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How To Get Muscular Forearms
21
December
Mens Muscle Building

When it comes to building muscle, forearms are the most neglected body part because most fail to realize that they need to work them as a separate muscle group. Not only do great forearms prove to be aesthetically pleasing, but exercising this muscle group reduces the likelihood of carpel tunnel and improves your overall grip.

There are three main muscles that make up your forearms; Pronator Teres, Brachialis, and Brachioradialis. Although there are many more muscles in your forearms, these are the three largest and most worked muscles. There are also numerous workouts one can do to improve their forearms, and they can be separated into top and bottom lifts. Forearm muscles are a strength and endurance muscle, so it is important to do both moderate heavy sets of 8-10 repetitions and light sets of 15-20 repetitions.

Top lifts are not as popular or well known as bottom lifts, but are a necessity in developing your forearms. I suggest that you incorporate three top lifts into your routine, as well as three bottom lifts. The top lifts focus on your Brachialis, and Brachioradialis. I recommend palms down dumbbell wrist curls over a bench, palms down wrist curls over a bench(with a straight bar), and hammer curls. For bottom lifts I recommend palms up wrist curls over a bench(dumbbells or bar), behind the back wrist curls, and dumbbell twists.

Top Forearm Lifts

Lifts Sets Reps Rest
Palms down dumbbell wrist curls
(over a bench)		 3 8-10 60 Seconds
Palms down bar wrist curls
(over a bench)		 3 8-10 60 Seconds
Hammer Curls 3 15-20 60 Seconds

To do palms down wrist curls over a bench, you simply kneel next to a bench, hold the dumbbells/bar with your palms facing down, and your forearms flat on the bench with the back of your wrists on the edge of the bench. Lower the weight as far down as possible while maintaining your tight grip, and then slowly curl the weight as high as possible. It is very important that you do not allow your forearms to move while doing these exercises.

Lifts Sets Reps Rest
Palms up wrist curls
(over a bench)		 3 8-10 60 Seconds
Behind the back wrist curls 3 8-10 60 Seconds
Dumbell Twists 3 15-20 60 Seconds

Palms up wrist curls over a bench are exactly the same as palms down, but reversed. Lower the weight as far down as possible while maintaining your tight grip, and then slowly curl the weight as high as possible. To do behind the back wrist curls you simply grip a bar behind your back(with desired weight) and while letting your arms hang you slowly curl your wrists has high as you can. Dumbbell twists are done by seating yourself on a bench, grab a moderately heavy dumbbell and let it hang between your legs, and then begin to twist it back and forth. You must keep the dumbbell stable and not allow it to swing, if you do not it may cause injury.

There are a few things to remember while working your forearms. If at any time you feel pain in your wrists, stop immediately. Make sure you never use upper body momentum to assist you in your lift, this will defeat the purpose. Lastly I recommend you work your forearms the same days you work your biceps. This will increase the workout in your forearms while concentrating on your biceps.

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Pre-Workout Workout – Stretching and Warming Up Guidelines
15
December
Mens Muscle Building

Pre-Workout Workout
By: Eric Howser

I cannot begin to stress the importance of stretching and warming up before a good lift. Anybody who is serious about building muscle will tell you that these are necessities to healthy muscle growth. For those of you who do not understand why, pay attention.

Stretching is the deliberate lengthening of muscles in order to increase muscle flexibility and joint range of motion, which is one of the most important parts of your exercise. Stretching improves flexibility, flexible muscles improve performance, and improved performance means faster growth. Stretching also increases blood flow to your muscles, which aids in the delivery of the needed fuels for your muscles to perform, and increased circulation can help shorten the recovery time of your muscles.

When stretching you need to use proper technique to avoid unnecessary injury. First, you must warm up your muscles to avoid a tear when stretching. This can be done by doing something as simple as walking a few laps and pumping your arms. Once you feel that you have warmed your muscles, you may begin to stretch. To avoid over stretching, never stretch past the point of pain. If you start to feel more than a moderate burn, slowly back off to a point where there is less pain. When stretching you should maintain a hold for at least 30 seconds to ensure that you lengthen your muscle tissue safely. While stretching NEVER bounce! Bouncing while you stretch can cause small tears in your muscles that leave scar tissue as your muscles heal. The scar tissue will begin to make your muscles tighter leaving you less flexible than before. Lastly, a light stretch before your regimen followed by a thorough stretch afterwards will prove to be the most beneficial.

Warming up is simply that, warming up. It’s meant to raise your body temperature and helps reduce muscle and connective tissue injuries. As the body temperature rises you begin to sweat, which in result decreases the amount of heat stored by your body. The decrease in stored body heat prevents your body temperature from reaching dangerously high levels during your regimen. A proper warm up also prepares the cardiovascular and muscular systems to transition from rest to strenuous exercise and prevents unwanted muscular soreness.

There is no big secret to warming up and stretching. It is meant to increase your performance, keep your body healthy, and allow you a quicker recovery time. If you can manage to follow the simple rules and use proper technique, you will see a significant change in your ability to perform longer and more productively.

Category: Workout Routines  2 Comments
21 Guns: Build Huge Biceps
19
November
Mens Muscle Building

21 Guns
By: Eric Howser

“Let me see you flex.” Any time you hear that from someone, you automatically go to showing off your biceps. Every time I hang out with my female friends and there are other men around, I always hear them saying, “Look at his arms, they’re so sexy.” This muscle has come to represent strength and masculinity in a man, so of course every guy is going to want biceps that attract attention. So how do you go about getting the arms you so desperately want? I’m going to tell you.

Everyone looking to increase the size of their biceps goes straight to a routine they get out of a magazine or from some website that claims to be able to give you ripped arms in just six weeks. I don’t know about you, but not only have I found it hard to keep up with the requirements of those routines, I’ve also noticed that my arms didn’t change like I expected. This is likely due to the fact that most of us don’t regularly kill ourselves in the gym like the guys who these routines are based off of. For the majority of us, our muscles need to be conditioned before we can be expected to stick with the kind of routines body builders use. This conditioning will not only get you ready to hang with the big boys in the gym, but will also improve how your biceps look in just three weeks.

“21 Guns” is by no means easy or painless, in fact it may prove to be quite the opposite, but if you can make it through you’ll love it. This workout is a three set routine with twenty-one reps in each set. It’s meant to focus on the outer and inner biceps separately, followed by simultaneously.

To begin this workout, you have to find a set weight that you are able to perform twenty-one reps with, you can use dumbbells, a straight bar, or a curl bar. You begin in a standing position holding the weight with a shoulder width grip and your elbows locked at your sides. While keeping your back and shoulders fixed curl the weight until your arms make a ninety degree angle, then slowly lower the weight to the starting position. You continue to do this seven times. After you raise the weight the seventh time hold for one second, then continue to curl the weight to your chest, lowering it to the ninety degree angle position. You also do this seven times. If you’re confused think of it as two separate half curls. The final installment of this routine is a full curl seven times. Take ninety seconds of rest between the three sets, and if you really want to challenge yourself, superset the routine with ten pull-ups before your rest. This routine is meant to be performed three days a week for three weeks, once you finish the three weeks you’ll be ready to really hit it hard like the guys in the magazines.

Category: Building Muscle, Workout Routines  7 Comments
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