my biceps seem to peak closer to my shoulder than my elbow, I want the peak to be atleast centered or closer to the elbow than the shoulder. would reverse curls do the job? also, hypothetically(spelling?) if you had extremely low body fat % and had lots of muscle mass, would you have to have definition? in other words, with those conditions above, could you still be smooth looking? I’m wondering if I need to worry about definition, or if it will just come will low body fat and lots of muscle mass? thanks
I’ve had good experiences with reverse curls and hammer curls bringing out the brachialis, making pop out like a lil’ golf ball:-) The reverse curl works the brachialis (underneath biceps brachii) and forearms more so than the brachii, which I assume you’re looking to increase. As far as the shape of your bicep, you can make the muscle bigger but I’m not sure that you can really change the actual shape. You could try Incline Curls or varying your grip width on Barbell Curls depending on whether or not you have an imbalance between your lateral and medial biceps heads.
You were probably cursed with a short muscle belly in your biceps. My biceps are also far from the elbow. It’s genetic. Sure, you can work the brachialis and that may help, but don’t expect to make your muscle longer. I also have calves the same way. Very high and close to the knee. Supposedly, that’s better for jumping. Not that I really do a whole lot of jumping in the activities I participate in.
Frank Zane had the same problem and tried to change the shape of his bi’s with no success. It’s impossible to change the SHAPE of a muscle-it;s genetic! You can: make your muscle bigger,smaller,and get rid of the fat covering it so you can actually see it.
thanks for the advice. My original question about the biceps was a seperate issue from the definiton question. I was talking about definition over the whole body, not just biceps. but thanks so far.
stifbiz,—
Concerning the definition aspect, the bigger you are the less definition is needed for your muscles to stand out. Right now I am about 10% body fat, however, considering the amount of muscle I am carrying, I doubt that anyone misses the fact that I lift weights on a regular basis. I understand where you are coming from though because I remember thinking that I would need to be extremely defined for my chest to stand out like I wanted it to. Now that I have more size I realize it isn’t necessary. Don’t get caught up in trying to maintain a super low body fat percentage before you actually have enough mass to worry about defining. I am glad I worked on building a base first before I worried about the rough edges. It makes things much more enjoyable in the future.
Professor X