Column 9 | Stubborn Arms

ANSWER

In order to achieve success in terms of strength and muscle building, attention must be paid to training and nutrition. Both must be coordinated and optimized so that progress can be made.

NUTRITION

Make sure you increase your protein intake. Follow these guidelines: PROTEIN-CONTAINING FOODS such as egg white, poultry, milk, curd and PROTEIN CONCENTRATES are suitable for this. During the build-up phase, keep your carbohydrate intake high so that you have enough energy for training. I recommend primarily complex carbohydrates such as pasta, rice, oatmeal and so on. Quickly available carbohydrates such as maltodextrin are only appropriate as post-workout nutrition and perhaps for breakfast in the morning to ensure that the nutrients are quickly absorbed into the muscle cells. The fat content should be between 0.8 and one gram per kilo of body weight. Vegetable oils such as safflower, rapeseed and linseed oil contain many healthy fats.

TRAINING

Follow these basic rules: The last point is particularly important. It has been proven several times that emphasizing the negative movement of a repetition, i.e. lowering the weights slowly, leads to a greater growth stimulus than is the case with conventional, fast-paced repetitions.

To force the biceps muscles in particular to grow and to ensure optimal stimulation, integrate basic exercises into your workout. Barbell curls are very suitable for this. You can do them with a barbell or with a cable - both versions are equally effective! You can change the type of exercise after about 8 weeks to ensure a new growth stimulus.

Then do heavy dumbbell curls while standing or sitting. However, always be careful not to cheat, as this happens all too often with this exercise! Finally, do an isolation exercise, such as one-arm cable or hammer curls. Train your biceps directly after your back workout. This will save you a lot of time. Since the biceps are completely warmed up by the back work, you don't need to do any more warm-up sets and can devote yourself to the work sets straight away.

If your biceps still stubbornly refuse to grow, try training your biceps twice a week: the first session with heavy weight and in a range of eight to twelve repetitions and the second with less weight and in a repetition range of around 20. In this way, in the first session you primarily target muscle growth and in the second you target blood circulation by promoting capillarization, which ensures increased nutrient transport to the muscles.