Common Bicep and Tricep Training Mistakes
Author: Anthony Myers | Filed under: arm exercises
The fitness path blog was set to launch Tuesday, October 20th, 2009. I ran into some problems and things were a bit delayed… So to make it up to you I’m releasing my Better Body Formula Fitness Report way ahead of schedule. I originally planned on releasing this free report a month or so after the initial blog opened, so I could get a feel for what you girls and guys like. Lucky thing, I’ve gotten to know a lot of you via facebook and feel as though I’ve put together a really great report that everybody will enjoy.
*Notice: Since I am releasing this ahead of schedule there may be a few spelling/grammar errors and I may decide to pretty it up a bit in the near future, don’t worry, the core content is still there and you will automatically receive any updates or revisions that are made to the report, free of charge. It’s just my way of saying “Thanks”. – Anthony Myers*
Click Here For Your Better Body Formula Free Fitness Report
Now for the arm exercises.
When I first started training in my high school’s weight room, like most guys, I had an arm-addiction.
Actually, my “physique priority” went something like this…
- Arms
- Chest
- Shoulders/Traps (Even though your traps are apart of your back, I used to refer to them as a shoulder part)
- Arms
- Chest
- Back
- Legs
Get the picture? From the very beginning I wanted to know how to get big biceps.
The problem is, I went about it completely wrong. I made a lot of mistakes early on and I’m going to save you a ton of time so you don’t make the same mistakes I did when training biceps and triceps.
Let’s take a look at the mistakes I made in the high school weight room and also what I would do today if I wanted to get strong biceps .
My first mistake was over-training.
Ladies, if you haven’t notice yet… Guy’s usually tend to over-do things. We’ve got the bigger is better mentality, we don’t like following directions and we’re always right we think we’re always right. While the bigger is better mentality works for some things, it’s definitely not true if you want huge biceps.. here’s why:
Your arms are small muscles. No, not you personally, but each and every one of us.
Compare your arms to the rest of your body. In relation to your other muscles you arms are SMALL. So do you think it makes much sense to spend twice as long working out your arms as you do your legs? No. After a certain amount of time you’re actually going to be over-training and working backwards. In other words, you’ll be doing more bad than good.
This may sound crazy, but if you’re following a solid full body routine that is built around compound movements such as bench presses, dead lifts, clean and press and most importantly squats. Your arms will require very little or even no work at all to spark growth. The reason is simple, by spending your time where it actually matters (compound movements) your causing your body to release growth hormone (a.k.a. natural muscle building, fat fighting juice). These natural hormones are not to be confused with anabolic steroids, I am talking about your bodies very own natural hormones. When your body releases more of these hormones, your muscles grown… and not just the muscles you were training. I’m talking about all of your muscles, including your arms. That’s how you get big arms, spending your time on 1,000 different arm exercises is going to get you nowhere. Your arms are going to grow in sync with the rest of your body.. Have you ever seen a guy in the gym who obviously spent a lot of time doing heavy compound lifting… had a nice chest, back and legs… but had puny arms? I haven’t.
How you can avoid my mistake:
Base your workout routine off of big compound movements. From there, you can branch off into smaller isolation exercises, but focus mainly on large
compound exercises. Also, be aware that as long as you are giving 100% effort while performing those big exercises, arms will come in time and you can
and will achieve those big biceps of your dreams.
My second mistake was doing the same exercises.
I know how it feels when you’ve got that kick-ass pump running through your body and you look like you have huge arms. More times than not, that’s just the pump. I joke with my gym buddies all the time. Every so often they will joke and say “Damn Anthony. You’ve got some hooks on you kid” often you’ll hear me reply “Nah. It’s the pump. They just look big right now. If you happen to bump into me at the gas station 20 minutes after a workout you won’t recognize me.”
I was falling victim to thinking my routine was awesome because it gave me a huge pump while I was at the gym. Therefore, I wouldn’t change a damn thing… I followed the “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it” mentality. Which is very wrong, but I don’t want to get into that right now. I’ll just say this. If we all followed the “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it” mentality… We would still be using candles.. Maybe really big candles. When it came to my arm workout, it took me way too long to realize that it was infant “broke” let alone fix it.
How you can avoid my mistake:
Change your arm exercises regularly. Don’t stick to one for 6 months because some big guy in the gym told you that’s what he does.
