April 28, 2014-Arm Circuit

Good morning, lovelies!  So for right now, I'm using this space as a way for me to stay motivated about working out consistently.  I usually hit the gym 4-6 times a week, and I love it.  But lately, with finals and everything happening, it's been really difficult for me to get my butt out of bed and actually do it.
So, here we go: day one of my new and improved workouts-Arms (my second favorite day!)

I've been doing my research this weekend, and I came across this really great article here.  Tom talks about his favorite arm workouts, where he really feels the burn, and I've decided to mix a couple together.

Since "arms" encompasses biceps and triceps, we'll be working both today.  I decided to combine the multi-grip and multi-angle tri-set routines for today's workout, but I'm gonna just say we do supersets instead of tri-sets.* We'll choose two exercises for both biceps and triceps, with two different grips, as well as two exercises for each muscle, this time making different angles (the elbow being the pivot point).

Biceps:
1.  Standing dumbbell reverse curl (like a normal bicep curl, just keep your palms facing down)
2.  Hammer curl (bicep curl with palms facing in)
3.  Incline dumbbell curls (lay at an incline so that your arms hang off of the sides, creating a stretched angle at the elbow)
4.  Preacher curls (keep the arms slightly contracted, so they do not fully extend at the bottom of each rep)

Triceps:
1.  Reverse grip triceps push-down (using the cable and small, curved bar, pull down, keeping your palms facing up)
2.  Triceps push-down (using the rope attachment, keep palms facing in towards each other)
3.  Seated triceps press (sit on a chair and raise one dumbbell over your head with both hands. Keeping your elbows in the same position, lower the weight behind your head and raise it back up)
4.  Lying triceps press (I call these Skull Crushers, because you lay down, holding a bar (or dumbbells) straight up. Keeping your elbows in the same place, lower the weight to just above your forehead, and raise back up)

For each exercise, perform 6-8 reps, with ONLY 10-15 seconds of rest between each exercise.  After each routine (full biceps OR full triceps), rest for 120 seconds (2 minutes).  Go through the full workout (biceps AND triceps) 2-3 times.


*supersets=two different exercises, with no rest between them, which either work the same or antagonistic muscles (i.e., curls + hammer curls; curls + triceps dips).
tri-sets=group of three exercises performed one after the other, with no rest between, to work the same muscle group.

I'll be doing this workout today, so we'll be suffering together!  Try it out and let me know what you think!

P.S., I promise the workout posts won't be this long every time, I just wanted to give some background information before we got started!

**EDIT**
I am already feeling the burn from this workout this morning! I was feelin' good after doing the entire routine 3 times through, so I dropped down in weight and performed the whole thing again, this time really focusing on my speed/tempo and my form.  Let me know how your workout goes!