Bigger Biceps: What Mind Pump Didn’t Talk About

Posted on January 3, 2023

To watch the full video, click here: https://youtu.be/rP1ADlInAzA

Hey coaches and athletes, Michael Hughes here functional specialist and founder of Gymnazo Edu. If you’ve been in the fitness space for a bit of time, you’re probably familiar with mind pump. Now they’re definitely one of the bigger if not the biggest podcast in the fitness industry. Now they did a podcast a while ago about how the best bicep exercise is not bicep curls. And I want to dive into some of the things that they left out of their conversation around this idea. But first, if you’re someone who likes to geek out about movement and dive deeper into the why behind how we train coach and move, then make sure to subscribe to our channel to keep getting fresh perspectives and strategies on all things movement, and training related. Again, as a function movement specialist, I’m not just your average iron pumping trainer, I’m always looking for the why behind everything I want to know and understand the principles of how we move. And as a teacher, I want to help you understand the strategies behind those truths as well. So in this mind, episode, I’m referring to the conclusion that compound bicep exercises like a chin up are the best thing to do to get bigger biceps. But the bigger question I felt like they didn’t really answer is why. So why are compound exercises better than isolation exercises when it comes to growing your biceps? Well, because it’s more functional for the physics of the biceps and its neighboring muscles. What I mean by functional is that it’s what the muscle tissue is designed to do, literally, or based upon its physics. This is why it’s so important to understand three dimensional muscle anatomy, and to ecology, and how it applies to the functional demands of our training intentions. Or simply put, why we are training the way we are, or the way we want to for the desired result that we’re going after. So I know the term functional training can be a hot topic, but I want to know how you define functional training, please drop a comment below. And if you’re not a big fan of functional training, well, please tell me but tell me why you’re not. So let’s first by starting to understand the anatomy of the biceps and the collective group. In all three planes of motion. This is critical, because muscle fibers again, can always be lengthened in three distinct ways, I got a little strap here to kind of give you a general representation of what I mean by three dimensional muscle anatomy. So in the sagittal plane, or essentially, up and down, I can take this strap and put tension through it right very up and down very kind of high low. Well, there’s two more ways that we can put tension into a muscle, I can also take this strap and move it loudly, laterally to the right, and laterally to the left. And you can see as I move in one direction, there’s slack that happens on one side, but tension that happens on the upside. And that’s also true in the other direction. Slack happens on one side and tension builds on another side. That tension we can call frontal plane tension or left and right tension. And this third one, we call it spiral tension, or essentially transverse plane tension as I spin the fiber, one spin the other, the other spinning on top. And what that does is it creates a basically a shortening of the tissue because the tissue has to travel a longer distance, put around that spiral, putting more tension into that tissue. Now this straps a simple way to look at it. But essentially, all muscle tissue follows these those three distinct ways. But they share more than they just do one at a time. It’s really a combination of all those three. And that’s what makes human movement so dynamically complex, and awesome. So let’s start by understanding the anatomy of the bicep region. First one, we have the core co brachialis. Now this muscle group starts at the scapula or the core cord process, hence its name. And it ends on the inside aspect of the humerus right here, starts up here ends on the inside, that’s a very important note to take that ends on the inside of the humerus. So if we’re going to load it through three dimensional tension, right, basically sagittal plane how we’re going to put E centric loading through right downward loading, that’s how a muscle fires first or the nerves get triggered to fire the muscle first, by going into loading. So elbow extension, we need that sagittal plane, we’re going to need humerus A B duction. Right, we’re gonna need the humerus to go away from the shoulder joint away from that’s going to actually lengthen that muscle in the frontal plane. In the transverse plane, we’re actually gonna want external rotation of the humerus as it comes out. That’s also going to further load that muscle. So in those three distinct motion patterns, that kirkko brachialis is under maximum tension, relatively speaking. Okay, what about the brachialis? Right? Well, this one starts from the outside of the humerus relatively speaking front and outside and ends on the upper part and the internal part of the ulna. So, in the sagittal plane again, Any sort of extension of the elbow is gonna load it. But because of the diagonal attachment zone in the frontal plane, you’re gonna get that diagonal loading that’s constant. Because the elbow doesn’t really move as a joint left and right, but the attachment and, and motion of that muscle already loads it in the frontal plane, which is pretty, pretty cool. In the transverse plane, if we internally rotate our forum, it’s going to send the ulna backwards, and that’s going to lengthen, it’s gonna make the distance longer from the outside of my humerus to the inside of my arm. Again, we’re talking about very relative small details, but it’s these small details that add up right, the devil is always in the details, if you’ve made me have heard. So if I want to load my bicep, maximally, I gotta pay attention to the details. What about the long head of the biceps? Well, I will also start to put the scapula next to the glenohumeral joint and ends on the inside of the radius. So I want to load that in three dimensional tension. Well, sagittal plane, that’s, that’s easy, that’s extension of the elbow, but also essentially extension of the shoulder. And then I want the frontal plane, I want to basically take the humerus and make it go through abduction, because it takes a long path on the outside. So if I made the path even longer, it’s going to load it even more. What about the transverse plane, if I go through internal rotation, because it loads and connects to the radius, I want the radius to come away across the body. So the more I can come away from the outside of the shoulder, the more rotational load I’m going to put through it. What about the short head of the biceps? Well, that runs on the inside. So it also starts at the scapula or the coracoid process. And that is right up here. And as I’ve also goes to the inside of the of the radius as well. So three dimensional tension sagittal, plane extension, extension, pretty, pretty simple. But what about the frontal plane, I want to take it away from the body line, because it attaches way appear to a longer path now than it is here. In the transverse plane, I want to externally rotate the forum, because it because it attaches at the scapula, the longer line is if I extend the rotate through. So a lot of details even be like well, I didn’t even consider those particular things. But there’s four key points about the anatomy of the bicep that I have to share with you based upon what I just shared is that two of the four muscles load more basic get more more eccentric loading with internal rotation of the forum, the other two of those four muscles get more loading with external rotation of the forum. So that means I’m going to have to do more internal and external rotation through my bicep exercises to get those particular muscles more engaged than the other side. Well, three of the four muscles, that Coco break brachialis, and along the short head of the bicep, work together to essentially flex the shoulder. So if I want to basically get bigger biceps, that’s why working on shoulder flexion, through my concentric phase is so important. And here’s the big one, here’s the huge one, four of the four muscles load the most with elbow extension, and shoulder extension at the same time. And this is why these gymnastics guys have such amazing biceps, because they do exercises like the back lever, and the Iron Cross, which both relatively speaking, have both extension of the elbow and extension of the shoulder at the same time. And that puts puts tremendous amount of tension, or eccentric loading through the tissue, which makes the tissue grow a lot more. So how do you take your compound exercises one step further? Right? Let’s end this thing out. Right? How do you three dimensionalize them and I’m going to show you what I mean by that. So I’m going to 3d a chin up. So here’s what I want you to think about both hands supinated or pronated. Right want to do both because internal and external rotation of the form works and want to do just a vertical chin up. And this is what we already know. Right? We call that a sagittal plane chin up. What about a frontal plane chin up? Well, both hands again, supinated and punted grip at the bar, but we’re gonna do a right and left body diagonal chin up. Now this relatively takes the abduction and abduction of the humerus, so the shoulder because the body is moving towards and away from the arm creates that lateral motion fashion.

