Back and Bicep Workouts

The bicep muscles are fairly small but are responsible for elbow flexion, forearm supination and shoulder flexion to some extent. Bicep workouts mainly target the bicep brachii muscle for developing it in size and stamina. Similarly, the back workouts target the upper, mid and lower back areas and help in strengthening the back muscles and decreasing stress and muscle pain. Let us take a close look on some simple but powerful back and bicep workouts.

Back Workouts
Always begin your back workouts with few sets of body weight exercises like pull ups, push ups, etc. But make sure you don't over strain your muscles, and if you start feeling tired, step down to lighter weights.

• Wide Grip Pull Ups: For these pull ups, you'll need a pull up bar and a shoulder-width or wider grip. While doing this exercise, look upwards and make sure your palms are facing away from you. Pull your chest towards the bar, slowly go up and down, do as many as you can. This will also help you to subtract weight and is considered to be a lifesaver for beginners.
• Inverted Push Ups: Use a Smith Machine and lock the bar nearly 3 feet above the ground. Pull a bench up to it and rest your feet on it. Hang from the bar upside down with an over hand grip in a reverse push up position with your shoes resting on the bench. Pull your upper body towards the bar in order to raise your body to a horizontal position. Hold for a second and slowly lower down until your arms are straight and head is near to the ground. Do as many times as you can.
• Lat Pulldown: Try lifting nearly 50% of your body weight and fix the knee pads to a comfortable level. Sit down and hold the bar while keeping your back straight and upright. For better outcome, focus on pulling your elbows to your sides rather than squeezing with the arms.
• Cable Row: Sit on the bench, grab the handle and with your legs push yourself back in to position. Keeping your back straight, pull the cable towards your center and release slowly.
• Dumbbell Row: Lean besides a bench and rest your hand and knee on top of it. Go down and grab the dumbbell. Without moving your torso, pull the weight to your side, as high as you can. Again go down and repeat the procedure.

Bicep Workouts
These bicep workouts are also known as pulling exercises that involve curling of the hand towards the shoulders in bicep curls.

• Biceps Curl: The biceps curl is considered to be one of the best bicep workout. In this, you have to hold the weights with your palms facing out and elbows next to your body. Now slowly bend the elbows and curl the weights toward the shoulders without rotating the elbows.
• Concentration and Preacher Curl: Considered to be a variation on the traditional curls, it is performed by placing your arms at an angle and work the biceps in different ways.
• Hammer Curl: It is quite similar to regular curls, having a little more forearm than the traditional curls. In this curl, the palms face in and turning the hands can make it more challenging, so it is better to use lighter weights.

You can try performing these back and bicep workouts for three non-consecutive days in a week. But if you are doing heavy weight lifting, at least take two days rest before you perform the exercise again. If you want to have lean muscles, stick with one to three sets of 12-15 repetitions with one day of rest before you workout again.