RafaelNadal
New Member
basically title, e.g hammer curls or concentration curls is it ok to just have one isolation exercise each workout? How many do you guys have? and what about triceps? 2 exercises for them as they are a bigger muscle?
Is 1 exercise enough for biceps?
- Thread starter RafaelNadal
- Start date
It is good to have different exercises. For bicep it tend to change my exercise per cycle eg. cycle 1 barbell curls, 2nd cycle incline curl. Or if you want you change for bicep exercise half way through the 10RM eg. concentration curls then incline curls, but try to go from low stretch to long stretch (hope you get what I mean). For triceps I have two exercises face crushers and tricep dips I alternate them through the cycle eg. one day I do face crushers and on the next day i do dips. I do this with squats, leg press and deadlifts ,rack lifts also shoulder press and front raise ( i don't if you shoud do I with shoulders). Variety is good so your body dosn't adapt to it you can change your exercises after cycles if you want. Check out the faq book on biceps
here are some links
http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html
http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/
http://users.telenet.be/aaitee/HST%20Faq_book.pdf
here are some links
http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html
http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/
http://users.telenet.be/aaitee/HST%20Faq_book.pdf
I have to respectfully disagree. Variety is bad because you WANT your body to be adapted to the exercise you are using. For one thing, you cannot 'confuse' the body. Muscles don't get confused. All they know is contract or do not contract. Secondly, a lift being "harder" does not mean it is more effective. Thirdly, if your body has not adapted to the exercise then it is mostly going to be working your CNS while your nervous system learns the movement, and not so much the muscle.
Remember, strength in a lift is made up of two factors - CNS and muscle fiber cross sectional area. By CNS, what we mean is how familiar your body is with the lift. The less familiar your body is with a lift, the less effectively it is able to use the muscle for that lift. Ergo the less tension placed on the muscle. It is better to have a core selection of exercises that you rotate through. Obviously CNS learning curve will be much faster with a simpler movement like curls than it would be for something like Squats, but the principle is still the same. Further, when you add in a new exercise, you need to give it a generous period of time (I would recommend at least 3 cycles) to judge how effective it is, because you won't know exactly how effective it is for that muscle group until your body becomes familiar with the exercise. Depending on complexity, this could take weeks.
So what I would recommend is to pick two (max three) exercises for biceps and alternate them during the same cycle. Example BB curls and incline curls, so you are getting the heavier load with the BB Curls and the stretch with the incline curls. Alternate them. So each session only do one of these exercises. Remember, if you are using the right exercises for your core set of compounds, you will already be working your biceps anyway (chins for example hit the biceps pretty hard) so you want to do only one more exercise to finish them off. More than that could compromise your bicep recovery which could hurt your performance with your compound exercises, which those exercises should always be first priority over the isolations.
Remember, strength in a lift is made up of two factors - CNS and muscle fiber cross sectional area. By CNS, what we mean is how familiar your body is with the lift. The less familiar your body is with a lift, the less effectively it is able to use the muscle for that lift. Ergo the less tension placed on the muscle. It is better to have a core selection of exercises that you rotate through. Obviously CNS learning curve will be much faster with a simpler movement like curls than it would be for something like Squats, but the principle is still the same. Further, when you add in a new exercise, you need to give it a generous period of time (I would recommend at least 3 cycles) to judge how effective it is, because you won't know exactly how effective it is for that muscle group until your body becomes familiar with the exercise. Depending on complexity, this could take weeks.
So what I would recommend is to pick two (max three) exercises for biceps and alternate them during the same cycle. Example BB curls and incline curls, so you are getting the heavier load with the BB Curls and the stretch with the incline curls. Alternate them. So each session only do one of these exercises. Remember, if you are using the right exercises for your core set of compounds, you will already be working your biceps anyway (chins for example hit the biceps pretty hard) so you want to do only one more exercise to finish them off. More than that could compromise your bicep recovery which could hurt your performance with your compound exercises, which those exercises should always be first priority over the isolations.
Correct. The more familiar you are with the exercise the more it will train the actual muscle rather than your CNS. I would alternate between different cycle days, so you are staying familiar with the exercise.
I'll just ask this question here, as it might add to the threads conclusion.
1. It is argued that the better you adapt to a movement, the heigher motor unit recruitment will be.
2. Also it is argued that alternating heavy load and stretch, is beneficial.
Each is hindered by the other. Should one be prioritised?
I would say, by intuition, that 1. should have priority.
1. It is argued that the better you adapt to a movement, the heigher motor unit recruitment will be.
2. Also it is argued that alternating heavy load and stretch, is beneficial.
Each is hindered by the other. Should one be prioritised?
I would say, by intuition, that 1. should have priority.
Just going back to what you was saying about choosing two or three exercises per muscle group for my shoulders I am doing for Anterior delts : shoulder press and front raise and for lateral delts: lateral raise and upright row. Is this ok ?
Lateralus you've more or less got it
I've been doing mostly hammer curls for my biceps but also some concentration curls. And is there a name for when you start doing a curl like a hammer and then slowly rotate your wrist to be more like a concentration curl? I've been doing that because it feel like my forearms also get a workout. I'm actually pretty glad to find this thread because I've been worried that I'm not varying my workout enough, but I see that it's not a problem.
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From fish oil to colloidal silver, I'll try just about any supplement.
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From fish oil to colloidal silver, I'll try just about any supplement.
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well I was gonna do a sort of A & B routine so I could include more exercises and progress from 80%-90%-100% so the cycles would still stay the same length.
do u guys think I would be better off sticking to same exercises, taking into account I have been doing all the exercises for many years so hopefully the body should already be well adapted to them.
do u guys think I would be better off sticking to same exercises, taking into account I have been doing all the exercises for many years so hopefully the body should already be well adapted to them.
i would for now,then next cycle see how you feel,nice to see you posting on here from muscletalk danchubbz.
I think an A B routine can work great. Especially if you are basing it around those core exercises that you already know very well and just adding some more in for variety. Variety can be good, the only thing that is bad is when people think they need to mix it up every six weeks or whatever length of time. The main measurement of progress aside from muscle growth is strength gain in your core lifts, which you can't judge if you are always changing them.
So basically, I think you should try out an A B routine, keep all your core lifts but add in some more lifts and alternate. See how it goes.