What's up, guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.com.
So let me ask you a question.
What if you've been doing a lot of barbell curls, maybe even concentration curls, dips,
or tricep extensions, and you're still not seeing the arm gains that you want?
It might be time to switch things up.
Not just for the sake of change, but more importantly because our muscles can sometimes
respond a lot better to new challenges and different exercises that we never thought
they could.
I'm going to give you eight arm exercises here to try – if you've never tried them
before – that can do just that.
I'm going to give you four bodyweight versions, and four weighted version to give you plenty
of options to start to spark those arm gains all over again.
Let's start with the weighted version.
I'm going to give you two curls, and two pushdown variations.
Let's start with the curl.
This is call the incline eccentric curl.
Now I'm a big fan of eccentric muscle contraction when it comes to trying to build new muscle.
A lot of times we skip this part.
In this exercise, though, you can't however, because it's the focus of what we're doing.
You're going to use a bench here, set at an inclined angle, and perform your curls as
you sit up.
We know that it's easier to do a seated curl than it is going to be doing an incline curl
because our biceps have to go through less of an excursions here to get into the final,
contracted position.
However, at that point you're going to sit back and let the eccentric go through that
longer excursion.
So you elongate the time that your muscles are under eccentric tension.
That is going to help you spark all new gains, if you haven't felt this before, by taking
advantage of the change in angle of the bench.
Next, let's go over to the triceps, and we're talking about our first pushdown variation.
This is a rowing pushdown.
You might be thinking "Why do I want to row if I'm trying to work my triceps?"
Because it's what the row does to put extra tension on the triceps.
So I step far away from the machine to allow my arms to start in front of my body, I can
then row to where my elbows are at the level of my chest.
From here, I want to push down.
You can see that I have to do is, I have to extend through the spine in order to do that.
I have to get my arms back, behind my body.
So I get a good contraction of the longhead of the triceps.
But also, because of the angle here, the cable is actually perpendicular to my forearms,
which we know will provide a peak contraction – a tension in the contracted position – which
makes this even more difficult.
Remember guys, difficult is usually a good thing when it comes to building muscle.
So try the rowing pushdown and I promise you, you'll feel the difference immediately.
Especially if all of your pushdowns have been of the standard variety, right up underneath
the rope, and pushing straight down.
Now, let's flip back over to the biceps again, and this time it's the cable elevator curl.
Here, we're implementing the biceps master tip, where we talked about before, bending
the wrists back when you perform a curl.
Why?
Because we want to minimize the contribution of the forearm as we pull up on the weight.
We know that the forearms want to get involved, but we don’t want that to happen.
So what we'll do is, we'll keep our hands flat, and perpendicular to the sky.
Throughout the entire exercise – you can see as I lift up, I'm basically holding two
plates in my hands.
I'm like a waiter serving up two plates.
You don’t want to let them tilt.
That's having the effect of minimizing the forearms, but it's also allowing – as we
raise the arm up – shoulder flexion, and shoulder flexion is a key component of a complete
bicep contraction.
We want to have a supinated position, we want to have elbows flexed, and we want to have
those shoulders flexed at the very top of the range of motion.
The elevator curl will do all three in one shot.
For our final weighted exercise option here, is back to the triceps and the pushdowns again,
but this time we do a rotational pushdown.
This is one I love so much that we actually incorporated it into our ATHLEANX program
from the very beginning.
That is, the rotational pushdown is a much more athletic version of a push down.
We realized that just going straight up and down is not the best we can do if we're trying
to be a little more explosive, and athletic through our entire body.
And because the pushdown is a ground based movement we can allow ourselves to become
more powerful, and explosive with it.
Instead of just going up and down, let's start getting some rotation into this, and start
driving, and pivoting off the foot that then allows us to get our arms, and our core working
together.
Now, we're not compromising the tricep development at all.
As a matter of fact, we're enhancing it.
You can see, in order to rotate one of my arms – the lead arm – the direction I'm
rotating in will go back, behind my body.
It will cross midline.
We've talked before about the ability to cross midline and get behind your body, and it's
going to fully contract the longhead of the tricep.
That's something we tend to ignore, especially if we're only doing pushdowns out in front
of our body.
Guys, don’t hesitate to give this one a try, and don’t be surprised if you have
to add some more weight to that stack.
As you've got more muscles working together here, it's going to allow you to start pushing
some heavier weights, and get better, overall gains for those triceps in the long run.
