“A woman should wear fragrance wherever she expects to be kissed”-Coco Chanel
Laura Reynolds looks at some of the cheapest beauty products available
As with a lot of muscle groups, men working on their arms will often fail to see progress as soon as they want to, simply because they keep falling into a few classic traps. For example, a fair few guys will assume that building the arms means dumbbell curls and other biceps exercises - however, over 60% of the upper arms are in actual fact the triceps muscles; the shoulders, too, are essential - yet often neglected.
It’s also worth noting that simply bulking up will make you look fat and bear-like without the proper definition. A recent survey determined that women thought that men with large, imposing frames were rather unapproachable and threatening - instead, a well segmented, lean-looking body is what they prefer, which means plenty of light exercises to tone and, for the arms, entails lots of work on the triceps as well as the biceps. So, let’s say that the arm can be broken down into several areas that you want to hit to sculpt larger, stronger and more defined arms.
Firstly, the shoulders. Overhead exercises will both help build that V-shape frame that we all want, but not only to pad out our suits; shirts off and the ladies will undoubtedly swoon (shoulders apparently voted the sexiest muscle for guys). As I’ve said before, the important thing when muscle building is to establish the base muscles first and increase from there, as well as eating right and eliminating flab. Therefore for the shoulders, a few pushups, pull-ups and shoulder press work are good places to start, as well as what I like to call ‘dumbbell shrugs’ - standing upright with a reasonably-weighted dumbbell in each hand, slowly shrugging both shoulders (impossible to keep a straight face while doing it but seems to work well). The best exercise, however, is the dumbell push-press. Stand with feet shoulder length apart, and push dumbells up over your head in a smooth, controlled motion. Bend the legs slightly to avoid straining your back.
Second, the triceps - as stated before, these make up over 60% of the upper arm, and are essential when it comes to definition. The darker the contours between the biceps and triceps the better, and obviously the further it bulges back and out will make the arm look bigger. Dips, triceps pushups or indeed, anything where you’re pulling/pushing and your hands are close together is guaranteed to activate the the muscle and inflate it quickly. Close-arm push ups and pull ups also target the outer arms.
Of course, the biceps must not be forgotten - they are, after all, quite important at the end of the day. Most men know the typical exercises associated with the biceps - but primarily curling with large dumb-bells hits exactly the right targets, as does the curling machine that any good gym will have. Essentially, we use the biceps whenever bringing something towards our shoulder (or away from it) from an outstretched arm. Therefore, curls - which do exactly that - are ideal. However, to maximise your results, I’d recommend pausing halfway up, going slowly, and doing a pyramid (by which I mean, do 10-20 reps with a relatively light weight, then slightly less with a heavier weight, etc up to only a few reps with an extremely heavy weight. Then repeat in reverse). If this doesn’t appeal, try the 1/3 second up/down ration - 1 second up, 3 down. This will break down the muscle fibres more effectively and activate the entire muscle, and can be used for every exercise.
Lastly, the forearms. To be honest, these aren’t exactly something I tend to focus on myself - after all we do use them in every day life for writing, drawing, typing and other such things. Anyway, there are a few exercises which target the forearm, but the one I go with is simply taking two heavy dumbbells and swinging the arms in the motion that we use while jogging (while keeping my feet still). It’s a good one for sports players, like cricketers.
However, I still need to mention one last thing: Warm up. Plenty of people working away at the bench press or dumbbell station will have neglected to warm up at all, instead getting right into the exercise. Don’t do this. It is a genuine fact that stretching and warming up properly will literally double your gains, prevent injury and speed up recovery time. A quick 5 minutes on the treadmill is substantial for a legs warmup, but a few pushups and/or pull-ups are needed to activate the arms; these exercises use pretty much all of the muscle groups mentioned above, as well as the rest of the upper body, providing an efficient, rounded warmup. Try quick sets of 5-10, and perhaps some light dumbbell exercises. Oh, and for anyone who didn’t already know, heavy weights will increase size, while lighter ones will tone and define.
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