Most people think that their arm is made up of three muscles – the bicep, tricep, and forearm. But that is not even close to being correct. An impressively built arm is made of no less than 19 muscles, thirteen of which are completely exclusive to the forearm. And there is a very strong connection to building muscle using your brain, mostly because it is important to know what you are doing when you have a specific goal in mind. Did you know that you can actually target very specific aspects of your arm’s definition based on the angle from which you approach it?
You can.
Building Muscle Using Knowledge and Angle Awareness
Maybe you’re looking for increased arm bulk, more strength, a higher biceps peak, or more definition to your triceps. All these goals require a slightly different approach, meaning that you are attacking them at slightly different angles to bring more of the desired effect into play. For example, bigger arms require you to focus on the triceps, which make up almost 70 percent of your overall arm mass. The tricep muscle is also split into three layers of muscles (same as the bicep), and to build it symmetrically and effectively you’re going to want to do at least one exercise targeting each of these areas.
To build a tall peak on your bicep, the most effective method is not to attack the top layer of bicep muscle (long head), but rather the bottom layer (brachialis), which can be accomplished very effectively using the hammer curl (do you do these?). And while overall arm strength is often associated with big upper arms, it is the forearm that often wins arm wrestling competitions and will make or break your success in most sports, so don’t skip forearm day (and don’t skip leg day either).
And now that you understand the importance of using multiple angled exercises with arms, let’s get down to the nine exercises that will hit them at every possible angle – making them big, defined, and equally strong.
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About Dr. Eric J. Leech
Eric has written for over a decade. Then one day he created Urbasm.com, a site for every guy.
About Dr. Eric J. Leech