Bandit’s Blog

In my last BLOG, I explained how  I had the pleasure of having my son (A Personal Trainer from out of state) come up for a weekend visit.  Of course he brought his gym clothes for the sole purpose of “bettin’ me up”…which he did.  I got him on my “ABS” though!! 

What he taught me was the key to “Big Arms”.  The answer:  Triceps.  Biceps are fun and easy to workout.  “Curls for the girls” we say.  Well, remember the TRI in triceps stands for “three muscles”, when the BI in Bicep stands for two.  If you put more effort into those Tri’s, you’ll build those three muscles and expand those “guns” in no time.  That’s what I’m gonna do since I’ve been stuck at 15” for too long!!  Here’s a “beer winner” trivia question for you:  The Triceps make up two thirds of your arms’ size.

Anatomy Lesson (Easy):

The Tricep Brachii (as it’s called) has three heads as you can see in the diagram.  Each head originates at a different location, but all end up attaching to a tendon down at the “Ulna zone” at the upper forearm/elbow area. ….the Lateral head runs from your upper arm bone (humerus) and runs down the outside of the upper arm…”horseshoe” style head… the Medial (runs down the back of the upper arm)….and Long head originates up by your shoulder blade and runs down the inside of the arm.  When people see “big triceps” on you, they usually are seeing the Lateral head since it’s facing them. The primary purpose of the Tricep group is to extend the elbow (straighten your arm).   The secondary purpose is to move the arm in toward your body (accomplished by just one head, the Long head).  Now, with all this in mind, a workout routine which maximizes the resistance when straightening your arm….will work the Lateral and Medial heads….and any that comes across your body will work the Long head.  The best exercises are:  Bench dips, close grip bench press, overhead barbell presses, across the body DB curls and “skull crushers” (lying tricep extentions)  Here’s a link here at BB.COM which explains and shows these quite nicely. http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/triceps.htm.Also, if you have a Cable machine (Cybex or equiv), or a Lat Pull down machine.  Stand in front of it and do “close grip pulldowns” with a grip of your choice, keeping your body fully erect. Remember, it makes sense.  If two thirds of your upper arm is the Tricep….then building it will expand those arms quicker since there’s more “real estate” at issue!Having said all this.  I’m ready to get my 16” arms by the end of the year.  No more concentrating exclusively on “Curls for the girls” all the time, or Bicep 21’s.  I’m graduating to the Tricep world.  I’m gonna “rip my T-shirt sleeves”.  Wanna join me? 

 And oh yea….thanks Jonathan…I love ya, son.      

My 21 yr old son lives out of state and is a Personal Trainer there.  Well, he and his wife are up visiting for the weekend.  He brought his gym clothes, so I knew I was in trouble.  Sure enough, off to my gym we go this morning and he "beat me up".  Then he felt bad afterwards, so he treated me to one of those "Massage chairs" you see in the Mall.  Oh yeah.  Not as good as my masseuse,  but my back felt sooooo nice.  A great day it has been.  He showed me a "ton" of new routines.  I’m ready to try ‘em out on my own and to show my lifiting partners next week!!!  Have a great one everybody!! 

Had two of my lifting buds get a bit "overzealous" yesterday just before I arrived at the gym.  The "bands" in our gym are all kept, looped,  and fastened on the back of our Hammer Strength incline chest machine, so people can use the machine as a counter weight as they pull and stretch the "bands".    Well, someone put all the heavy 45 lbs plates on the "top holders" on the machine the night before by mistake and my two buds decided to do "band pulls" together…..which they shouldn’t have done in the first place…..well…um…yup…the machine was "top heavy" and it came tumbling over on them as they simultaneously pulled on the bands.  They were able to prevent it from crashing onto the floor (with them under it), but not before a few scrapes and scratches took its toll on each.  They’re OK….thanks to our "screamin" gals lifting friends who warned them that the ‘leanin tower of piza’ was comin down!!  Ohhhh…boy.  A close call it was.  Needless to say, new procedures are now in place…..and no "doubles" on the bands!!