My third mistake was horrible form.
When you’re a 16 year old high school kid you can mess up just about anything. When I was 16 I could have messed up a pot of boiling water if put my mind to it… or didn’t put my mind to it. Either way, I wasn’t concerned with doing things right. I wasn’t concerned with doing my homework the right way and I dang sure wasn’t concerned with doing my weight training routine the proper way.
Because of this, you would often see me arching my back, swinging the bar up to my chest and lifting the bar so damn fast you would think I was in a race. It’s amazing I never knocked my teeth out. Your arms and every other body part, will respond 100% better if you train them properly. This is a major blow to the average guys self esteem because proper training usually means lighter training. When you have some jerk who uses terrible form, bragging how he can curl 150lbs, it doesn’t make your 35lb “proper form” dumbbell curls seem very impressive. Especially when all of the other doofuses in the gym are just as stupid as the guy arching his back so far he looks like he is going to do a London bridge. If you’ve got 10 idiots cheering for 1 idiot, it’s kind of hard to convince them that was he is doing is not impressive or clever… in fact, it’s completely wrong.
How you can avoid my mistake:
Read up on proper form! Stand against a wall while doing your barbell curls. Taking 5 or 10 minutes to learn how to do something the right way will benefit you for the rest of your life.
Hopefully the time I wasted, will help you achieve your dream biceps and triceps in record time. Just avoid my mistakes and apply what I’ve taught you and you’ll have Arms like Arny in no time.
Tell me what you think in the comments section below… I make it a point to reply to each and every one of my comments.
Tags: arm exercises, better body formula, biceps and triceps, how to get big biceps, strong biceps
Hey Anthony! You are so right in what you say. I hear so many people wanting to lose that stomach and think a million sit-ups will do the trick. What applies to your biceps applies to your gut buddy! It’s that total body workout using those major muscle groups…
As for form???? Oh man…. Form is everything… excuse me “proper form” is everything.
as for your statement about boys/men and “bigger is better”…actually.. then seem to also believe that “more is better” too (not always the case). Thanks for the enlightenment…
Ciao,
Kat
Thanks Kathy.
Yeah, you definitely have to hit the major muscle groups if you want to grow.
As for the bigger is better mentality… I made much better progress with my
biceps, triceps and every other muscle group once I got over that.
“Damn Anthony. You’ve got some hooks on you kid” often you’ll hear me reply “Nah. It’s the pump. They just look big right now. If you happen to bump into me at the gas station 20 minutes after a workout you won’t recognize me.”
——
That’s great and so true.
On a related note, I know many guys (and I’ve often been one of them) who will do pushups before heading out to the club so they look a little better and pumped when first walking in.
You look better but a little pump going through your body makes you feel better as well.
Great new site Anthony!
Marshall
Haha, that’s hilarious. Pre-club pump up.
Thanks for the compliment Marshall. If you have any requests for articles/posts
you know you can reach me on facbeook at facebook.com/anthmyers
Actually, that’s where I got the idea for this post. My facebook friend Linda requested some
information about arm exercises, bicep and tricep training, etc.
Keep up the good work with your video stuff dude, might need some help
from you in the near future. I’ve got a bunch of fitness vids that I need
to get ready and release via my new youtube channel.
Hey Anthony, Conrats on the new blog! It looks like you have a lot of great information to share. I look forward to working with you to spread the message of health for everyone who is searching for it.
Yours In Health and Healing, Andréa Albright
Thanks Andrea.
I appreciate the kind compliments.
Let me know if you need help with ANYTHING. You can always contact me via facebook or my personal
e-mail address (ask for it via facebook).
-Anth
Great article, homie! Lots of info to get to where I want to be. Looking forward to more awesome articles from ya. Train hard, man! =]
Congrats!! Great contents. Waiting to read more. :~)
Thanks A.J.
I will be writing about how to naturally raise testosterone levels next.
Didn’t you request that on facebook a week or so ago?
Thanks. I’m pretty excited about the response I’ve received so far.
I’m glad you’re enjoying it.
Hey man, good stuff, your blog rocks and you are a damm good writer. There\’s a couple of things I\’m interested.
