeat the same steps with the opposite arm. Alternate back and forth until you have completed your reps.

Normally I am not an advocate for many 1-arm movements for muscle building, but this one is great for creating overload to the biceps.

These should be done standing, for several reasons. First, you should be able to lift more weight if you are standing versus seated. More weight means more overload.

Also, sitting down while performing these could add unnecessary stress to the lower back you do not need. These add a different twist than do straight-bar curls.

With dumbbells, you can twist your wrist at the top of the exercise, when you contract the bicep.

This twist of the wrist on the way up allows you to more fully contract the bicep, which will help you build muscle at the peak of the bicep.

Once again, it is very important that you lower the weight twice as slowly as you raise it. Also, allow one arm to be completely done its repetition before lifting the other arm.

I see many people start to raise and curl one arm before the other one is even done. It is all right to cheat a bit on your last, heavy set of these.

Try to get as many reps with good form as you can, but the last few you can cheat a bit by swinging the weight up a bit.

Do this only after fatigue has set in with proper form. These extra cheat reps cause additional overload to the biceps.

The combination of these two bicep exercises will allow you to gain strength and build muscle in your arms more so than any other bicep exercises.

They are both included in every single bicep muscle building workout that I do.

In fact, many bicep workouts I do only include these two exercises and yet they have allowed me to add inches to my arms in a short amount of time.

Do you have problem to quit smoking?

Maybe you have tried various methods and approaches, however but to no avail. You are tired to do any other techniques. Nevertheless, you are in great desperation to stop smoking for good.

Have you ever realized that your intake or eating habitual have significant impact to discontinue your bad addiction to something?



Yes, please do remember: You Are What You Eat!

I will share with you a secret on how natural remedies can make you quit smoking, before the smoke quits you. Dr. Joe McClernon, director of the university’s Tobacco Research Laboratory explained that smoking is a highly habitual behavior, and anything that can worsen the experience can help break the habit.

A study by US researchers from Duke University Medical Center has shown that drink coffee and alcohol, also eating meat enhanced the taste of cigarettes. On the other hand, increase intake of milk, water, fruits and vegetables ruin the taste. Thus, it proves that natural remedies will help you to quit smoking forever.



So, what are you waiting for?

If you really want to stop smoking now, then stop drinking coffee and alcohol, not to forget bring to an end eating meats too. At the same time, make an effort to boost your intake of milk, water, fruits and vegetables.

By the way, if you are afraid that milk will put more weights on your body, find other alternative by finding milk that will not make you fat, such as soybean milk, or non-fat milk, also called skim milk. For your info, skim milk is cow milk from which the fat content has been removed.

Massage therapists work to improve the circulation of blood through the body and to speed the removal of metabolic waste products from muscles. Their skilled kneading increases the flexibility of muscles, ligaments, and other soft tissues. Some people visit a massage therapist to relieve pain or to warm up before a sporting event. Others want to relax and reduce stress.

An excellent form of passive exercise is massage Therapy. Massage Therapy involves the scientific manipulation of the soft tissues of the body, which if done correctly, can be highly stimulating and invigorating. Massages have been used from the ancient times, as old as 400 B.C and yet been used as a mode of treatment for many ailments, since it has restored many a sufferer to health and vigour.

Massage reduces waste products such as lactic acid & carbonic acid that build up in muscles after activity and cause cramping, discomfort, and irritability. It also enhances the immune system and aids recovery from soft tissue injuries by increasing blood circulation to injured areas.

Massage increases the blood supply and nutrition to the muscles without adding to their load of toxic acid, produced through voluntary muscle contraction (such as exercise). Massage thus helps to overcome harmful “fatigue” products resulting from strenuous exercise or injury.

Most of the massage therapies can show positive effects on your body. They can help in mood control, relief of stress, pain control, and relaxation. In most of the massage therapies, the unknown factor is some form of “life force” which the therapy frees from blockage.

Swedish Massage Therapy

This is the most common type of massage therapy in the United States. It is also known as Swedish massage or simply massage therapy.

Massage therapists use long smooth strokes, kneading, and circular movements on superficial layers of muscle using massage lotion or oil.

Thai Massage

Like shiatsu, Thai massage aligns the energies of the body using gentle pressure on specific points. Thai massage also includes compressions and stretches.

You don’t just lie there–the therapist moves and stretches you into a sequence of postures. It’s like yoga without doing any work. Thai massage is more energizing than other forms of massage. It is also reduces stress and improves flexibility and range of motion. To learn more, read the full article on thai massage. Also, see photos of a Thai massage session.

Deep Muscle/Connective Tissue Massage

As the name implies, this technique is used to relieve chronic tension patterns throughout the body. It also uses long strokes but combines it with deep pressure finger pressure on areas that are contracted. This technique works with muscles, tendons, and fascia. Both full body and specific area work is done with this technique.

Acupunture

Acupuncture is an ancient oriental healing technique based on the Taoist philosophy of balancing energy meridians within the body, thus allowing the body to heal itself. Fine needles are painlessly inserted at key points corresponding to body organs to relieve pain and cure disease and dysfunction. Related techniques include the use of low voltage, electric current (electro acupuncture) or massage at key points (acupressure).

Massage therapy (and, in general, the laying on of hands for health purposes) dates back thousands of years. References to massage have been found in ancient writings from many cultures, including those of Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Japan, China, Egypt, and the Indian subcontinent.