Train Like an Athlete by ATHLEAN-X (Video Podcast)

The biceps workout technique I’m going to show you is going to make you feel as if your arms are going to explode. In this video, I’m going to put the science back in strength and show you how always using the same weight on the concentric and eccentric portions of a biceps curl is holding back the gains that you can be seeing from your training. Beyond that, the use of standard negative reps alone is also leaving untapped some potential for more growth.

We start with the curl however. This is the basic foundation exercise for building bigger biceps. Of course it can be performed using with a barbell, dumbbells or a cable as I’m demonstrating. The key to the curl is that it follows a strength curve in which the exercise is easiest in the beginning and end of the range of motion. This is because at these two points in the movement, the forearm is nearly parallel to the downward force of gravity.

In order to make the exercise more difficult you either have to figure out a way to vary the exercises that you are performing to maximize the point in the strength curve that you feel the most tension. This can be done by including spider curls for the peak contraction and incline dumbbell curls for maximum stretch on the biceps.

The exercise can be made harder however by understanding that your muscles (not just your biceps) have a greater capacity to lift heavier weights eccentrically than they do concentrically. This is due to muscle physiology. When a muscle contracts it shortens by forming a series of ratcheting bonds between actin and myosin. The speed at which the muscle contracts ensures that these bonds are formed in greater number and with more stability if you take it slow enough on every concentric rep.

This is a reason why you would not want to speed through your reps if your aim is to create as strong a contraction as possible and the best mind muscle connection that you could develop. From here, because those bonds are already in place, the eccentric lengthening of a muscle is essentially breaking those bonds one by one as the muscle is lengthened under load. The bonds are much more resilient to the breaking of them than it is to energy costly building of them. This is why you are at least 1.5 to 2 times as strong on the eccentric than on the concentric.

Now in this video I’m using the Kineo Training System which is amazing at allowing you to vary the loads eccentrically and concentrically. If you don’t have the budget for a machine like this however don’t despair. You can use the partner assisted technique that I show you at the end. By simply having a training partner not just let the bar or dumbbells fall down slowly on the return of every rep but press down to make you resist the force, you will be getting an overloaded eccentric which is very capable of assisting in the muscle growth process.

For step by step workouts that help you to use the right scientific workout principles at exactly the right time, head to http://athleanx.com and get the ATHLEAN-X Training System. Start training like an athlete and see much faster muscle gains because of it.

For more biceps workouts that you can do at home or in the gym that will help you to build huge arms, be sure to subscribe to our channel here on youtube at http://youtube.com/user/jdcav24 and remember to turn on your notifications so you never miss a video when it’s posted.