Now, because I know that everybody doesn’t work out in the gym, I want to give you four
bodyweight options no less effective than the four weighted option, to also give you
some ways to spark new arm gains.
It starts right here, with a variation of an exercise I have given you before called
the inverted chin curl.
This is one of my favorite ways to train the biceps because we get all the elements we
talked about before with the elbows and arms flexed in front of our body.
But we can do better than this.
We can do better with the pendulum inverted curl.
With the pendulum inverted curl, look at the action of our body here.
What we're doing is, we're allowing our body to swing, but all the initiation of the curl
is happening from the biceps.
As we come forward we get all the way up to the top, we can see, by ducking my head under
I've created more flexion at the shoulder.
So I've got a stronger contraction, and to ensure that I got up here with my muscles,
and not just by momentum, I demand that you hold the contraction here for a split second
before going back down again.
Of course, you don’t need to have a straight bar to do this exercise.
You can take a broomstick over the back of two pieces of furniture, or whatever you would
do a traditional inverted row on will work for this one just fine as well.
Okay, next up I actually have a confession to make about this exercise.
That is: if you've done my ATHLEAN-0 program – our bodyweight only program – then you've
already done this exercise.
But if you have not, then this is definitely going to be new to you.
It's the pounding tricep trunk lift.
Now, what you're doing is you get on your back here, you're going to use your hands
from across your stomach, and then pound them out, onto the floor.
When you do, you want to push through your hands by extending your elbows, and using
all the work of the triceps.
It's using a lot of the same concept of the rowing pushdown, and it's letting your back,
and your triceps work together.
Knowing, again, that the longhead of the triceps will extend the arm back, behind your body,
and therefore work in concert with the other muscles of your back, we're allowing ourselves
to do this.
But we never really had a bodyweight option until now.
This is definitely an intense exercise because you can manipulate how hard it is, depending
upon how high your butt is, or is not off the ground.
If you keep it on the ground that is your easier version.
If you lift it off the ground then it becomes even harder.
Regardless of where your ability level is though, the exercise, and what it provides
your triceps, is there to give you a new stimulus for growth.
Finally, we have our last two exercises here that you're going to be able to use nothing
but your own surroundings.
In this case, a wall, and in the next case a doorway.
As far as the wall goes we can work our triceps really well here, especially the lateral head
of the triceps, with our wide elbow wall pushups.
What you do is, you face the wall, and you stack your hands, one on top of the next at
an angle that you can handle.
The taller and steeper your body is to the wall, the easier the exercise will be.
I'm at the angle that I can handle here, and this is even a challenge for me.
What I do is, I lower myself down nice, and slow until my forearms are completely flat
against the wall.
From here, I'm pushing out, into my hands, extending my elbows, and really working the
triceps until I get all the way back out, straight-armed again.
Then I go back, and I repeat.
Again, it looks pretty damn easy, but it's not.
So angle your body appropriately, and be prepared for a pretty intense challenge.
And finally, the craziest of them all – but I promise you, one that actually works – and
we're using a doorway to perform our bicep curls.
Trust me, we are.
If you look at this you're going to say to yourself "Wow!
That looks pretty goofy."
But remember, you have the option of doing this at home because you are using just a
doorway.
If you're in the gym you could go back to doing your regular dumbbell curls.
However, here I will tell you, don’t underestimate how effective this can be.
What you want to do is, you want to step your feet around the door frame, as I'm showing
you here.
Then lean your body away.
You want to establish as far of a lean as you can – dictated, again, by the length
of your arm, and how close your feet are able to be positioned next to the wall.
Now from here, you initiate a curl by pulling your whole body in.
Yes, as you come up, rotate your body in as well.
You're going o get some crossover action here so your chest will work as well, but when
you get to the very top, you hold, and you'll have a really intense peak contraction of
your bicep.
We're obviously handling a portion of your bodyweight here.
So this becomes a difficult exercise for some people, depending upon how heavy they are.
But this is a great option when you realize that there are not really a lot of ways to
work your body, especially if you don’t have a pullup bar, if you're training at home.
This is one way that will do that, especially if it's something you've never tried before.
It gives you a new option.
Remember guys, the staple exercises have become staple exercises because they've allowed a
lot of people to see success with them.
But what if your results have stopped coming using them?
It's time to look for other options.
I just gave you eight more to do just that.
If you're looking for unlimited options on how to build your body by putting the science
back in strength, all of our programs do that.
They're all available over here, at ATHLEANX.com.
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All right, guys.
I'll be back here again soon.
See you.