1. How can I get guns like yours without any expensive equipment. Can it be done?
2. What is the best way to gain muscle without gaining fat? Is it possible?
I\’ll be looking forward to your content. Thanks
Thanks Ricardo.
1. Pull ups, Chin ups, Wide grip pull ups. Also, you can get a cheap set of dumbbells/barbells and
it should be plenty of equipment to get the job done for arms.
2. Yeah it’s possible. It’s not easy, but it’s possible. Usually, you’re going to gain some fat when you’re trying to add muscle.
That’s why a lot of people will either a) cut to lose fat or b) bulk to gain muscle. My best advice is this. . .
Figure out what your fitness goals are. Do you primarily want to lose fat or build muscle? Which ever is more appealing to you
start off with that goal in mind. When I was overweight I desperately wanted to lose my gut… that was all. I started to lose
some fat and once I was happy with my fat loss results I thought to myself, Ok. Now it’s time to put on some muscle.
If you want to lose fat and build muscle simultaneously there are two ways that work best. First, best case scenerio is if you’re
a beginner you will tend to lose weight and gain muscle at the same time becuase it’s something really new. Your body hasn’t experienced
this type of shock before. Second, alternative scenario… You kick ass in the gym, but kick even more ass in the kitchen. It all comes down to
nutrition.
great post. and you’re exactly right. most guys at my old high school just did curls with terrible form, and neglected their legs entirely, and wondered why they weren’t making gains. I did the same thing for about a year, but once I started researching, I discovered that squats release the most growth hormone of any exercise. So I started concentrating on them, and with proper nutrition I gained nearly 20 pounds of muscle in 1 1/2 years! Once my squat max went up, and my leg size increased, everything else increased in sync.
Thanks for your input KP.
Terrible form and legs being neglected are two of the most common exercise mistakes.
I see it in the gym all of the time and guys wonder why they make no progress.
Congratulations on the 20lbs dude. Living proof that big compound exercises are the key to success!
I need some advice for my 15 year old son who has the body of a basketball player, very tall and lean. He asked me to buy him some weights to lift at home–I’m guessing because he wanted bigger guns like some of his friends. I allowed him to buy a set of 15 lb dumb bells and he’s been working out every night for a week. Today he showed me his results and I gasped. He’s developed a funny looking egg-like bump on his very long and otherwise lean arms. His arms look irregular and even freaky with this odd protrusion–like no other male arm I’ve ever seen. Is he over doing it? Not using the right weights? Is it that he’s just too lean and doesn’t have enough body mass to produce a properly formed bicep? Maybe he’s doing too many reps? I hate to think what his arms will look like by the end of the month. Please help.
First, you’re son is going to be okay. He’s probably not doing anything wrong at all, it’s just how his
body is reacting to something new. It’s very unlikely that hes over training with 15lb dumb bells.
I’m guessing hes just doing push-ups, crunches, etc… and then various arm exercises with the
dumb bells. Right? That’s how plenty of young guys get started.
It sounds like it is very important to you that if he does this, he does it right and develops
a body that is proportional. I recommend you get him signed up at a gym and maybe a few
sessions with a personal trainer. They can be expensive, but they pay off. Plus, after a couple
of months he’ll get the hang of things and he will be able to do his own thing safely.
Better yet, does his high school have a weight room? Most high schools keep their weight room
open for a couple of hours after school is out of session. Have him talk to his gym teacher, health
teacher or the school football or basketball coach and ask if he/she would be willing to meet with
your son a few times a week after school and help him get started with weight training. Also,
taking a weight training class if it is offered wouldn’t hurt either.
By signing up at a gym, taking a weight training class or meeting with the school health teacher,
or coaches he is going to properly learn how to train his entire body. This will ensure
that everything grows proportionally and he will get a head start in the right direction
by doing things properly from the beginning. After all… there’s not too much you can do
with (1) set of 15lb dumb bells.
Hey Anthony! It’s me Dirty from Cs =P I actually started to work out (yet again) and going to keep to it this time i\’ve read a lot of the stuff you posted and im about to start following it. The first time i started to work out i completely screwed up over did my workouts kept with the same routine and i ended up straining most of my neck muscles to a point where i almost ripped one =( But now i have a question for you.
I want to build muscle im at 150 right now but i also want to have a nice stomach and what not. What do you think would be better to do bulk then burn orr a bit of both?