arm training
Effect of Hand and Shoulder Position On Elbow Flexor Involvement During Curling and Pulling Exercises
This morning during a phone conversation with Greg Anderson the subject of the previous post on the effect of hand position on triceps involvement came up.. Greg mentioned, and I agree, hand position makes little difference to arm flexor involvement during curling and pulling movements as well.
Articles on arm training in bodybuilding magazines and web sites often make claims of different hand or shoulder positions or grip width having the effect of isolating or emphasizing one head of the biceps or a particular arm flexor (i.e. incline curls to target the long head of the biceps, hammer curls to target the brachioradialus, reverse grip curls to target the brachialis, etc.). While there is some truth to this - changes in hand or shoulder position affect the relative length and thus the ability of some of the elbow flexors to produce force - the effect on muscular development is greatly exaggerated. › Continue reading
Effect of Hand Position on Tricep Involvement During Extension and Pressing Exercises
I recently read an article on a bodybuilding web site about arm training that recommended performing various tricep exercises using both underhand and overhand grips. While different hand positions will have an effect on the involvement of the muscles in the forearms due to differences in the demand on grip and wrist stabilization, they will have no significant effect on triceps involvement.
Hand pronation and supination are accomplished by rotation of the radius at the elbow, crossing over the ulna during pronation and returning to a position parallel to the ulna during supination. The triceps, which extend the elbow by pulling on the olecranon process of the ulna, are not affected by this. › Continue reading