Mastering Muscle Growth – Effective Shoulder and Bicep Muscle Building

So you want to unlock the secrets to rapid muscle development and effective shoulder and bicep muscle building.  Simple isn’t it? Just join a gym and hit those weights regularly and viola, in a couple of months, you will gain so much muscle mass that you are ready to take on any bodybuilding contest.

Is it really that simple to build big muscles?

Well, to gain muscle mass, there is much more than just hitting the gym regularly. Here are some muscle mass gaining tips.

a) Eat and Eat – To build muscles, you must eat. Your calorie consumption must be more than your calorie expenditure. If you expand all the calories you have eaten, then where are the calories to build muscles?

2) Protein – Make sure that you eat enough protein. You should eat at least one gram of protein per pound of your body weight everyday if you want to gain muscle mass fast. If you don’t get enough protein, your muscles won’t grow big.

3) Supplement – If you cannot have adequate protein from your normal meals, supplement with protein shakes. If you want more strength so that you can lift heavier weights to grow bigger muscles, take a Creatine supplement.

4) Weight Training – You must lift with heavy weights and to add on more weight consistently to progressively build your muscles. But it is very important not to sacrifice correct lifting techniques and form for the sake of lifting heavier.

5) Lift Free Weights – Use free weights like dumbells and barbells to recruit more muscle fibers so that more muscle fibers can be worked on.

6) Compound Exercises – Work with compound exercises like bench presses, squats, barbell rows, chin ups and dead lifts to build big muscle mass. If you concentrate on working your puny muscles like your biceps, then you will only have puny muscle growth.

7) Get Enough Rest – Have rest days in between your workout days and do not work the same muscle group more than twice a week. Your muscles need to recover from your workouts in order to grow big.

8) Get Enough Sleep – Sleep at least 8 hours a day. More even better. Your muscles grow when you sleep.

If you practise the above 8 steps consistently, your muscles will grow fast and big. Of course there are many more things you can do to achieve a competitive bodybuilder’s physique of which I cannot cover in just an article here. So do research for more knowledge.

Build Big Strong Shoulder Muscles For V Shape Upper Body – Build Big Deltoids

Most people think that in order to get that V shaped upper body like comic book super heroes, they only have to develop big broad back muscles and lats. Well, by having broad back muscles and well developed lats is only part of the equation to get a V shape upper body. For complete V shape upper body development, you will also need to build a powerful chest, big strong shoulder muscles or commonly called deltoids or delts for short and a slim waist.

We shall discuss how to build big shoulder muscles in this article. You see, you may have a wonderful six pack abs or well defined chest muscles, but when you are in your street clothes, no one can see them. But if you have that massive V shape with bulging shoulder muscles, your body frame will tell the world that under those clothes is a well defined body of a gym warrior.

As with building any muscles in your body, intensity is the key to building big deltoids. Your shoulder muscles are made up primarily of the anterior deltoid (front delt), medial deltoid (middle delt) and posterior deltoid (back delt). All 3 parts of your shoulder muscles must be targeted to build well defined and big strong deltoids that threaten to burst through your shirt.

The problem here is that most people do not know that they must work on all 3 shoulder muscles and do most shoulder workouts by just concentrating on the anterior delts with exercises such as military press. Furthermore, working only on anterior delts could lead to over training your shoulder muscles because many other exercises like the bench press, dips and push ups also recruit shoulder muscles for its movements.

Your should be careful when working on your shoulder muscle exercises as your shoulders joints are very susceptible to injuries and therefore proper form in executing the exercises is crucial. Don’t let bad exercise form cause you injuries that may be permanent and put you out of the gym forever. One common injury prone exercise is the narrow grip upright row. Although this is a great trapezius and shoulder muscle exercise, it should be avoided because this exercise invokes unnatural and awkward shoulder joint movement.

So what exercises are good for building big strong deltoids? Well, besides the military presses, try Arnold Press, Lateral Raise, Bent Over Lateral Raises, Shoulder Width Upright Row and Shoulder Cable exercises. Ask your personal trainer or read up on how to perform these exercises in excellent form for great shoulder muscle development.

Remember that you must also develop other aspects such as a big broad chest, wide back muscles and flared lats as well as a slim waistline to get that much coveted V shaped upper body.

Build Big Biceps? Strong Arms And Solid Triceps?

In every gym that you go to, you will see people pumping their biceps. Biceps along with the pecs and abs are sometimes called vanity muscles because they are the most visible and therefore commands the most respect. Invariably, when you ask someone to show you his muscles, he will probably flex his biceps.

Before we discuss biceps development, I want to point out that the biceps make up only one third of your upper arm with triceps the other two-thirds. So to have an impressive arm, you must build your triceps too or the effort on your biceps will not show good results. Many people fail to realize this and that is why you see them doing curls after curls without much improvement. We will touch on triceps exercises in another article. For now, let’s talk about biceps.

Here are some exercises that will blast your biceps. Most of you would have done some or all of these exercises. The question I am asking is, are the exercises done in the correct form and techniques because if they are not, you will most likely be wasting your time as your biceps will not grow to its full potential. Perform each exercise for 3-5 sets once or twice a week and at reps between 6-10, but make sure that at the high end of the reps, you will not be so fatigued that you can’t perform another rep in good form.

a) Standing Barbell Curl/ EZY Bar

You can perform this exercise with either a straight bar or an ezy bar. This is a great mass building exercises for your biceps.

Stand with feet shoulder width apart and grasp the bar with an underhand grip, hands should also be about shoulder width apart. Curl the bar up slowly focusing intensely on the biceps contraction. Do not swing or use momentum to curl especially at the later stages when your biceps get weaker. Never swing or move your body, only your arms are moving. Keep your elbows locked to the side of your body and do not pivot them.

Then lower the weight, taking 3-4 seconds resisting the weight on the way down to emphasize the negative part of the exercise. Never let gravity pull the weights down.

At all times, do not curl or bend your wrist which must always be in a straight neutral position.

b) Incline Dumbbell Curls

This exercise will hit different fibre in your biceps and gives you the peak bicep look.

Sit back on an incline bench holding a dumbbell in each hand, keep your elbows well forward throughout the movement, curl the weight upward and toward the shoulder level. Then squeeze your biceps hard at the top position. Lower the weights again, slowly under full control. The speed and techniques are similar to what was described earlier.

c) Preacher Curl

Similar to barbell curl but using the preacher curl station. This is an excellent bicep peaking isolation exercise.

d) Hammer Curl

Hammer curl gives your biceps the full look and your forearms are also working hard.

Similar to incline dumbbell curl except you will be using the hammer grip on the dumbbell like holding a hammer knocking nails in and standing up instead of sitting down.

e) Build Biceps Tips

Focus on the movement of your biceps all throughout the motion. Don’t lift weights that are too heavy that will compromise your form and techniques to show off.

By slightly turning and squeezing, you’ll build more peak on your biceps. Like all exercises, pose and stretch the biceps between sets. This is to flush out lactic acid and help your biceps recover better for the next set.

Remember to change the order of the exercises you perform after 6-8 weeks to shock your biceps into new growth and watch those arms grow!