Today we will try to consider in detail the general principles of hand training. Unfortunately, most girls ignore just such training, as a result of which we decided to tell you about their great importance. But first things first.
First of all, I would like to remind you that fitness, and any similar sport, be it bodybuilding or body fitness, involves the development of absolutely all human muscle groups, with an emphasis on those lagging behind. Note that even if you have a well-developed abs, this does not exempt you from training them. Despite this, the vast majority of girls who come to fitness completely ignore this basic principle. Typically, this leads to a loss of balance in muscle development, and visible differences between muscle groups.
The main reason for ignoring arm training is the same stereotypes that we talked about in the first articles devoted to fitness and its principles. Every representative of the fair sex is afraid of the phrase “arm training,” since the first thing that comes to mind after this phrase is an increase in arm muscles. Let us remind you of one important factor – the absence of testosterone, which simply will not allow you to increase the volume of any female muscles without titanic efforts. In fact, girls need hand training no less than men. Have you noticed a decent layer of fat in the triceps and deltoids (shoulders), especially with the slightest movements of your arms? Or your arms are so thin that they ruin your appearance with any combination of clothes. All this indicates underdevelopment of the arm muscles, and by training them on equal terms, you can give them a toned appearance, thereby giving them a rejuvenating effect. In addition, there is local fat burning. Of course, in small percentages, but you must agree, it’s better than nothing.
So, you and I now know that hand training is as important as any other. But before you start, you need to understand the basic theory. The arm muscles can be divided into biceps, triceps, forearms and, of course, shoulders (deltoids), which we will talk about separately in a series of subsequent articles. It is impossible to train properly without knowing how a particular muscle group works; this is tantamount to knowing physics without understanding mathematics. That is why we will consider everything in more detail.
1. Biceps.
You shouldn’t overwhelm yourself with too much information. Therefore, let’s just say that the biceps is a muscle group consisting of two heads, which is why it was called “bi”. The main function is to bend the arm at the elbow joint. The secondary function is to turn the forearm outward, with all kinds of bending of the arms.
All this leads to the fact that all exercises for the biceps muscle consist of simple bending. Moreover, the width of the grip and the rotation of the forearms bring significant variety to the range of possible loads, and as you probably remember, one of the main rules is alternating the load. After all, there is nothing worse than muscle adaptation to strength work. You should use literally every variation, be it standard shoulder-width grips, close grips where your palms are practically touching each other, and even reverse grips (palms facing down or towards you). All this will allow you to maximally load your biceps.
Girls should train their biceps no more than once a week, and the number of exercises should be no more than two. In addition, it is important to change them every workout. That is, if you performed curls with an “EZ” bar and concentrated curls with a dumbbell, then in the next arm workout you will be required to put a different load on the biceps muscle, be it curls on a Scott bench, or alternating curls with dumbbells.
Fortunately, there are a huge number of exercises for this muscle group. In this article we will only list them, and in the near future we will consider them in depth. Here they are:
– curling arms with a barbell, standing;
– arm curls with an “EZ” bar, standing;
– curling the arms on a Scott bench (both with a dumbbell and with a barbell of any format);
– concentrated arm curls while sitting;
– alternate arm curls with dumbbells, standing or sitting.
2. Triceps.
The triceps is located on the back of the arm, just behind the biceps. As you probably guessed, the name has some semantic meaning. Indeed, the triceps consists of three heads, the names of which probably won’t tell you anything. But this doesn’t matter, the main thing is knowledge of the functions of the triceps.
Its main function is the opposite of the above muscle group, that is, extension of the arm at the elbow joint. The load on the triceps varies not from the width of the grip, but from the position of the hands, that is, from the grip itself. You should use three options, only this in total will allow you to properly load the triceps:
– Straight (palms facing you or away from you);
– Reverse (palms facing down or towards you);
– Parallel (palms facing each other, a rope handle is used for this).
Most triceps exercises for girls are performed on a pulley machine. The first two grip options can be achieved using a standard straight handle. Well, for the latter you will need to secure the ropes.
Here, it is also important to alternate the load, which is achieved by using different exercises. By tradition, we present a list of the best triceps exercises for girls:
– arm extensions on the upper block (3 grip options);
– push-ups with narrow arms (female version);
– extension of the arm with a dumbbell behind the head, sitting;
– push-ups from a bench, triceps.
3. Forearms.
This muscle group includes a huge number of small muscles, which together perform similar functions – flexion of the arm at the wrist joint (in the hands). Girls, as you understand, do not need sculpted forearms, but as mentioned above, this does not exempt them from training at all.
If men need to perform specialized exercises that specifically load their forearms, then girls do not need to do this at all. The fact is that they provide their forearms with adequate load when performing almost all exercises, especially in biceps and triceps training. As a result, arm training is also forearm training, but only for girls.
