July 6, 2016

Workout Circuit || Arm Day Part 1

I think that arm day is a day when I actually see a lot of results right in the moment of working the muscles. I love seeing all the definition, veins, and toning that happens just from simple curls. You can use dumbbells, barbells, or cables making the options endless when it comes to arms!

Some things to be careful with on arm day:

Try to work on keeping your elbows tucked in toward your body when specified. No chicken arms.
You might be tempted to round your back or slouch in a lot of these exercises. Try to maintain good posture. It’s arm day, not back!
Have control when lifting weights. You shouldn’t be swinging the weights. The whole time you are doing a set, you should be working. So even when you are in the down movement of the exercise, it should still be working your muscles.

I do 4 sets of each workout. You can decide how many reps to do based on your level of intensity. Over time, you should either increase reps or weight.

In the future, I plan on putting together little workout circuit videos for you visual people. For now though, follow @khvideos on Instagram. She posts a ton of different workout clips that I get ideas from all the time.

Workout: 7-7-7
Muscle Group: Biceps
Instructions:

get a dumbbell for each hand to do 21 reps of curls
place the dumbbells in your hands so your palms are facing away from your body with your elbows tucked close to your sides/stomach
curl up until your forearms are parallel to the ground for 7 reps
curl up from parallel forearms to your chest for 7 reps
then do a full flow from fully extended arms curling all the way up to your chest for 7 reps

Workout: Tricep Cable Pushdown
Muscle Group: Triceps
Instructions:

adjust the cable to about eye level & get a cable handle
stand only a few inches away from the tower
raise your arm bending at the elbow & push down on the cable until your arm is fully extended
you should feel this in the back of your arm (and if you’re by a mirror, check out those tris when you flex!)
switch to the other arm
if you are short on time, you can use a double cable tower to do both arms at a time

Workout: Single Arm Cable Rows
Muscle Group: Biceps
Instructions:

rows can be done on a seated cable machine or standing cable machine
if seated, scoot back enough on the bench so that when you extend your arm, the weights don’t re-rack each time
if standing, lower the cable to about the middle of your stomach or so that your arm is parallel to the ground when you reach the cable, take a few steps away from the tower so that when you extend your arm it doesn’t re-rack
for both methods, attach a cable handle
for both methods, bring your arm so that your elbow is tucked & close to your side, then slowly extend your arm back out
do the same for your other arm

Workout: Assisted Close Grip Pullups
Muscle Group: Biceps
Instructions:

when choosing the weight on an assisted pullup machine, the lower the weight, the more challenging the exercise; basically the heavier the weight, the more assistance you get from the machine to pull yourself up
make sure the assisted pad/bench is upright & locked in
this is somewhat of an awkward machine to get onto, but put your foot on one of the steps, put your other knee on the pad/bench (it will start to move down with your body weight), then reach your hands to the handle bars that are close so that your palms are facing toward one another, once you have a good grip, transfer your standing leg to the pad/bench
pull yourself up keeping your elbows in (parallel to the ground) and then extending your arms
getting down is even more awkward, but you DON’T want to slam the weight, so when your arms are extended, take one leg off the pad/bench to reach for the step again, then slowly raise the bad/bench until the weight re-racks, & step down with the remaining leg as well

Workout: Tricep Extension
Muscle Group: Triceps
Instructions:

sit on a tricep extension machine (the handle bars will be right by the sides of your chest
put your hands so that your palms are facing inward toward your body
keep your elbows close to your sides & push down extending your arms all the way
bring your elbows back to your side without re-racking the weights

Which arm workout is your favorite? What type of workout circuit would you like to see next?