Operation Biceps Blast

Information Abundance can lead to Chronic Information Overload

By Karen Sessions NSCA-CPT
MsFit

You
hear it echoing in your head, "What to do for biceps?" "Do I do four
standard sets like everyone preaches on the message boards or do I dare
to step out of the norm and do less?" What would three sets accomplish?
That extra set is bound to put that extra quarter inch on your arms.
What about reps?

You’ve read over
and over that you need to do more sets and reps to build muscle. You’ve
actually brainwashed yourself into believing this. You have become so
deathly afraid that you are not training enough in the gym that you
being to overtrain. You begin to feel tired and your training becomes
less effective. You don’t have that inner spunk that drives you in the
gym and what’s worse, no biceps development.

Is
the confusion getting to you? Are you tired of being at an information
loss that training isn’t fun anymore? Perhaps if you overcame the
misinformation circulating on the forums and in the gym, you may get
results to bring back that training drive naturally. Usually, what
motivates most people is seeing changes. If you can make your next
training session productive, that would be motivation enough to bring
that desire and drive back.

In
this article we will break through some biceps plateaus. We’ll discuss
the "hows", "whys," and "why nots" of biceps training.

Typically,
female bodybuilders train biceps for growth, which adds size to their
arms. Let’s face it; nothing is more fun then flexing a 14" biceps when
called upon.

So, if you are ready to go into battle let’s break out of the norm.

We will break this up in "rules" for simplicity.

Stop Going in Circles and Get the Truth About Muscle Gain!

Rule #1 – Get a good warm-up

A good warm-up is not a mini training session. All you need
collectively is two warm-up sets, each with 15-20 reps. Get the muscle
warmed up and slightly pumped. You don’t want to exhaust yourself
before the real training begins.

Rule #2 – Use heavy compound movements first in your biceps training

Now, that’s not so hard, is it? You already know that compounds
movements are a multi-joint movement, working all the muscles of that
targeted muscle group simultaneously. This is the reason why you should
do the compound exercise first. Stimulate all the muscle fibers first
simultaneously. In addition, the compound exercise is the mass building
exercise. It doesn’t get any simpler than this.

Rule #3 – Keep sets to a minimum

Adding more sets, no matter how mentally pumped you are, won’t increase
your biceps growth. Granted, you may get an outstanding pump, but a
pump does not equal growth. A maximum of three sets per exercise is
more than enough. Any more than that can lead to overtraining. The
biceps contains two muscles, and once you stimulate them. That’s it.
Training is over.

Rule #4 – Use 4-6 reps for strength and 6-8 reps for mass

Strength and mass work hand-in-hand when it comes to bodybuilding. You
should employ both factors, at different times of course. For
bodybuilding mass training, keep your weight heavy and shoot for 6-8
reps. Every few weeks add more poundage and drop your reps to 4-6 for
some strength training. Alternate the two methods to prevent boredom
and plateaus.

Finally, REAL Female Bodybuilding Information!

Rule #5 – Keep your biceps training basic and simple

Don’t fool yourself into thinking that doing 12 sets of curls using
various exercises will build huge guns. It just doesn’t work like that.
Building great biceps doesn’t take a lot of sets and reps. In fact,
when it comes to biceps training, less is more. In actuality, 5-6 good
sets are all you need. When I say good sets, I mean stimulating the
muscle with all out intensity with maximum poundage. All you generally
need with biceps training is one mass builder or rather compound
movement (straight bar curls) for 3 sets of 4-8 reps and one auxiliary
movement, such a dumbbell curls or hammer curls for 3 sets of 4-8 reps.

Rule #6 – Limit biceps training to once a week

This shouldn’t be new to you, but I still find it shocking to discover
some lifters are training their biceps twice a week to get them to
grow. There is such as thing as too much of a good thing. Think of
watering a delicate flower. You wouldn’t water it every day with a full
12 ounce glass of water, now would you? You must allow it time to
absorb the water you have already given it. This same tactic should be
applied to your biceps training. If you fail to allow your muscles to
rest and recover, they won’t respond (grow).

Rule #7 – Employ partial training

Partial training can give you that extra edge you may need to push
through barriers holding your biceps training back. A partial barbell
curl will take you from midpoint, where your forearms are parallel to
the floor, to the point where your biceps are fully contracted. After
the contraction, in a controlled manner, lower the bar back to the 45
degree angle and repeat. When you do partials, use heavy poundage and
shoot for reps in the 25-30 range to take advantage of time/tension
factor. Since partials are a partial movement, you will complete the
set much faster, in half the time. The disadvantage to this is that
your muscles aren’t under the tension that long. Therefore, adding more
reps will provide adequate tension.

Now
you have seven rules to build unruly biceps. The above training will
get biceps growth underway fast. It’s designed to get the job done
right the first time. If you follow these guidelines, you can blast
your biceps training without going into overtraining mode. Now that you
are armed with the facts, proceed with Operation Biceps Blast.

Fitfully Yours,
Karen Sessions NSCA-CPT
MsFit

P.S. Want more in depth coverage of how to train your muscles thoroughly? Check out, Iron Dolls – Female Bodybuilding Secrets REVEALED .

About the Author

Karen
Sessions has been in the fitness industry since 1988 and is a
multi-certified personal fitness instructor and specialist in
performance nutrition. She is a nationally qualified natural female
bodybuilder, holding numerous titles in the southern states including
two overalls.

Karen has written six eBooks on
fitness. She also writes articles for several fitness websites, and
distributes two monthly newsletters regarding weight loss and female
bodybuilding.

Karen
has helped hundreds of clients reach their goal of transforming their
body. Her success and success stories speak for themselves. www.Iron-Dolls.com