What about the transverse plane? Well, again, bilateral hand supinated or protonated at the bar and want to right and left rotational chin up. This is relative internal and external rotation of the humerus to the shoulder because the body is moving towards and away from the arm in a left and root and right rotational fashion. Again, getting that compound lift but putting in three dimensional focuses and intentions to maximize the physics of each and every muscle you And we’re gonna do the same thing with a pull down, right? So check this out in a sagittal plane, we’re gonna do unilateral hand, and we’re gonna go hand neutral, so we can maximize the rotation. But we’re gonna do just a vertical pull down, right? That’s what we already know, pretty good, pretty basic. What about in the frontal plane? Well, again, unilateral hand neutral grip at handle, right and left lateral pull down. And now this is relative adduction, and abduction of the humerus to the shoulder, because the arm is moving towards and away from the body in a left and right lateral fashion. What about the transverse plane? Let’s go unilateral hand neutral grip at handle right and left rotational pull down. Now this is relative internal and external rotation of the forearm to the humerus, because the forearm is spinning in a right and left rotational fashion. Again, taking those muscles that we described, and putting more three dimensional load through them, maximizing their intent, and their purpose for greater physics and greater response. Now, even though, the bicep curl is not a compound exercise, I wanted to end with that one because it’s such a traditional lift. But here’s some examples of how to three dimensionalize it as well as a little bit of a bonus. So check this out. Unilateral hand power block, that’s a dumbbell at my hip. I’m doing a power block vertical curl, but I’m driving my elbow and a vertical extension as well. Again, we already know this drill, but we’re getting a little bit more compound because we know if we can flex the shoulder, we’re gonna get a little bit more muscle work. Now about the frontal plane, a little something different unilateral hand at our hip power block, right and to left sagittal plane curl with elbow drive for vertical. So basically taking my arm and as you can see, it’s coming in across my body and an abductive way, and it’s coming out across my body and a B ducted away. And that puts the lateral tension through those tissues. What about the transverse plane, unilateral hand PowerBlock at hip PowerBlock, right to left, rotation curl with elbow vertical drive, you can see as my forearm I start to spin internally to my body. And I start to rotate my femurs and my forearm internally as I begin my curl, and my elbow drive, and then I take my arm and I start to spin externally for my forearm and my humerus to get the external rotational tension through the same tissues. Now, I fully understand that these exercises that I just showed you are either something you’ve never seen before, or perhaps something downright weird, to the traditional standards. But so is everything that was innovated for its time. We can’t let form dictate our function. If we do, then things like the Fosbury flop in the hygiene method would have never broken every record ever set. Apple would have never reinvented the mp3 cell phone and personal computer to be all in one. Amazon would have never made retail shopping what it is today. And Tesla would have never put a mass market car out there that shames every other car in performance and cost of ownership. What I really want to encourage you to do is get outside of your box and explore your sphere of movement more. The stuff I’m talking about here is not a new discovery. It’s physics. We’ve known about it for years and years and years. We’re all taught in school and our certifications, about three planes of motion. We just haven’t been taught on how to actually apply them. And it’s really as simple as tweaking your basic exercises like a pulldown or a coral, or a squat or deadlift, or even by adding more lateral or transverse motions to train the muscles in a different way. I cannot stress enough the difference three dimensionalizing your exercises can make your clients move in abilities, and sports performance. So if you want to dive deeper and learn the same fundamental principles that I use every single day with my clients, and I’ve talked to other trainers as well. Click on the link in description below to check out our multi dimensional movement coaching mentorship program. We cover the behavioral the physics and the biological sciences, the principles and strategies and teach you how to apply them in your sessions. So your clients leave every session feeling like you’ve met every one of their needs, even the things that they don’t know that they needed. So if you want to work for me and my team to level up your movement, knowledge and skills again, check out the MDMC program in the description below. Lastly, if you got some value out of this video, don’t forget to like and subscribe to our channel and get notified whenever we release new content. Until the next time cheers.