Free Weights Or Weight Training Machines - Which Is Better For Building Big, Muscular Arms?

I'm often asked whether machines or free weights are better for building big, muscular arms. Well, as the "Master Gunslinger," I can only respond on the basis of 20-plus years of arm-building experience. And based on that experience, there's no question that free weights are best for building big, muscular arms - especially if you're a beginning bodybuilder.

Now, I can already here the "Bowflex" crowd crying foul, but if you really want to build the muscle density, strength and symmetry that it takes to have Truly Awesome Arms(TM), you simply can't get there without using free weights. Ever since weight training machines came on the scene, there's been a tendency among beginning bodybuilders to believe that those stretchy cables and shiny handles must be better than clunky old dumbbells for building impressive arms.

This belief comes partly from slick advertising and partly from inexperience. But the bottom line is that, although arm training machines are very useful for adding shape to your biceps, triceps and forearms, these machines are not particularly efficient for building muscle mass or power. Indeed when it comes to adding size and strength to your arms, free weights are clearly better than machines for the following reasons.

First, have you ever noticed that no matter what exercise you may use for comparison, whether its preacher curls, triceps extensions or parallel bar dips, you can always work with more weight on a machine than you can when using free weights? The reason for this discrepancy is simple - the machine assists you in completing these exercises in a way that free weights do not!

When you train your arms with free weights, your biceps, triceps and forearms must provide all of the power required to complete the exercise motion. Your arms must provide the strength required to overcome gravity, balance the weight and force it to curl upward or extend outward. Unlike the machines, free weights don't have any cables, strings, bolts or shiny handles to ease you through your biceps curls or triceps extensions.

Second, while free weights allow you to control the resistance angle and range of motion during a given exercise, machines provide no such freedom of movement. For example, I've done preacher curls with a machine and with free weights and there is absolutely no comparison between these exercises in terms of resistance angle and range of motion. The free weights are far superior, whether using an EZ Curl bar or dumbbells, for building biceps mass and power with preacher curls. The same applies to doing triceps extensions with dumbbells or an EZ Curl bar versus doing them on a triceps extension machine. The free weights put much more resistance on the triceps and allow a greater range of motion to complete this exercise. This increased resistance and range of motion recruits more muscle fibers during each extension of the weight, which in turn forces the triceps to work harder and grow faster than they will with machine extensions.

Again, I'm not saying that arm training machines are completely useless when it comes to workout variety or shaping movements. Machines are also very useful for high repetition workouts or advanced training with descending sets, super sets and giant sets. But for building mass and power in your biceps, triceps and forearms in the early stages of your training, you must focus these efforts on working primarily with free weights. So when trying to decide whether to use machines or free weights in your next arm building workout, even though they don't look as fancy as those shiny machines, you're better off working with the clunky old dumbbells.

Most Effective Ab Exercises On The Planet

For those who have already tried losing weight or are trying to keep their body in top shape, they all know that the process is not that easy. However, nothing can be impossible given one's determination, gigantic will power, and of course, iron discipline. In fact, it will not be that difficult at all if you will follow the right procedure in keeping yourself physically fit. Losing weight requires not just a hodgepodge of random exercises but also the setting of realistic goals. Apart from eating healthy food types, one should also undergo a physical fitness program such as an effective ab exercise routine. The most effective ab exercises are effective in keeping your weight down, toning your ab muscle, and of course, strengthening your cardiovascular muscles. Here are four of the most effective ab exercises that will help you trim your weight down.

The Four Most Effective Ab Exercises

• The Simple Bicycle

Cycling is one of the most efficient ab exercises that can do big in trimming down your weight and keeping you in good shape. Studies show that among many types of physical workout routines, bicycle exercise is one of the most efficient. Through exercise using a bicycle, your ab muscles or six packs are effectively targeted. Apart from effectively trimming down those excess body fat, particularly those that are in the belly area, regular bicycle exercise is very effective in warding off ailments like diabetes, hypertension, and other disease caused by high cholesterol concentration in the body.

• The Vertical Leg Crunch

Since it focuses on strengthening and trimming down your abdominal muscles such as the rectus abdominis and the obliques, the vertical leg crunch ranks second to this list. By doing this ab exercise routine on a regular basis, you can lose that weight in no time.

• The Captains Chair

The captains chair leg routine ranks third in our list because it also targets the abdominal muscles effectively. Apart from this, a number of efficient exercise methods can be done using this effective ab exercise routine. However, you must take note that the key to the success of this exercise is via the maximization of this routine. You must avoid using force to move your legs up and you should also keep yourself from swinging your legs. Your knees should also be bent at all times to force your abdomen to work harder.

• The Ball Crunch

Using an exercise ball, you can effectively lose weight and target your rectus abdominis. Via this exercise, the abdominal muscles are pushed harder hence generating the best results.

As you can see, the most effective ab exercises requires nothing much but a few tools and more determination. For more information on the most effective ab exercises, you can look for the best resources online. A lot of sites offer various ab exercise models that can be suitable for your needs. Just make sure that you choose one that is just right for you. You can also consult professional health training experts in your community.

How To Get Huge Arms Fast

We all want huge arms because it instantly shows you work out and gives you instant authority. As well as this it also helps gain your confidence and helps you feel great about yourself. Think about it, everybody who has big arms gets admired even when they are covered. Sadly, knowing how to get big biceps fast isn't common knowledge as the majority of information on the subject is useless.

Fortunately, we will show you how to get a pair of big guns extremely quickly. Let's begin...

A way to Get Massive Biceps FAST: Fundamentals

ninety seven% of folks who attempt and obtain massive arms fail, this can be mainly due to them told that they have to perform crazy amounts of exercises for each triceps and biceps in order to urge big arms. This is absolute nonsense!

Let me tell you a very quiet kept secret.....your triceps and biceps are a small muscle and will simply get overtrained. The more you overtrain them the less they will respond.

Less very much is a lot of during this case!

Now don't get me wrong, you have got to work onerous so as to create your arms grown. But, we tend to are shooting for top intensity training not high period or frequency.

Now we have a tendency to appreciate the fundamentals we tend to can take a peek at what exercises can facilitate to explode our arm growth....

How to Get Big Biceps FAST: Exercises

It's necessary to notice that your arms are only a small muscle and should not be trained a lot of than once per week. However, when you are doing train them train them very onerous! Now, onto the exercises....

Chin Ups

This is that the exercise that can add untold amounts of muscle onto your arms in no time! To perform this exercise you will would like a chin up bar and then you merely suspend underneath it and pull yourself up for eight reps. Strive adding a weight belt with a few lbs hooked up to maximise this exercise.

Dips

Not solely will dips help you build huge triceps they will also help develop your chest muscles; another head turning muscle. To perform dips you simply attend a dip bar and lower yourself till you reach parallel, and then return. Once more, adding weight will really maximize the effectiveness of this exercise.

Shut Grip Bench Press

Once more, this exercise will BLAST your triceps and your chest along, serving to you sculpt an admirable body in no time. To perform this exercise lie on a bench with a bar on a rack. Simply carry the bar with a shoulder width grip and produce down to your chest like an standard bench press. Having your elbows tucked in to your sides extremely maximizes the strain on your triceps, helping them grow FAST.