EXACTLY! Use really light weight at first, BUT the concentration has to be on flexing the muscle … like you’re showing off in front of your honey. Do this with every exercise and tell me what you think.
As you should be, but I think you get better results with BOTH. If you watch people, they’re pretty much swinging the weight, which, I my opinion, they’re shorting the muscle of its work.
Squeezing is what I’m testing out at this time … and that’s every muscle. And if you really think you’re a beast … try that with 15 seconds up and 15 seconds down on every rep.
This is SO important! A lot of guys really do just swing the weights, letting momentum do all the work. Do slow, steady reps and you’ll get much better results! It helps with everything, even simple pushups can become much more intense if you’re doing very slow, steady push ups.
LOL, I love watching guys pick up like 50lb+ dumbbells and swing them thinking their getting a good workout, they think they’re so buff. I can do like 3 good reps with like 70lb dumbbells.
And you probably can, B U T … you can’t squeeze/flex your bicep with 70lbs unless you’ve been squeezing it at the top of the movement and turning your palm outward all your life, and that IS MY POINT.
Right now … put your right arm at your right side … bring your forearm up towards your right shoulder … make a muscle … contract it hard … now turn your wrist outward so that your little finger is closer to you than your thumb.
If you did it right, your hand with be facing you and right in front of your shoulder where you can see the side of your hand where your little finger is. If you feel a sharp pain deep in your bicep muscle when you rotate your wrist outwards … that’s it!
Now do that same movement with a 5 or 10lb dumbell in hand and tell me what you think.
Doesn’t it mean to do normal curl using bicept, then rotate your hand toward the outside, so the palm will not be facing your body, but the other direction?
That’s my home made DEEP MUSCLE contraction feeling. Now do that with a 10 db for reps taking your time to feel the contraction.
That would be impossible … you can only turn it a tad bit if you rotate your fist, wrist, and forearm.
I’ll try to explain it one mo’ghen …
Put your right arm at your right side with a fist made so that your palm is facing away from you (forward) …
bring your closed fist up towards your right shoulder to make a muscle … your palm should now be facing your shoulder … contract it hard at that position like you’re making a muscle to impress your girl…
While squeezing your bicep, try to turn your fist, wrist, and forearm to your right … your little finger is closer to you (pointing at you, and your thumb is ponting slightly forward and out to the right) than your thumb. I you had a knife in your hand and you stabbed your left chest … that would be the position of your hand after trying to turn your fist, wrist, and forearm to you and right.
That’s the best I can explain it, Mbird.
Hope this helped, 'cause it’s worth investigating.
It’s only clear if you feel a difference when you contract the bicep and when you make that little twist. You can live without the twist, BUT I belive in going all the way when it comes to training.
It gives it that extra contraction (stimulates that deep muscle fiber), and you should be focusing on CONTRACTING every muscle you train … IF you asked me.
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That’s my home made DEEP MUSCLE contraction feeling. Now do that with a 10 db for reps taking your time to feel the contraction.