Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Biceps



There are 2 parts to this muscle, a long head and a short head. Each muscle starts at a different point on the shoulder blade, but both muscles attach to the same place on the forearm and elbow. Since both parts of the muscle attach to the same spot they both do the same motions.

The primary function of the bicep muscle is to flex the elbow, which moves the forearm towards the shoulder. The explains the standard bicep “curl”. The secondary function of the bicep is supination of the forearm, which means turning the hand from a palms-down position to a palms-up position. This is why a rotational type of curl is always good to add to your bicep training.

Anatomy 

Shoulder is a ball and socket joint made up of three bones:
upper arm bone (humerus)
shoulder blade (scapula)
collarbone (clavicle)
 
The head of upper arm bone fits into a rounded socket in shoulder blade. This socket is called the glenoid. A combination of muscles and tendons keeps the arm bone centered in shoulder socket. These tissues are called the rotator cuff. They cover the head of upper arm bone and attach it to shoulder blade. The upper end of the biceps muscle has two tendons that attach it to bones in the shoulder. The long head attaches to the top of the shoulder socket (glenoid). The short head attaches to a bump on the shoulder blade called the coracoid process. The biceps also connects with the fascia of the medial side of the forearm. Two additional muscles lie underneath the biceps brachii. These are the coracobrachialis muscle, which like the biceps attaches to the coracoid process of the scapula, and the brachialis muscle which connect to the medial bone of the forearm (ulna) and along the mid-body of the arm bone (humerus). 

Recommended Exercise 

Biceps curl
Preacher curl
Concentration curl

Tips

  • Highly recommend to do most of the workout while sitting, this will prevent from using the body momentum during the training especially for barbell/ dumbbell curl.
  • Supinate the forearm at the top to get more squeeze
  • Always go all the way down to fully stretch the muscle especially during preacher curl.
  • Neutral/ hammer position will hit more towards the brachialis muscle.
  • To improve the peak of the muscle, it is best to use cable where it will always provide a constant tension during concentric and eccentric phase. 

2 comments:

  1. This is a pretty good blog! I'm not sure if I agree on preacher curls being a good exercise for the biceps though. As you curl on the way up, and the bar approaches vertical over the elbow, you lose all your tension. You can only get tension in the bottom half of the curl, and tension is what its all about!

    But those are some pretty solid explanations on the anatomy of it all.

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  2. How are ya Kasey and thx for the comment.. Yes I agree with you about preacher curl but it is still one of the best workout for the arm because an individual is in a strict posture where they cannot cheat and the best way to get all the tension from start to end is to begin this training at the opposite site where the arm will extend all the way down with full vertical motion. Try it, cheers

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