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.

The Wear and Tear Theory

The Wear and Tear Theory was first introduced by Dr. August Weismann, a German biologist in 1882.  He believed aging occurred when the body and its cells were damaged by overuse and abuse.  The major organs of the body such as the liver, stomach, kidneys, skin and so on are worn down by toxins in our diet and in the environment, by excessive intake of fat, sugar, caffeine, alcohol and nicotine, by the ultra-violet rays of the sun and by the many other physical and emotional stresses to which we subject our bodies.  Simply using the organs over time wears them out even if you never touch a cigarette or have a glass of wine and stayed out of the sun, etc.  Abuse just wears them out quicker.  He also believed it takes place on the cellular level.

Nutritional supplements and other treatments can help reverse the aging process by stimulating the body’s own ability to repair and maintain its organs and cells.

The Neuroendocrine Theory

The neuroendocrine theory was developed by Vladimir Dilman, Ph.d.  The theory elaborates on the wear and tear theory by focusing on the neuroendocrine system that governs the release of our hormones and other vital bodily elements.  Different organs release various hormones under the governance of the hypothalamus, a walnut-sized gland located within the brain.  Hormone levels are high in youth and account for menstruation in women and high libido in both sexes.  As we get older the body produces lower levels of hormones which can have serious effects on our functioning.  Hormones help repair and regulate our bodily functions.  When aging causes a drop in hormone production, it causes a decline in our body’s ability to repair and regulate itself.

The hormone replacement therapy is a frequent component of any anti-aging treatment and helps to reset the body’s hormonal clock and then reverse or delay the effects of aging.  The theory holds that if our hormones are being produced at youthful levels the cells of our bodies are stimulated to active and we stay young.

The Genetic Control Theory

This theory focuses on the genetic programming encoded within our DNA.  From birth we are equipped with a unique genetic code, which has a great deal to say about how quickly we age and how long we live.  When our biological clock goes off it signals our bodies first to age and then to die.  The timing on this genetic clock is subject to enormous variation and depends upon what happens to us as we grow up and on how we actually live.

Anti-aging medicine attempts to prevent damage to our cells and increase repair of DNA to help us escape our genetic destinies, at least to some extent.

The Free Radical Theory

This development in anti-aging research was first introduced by R. Gerschman in 1954 and developed by Dr. Denham Harman of the University of Nebraska, College of Medicine.  Free radical is a term used to describe any molecule that differs from conventional molecules.  Free radicals possess a free electron that makes it react with other molecules in highly destructive ways.

The theory holds that free-radical damage begins at birth and continues until we die.  In our youth its effects are fairly minor because the body has extensive repair and replacement mechanisms that in healthy young people function to keep cells and organs in working order.  With age, the accumulated effects of free-radical damage begin to take their toll and are part of what ages our cells.  Free-radical disruption of cell metabolism may also create mutant cells leading to cancer and death.  Free radicals attack collagen and elastin.  Collagen and elastin are the substances that keep our skin moist, smooth, flexible and elastic.  When these vital tissues fray and break under the assault of free radicals, we begin to notice folds of skins and deep-cut wrinkles.

Another way of looking at free-radical changes is to think of it as rust and our aging process is similar to the rusting away of a once-intact piece of metal.  Oxygen itself is free radicals and so our breathing and aerobic exercise generates free radicals that help us along the aging process.

Substances that prevent harmful effects of oxidation are antioxidants.  This is why specialists in anti-aging medicine prescribe a host of natural and manufactured antioxidants to help combat the effects of aging.  Many vitamins and minerals and other substances fight aging by acting as free-radical scavengers.

Source:  The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine

Disclaimer:  These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.  The information in this article is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.  All health concerns should be addressed by a qualified health care professional.