How to pump up your biceps and triceps?

The topic of pumping up the biceps and triceps brachii muscles is very popular among those involved in bodybuilding and fitness, because only the lazy do not want to have beautiful arms, which these muscle groups form.

There are a lot of exercises and various sports equipment for training them... But, within the framework of this article, answering the question of how to pump up biceps and triceps, we will mostly touch on the basic principles of influencing the antagonist muscles in question. After all, it’s no secret that they always work in tandem, depending on each other. And, therefore, they progress in strength and grow in volume together...

So, a little theory... It is known that the external muscles in the human body are divided into synergists (jointly performing some work) and antagonists (oppositely oriented to each other), biceps and triceps belong to the latter type. Being part of the same system, they perform different work, since the biceps flexes the shoulder joint, and the triceps brachii muscle, on the contrary, extends it. The mistake most beginners make is the idea that they are completely independent of each other. In fact, the opposite is true: when one muscle contracts, performing a certain job, the impulse is also transmitted to the antagonist, forcing it to stretch and react in the right direction.

How is this knowledge used in bodybuilding? It’s very simple: studies conducted by specialists in different countries have shown that those athletes who train antagonist muscles for one day achieve better results than those who “train” them on separate days.



This is very important to understand, since many, due to the lack of the necessary knowledge, when engaged in bodybuilding, train one individual muscle on one day, and its antagonist on another. But in practice, this approach is not very effective...

When it comes to bulking, it would be preferable to follow a simple linear exercise pattern, that is, doing a basic exercise one after another. At one time, the modern idol of bodybuilding, six-time Mr. Olympia Arnold Schwarzenegger demonstrated from his own experience what has already been scientifically proven today, namely: the principle of supersets - combining several exercises on target antagonist muscles in one approach. But previously such techniques were included in the training plan only primarily for the formation of relief. Arnold began to use them when working with heavy weights. The conclusion is this: it is better to pump antagonist muscles in one workout. Therefore, if you didn’t know how to pump up your biceps and triceps, or it didn’t work out as effectively as you would like, be sure to take the principle of supersets into your arsenal. The benefit of cyclical alternating effects on the antagonist muscles is very great, because by doing an approach for the biceps muscle, it contracts, but at the same time you are stretching, and, therefore, increasing in size, your triceps, and vice versa.

Another positive point is that when working on one of the muscles in question, the entire arm and the antagonist muscle are pumped up with blood and heat. Therefore, by moving on to the second exercise in the super-set, you will be working not on a cold muscle, but on a warm, stretched muscle, which will also have an extremely positive effect on the overall training...

For a more impressive effect, minimize pauses between approaches. When doing super-sets during the drying phase, it is advisable to take a one-minute rest break, and also try not to do the number of repetitions to failure in the first exercise. When doing cyclic training for weight, the usual break is 2-4 minutes.

Well, you have learned another good recipe and now you can effectively pump up your arms big and strong, which is what we wish you from our entire team of authors!