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Exercises for the Biceps, Triceps & Deltoids

May 26, 2011 | By Eric Brown
Exercises for the Biceps, Triceps & Deltoids
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Your shoulders and arms contribute power to many everyday and athletic activities and are part of a balanced physique. Both isolation and compound exercises develop these muscles. You do not need fancy loading protocols or complex training programs, just consistent effort and attention to detail. Consult your physician before beginning any diet or exercise program.

Deltoids

Your deltoids, or shoulder muscles, elevate your arms. They are heavily involved in bench pressing, but the overhead press works them directly and effectively. Isolation exercises such as lateral raises and bent lateral raises will work the sides and back of your shoulders. Go heavy on your pressing, working in the five-to-eight-repetition range. Go a bit lighter on your raises, working in the eight-to-12-repetition range. Exercises such as raises for the front of your shoulders are rarely needed if you are doing regular, heavy pressing. For variety, you can do laterals and bent laterals with cables instead of dumbbells.

Triceps

Your triceps contribute power to every extension movement of your arms. Every time you straighten your elbow, your triceps are working. Effective compound exercises for your triceps are the close grip bench press and heavy dips. Isolation exercises for your triceps include barbell and dumbbell extensions. Extensions can be done seated or lying. Variations such as the elbows-out dumbbell triceps extension are sometimes used, but more for variety than any real difference in effectiveness. Different types of cable pushdowns can be done, but you cannot use enough weight to stimulate the larger muscle fibers of your triceps.

Biceps

The biceps are used to flex the elbow or bend your arm. Exercises such as chinups and rows work your biceps and do so through an extreme range of motion. Compound exercises such as these allow you to use more weight than you can with curls, and help round out your training program. Barbell curls are a standard exercise for training your biceps, and are effective. Your biceps also function to rotate your forearm, so dumbbell curls done with a twisting motion assist with this function. Hammer curls and reverse curls work your brachialis, a muscle located next to your biceps that is important for elbow stability.

Program

You cannot perform all of these exercises in a single workout, or even half of them. Getting the most out of your exercises requires careful programming. If you are doing a large volume of exercises per workout, you will need longer to recover. A simple method would be to train your shoulders and triceps on the same day you bench-press, and your biceps on the same day you train your back. With another day devoted to leg training, you have worked your entire body in three sessions, giving you four days a week to recover. Train hard, but train smart.

References

Article reviewed by Will McCahill Last updated on: May 26, 2011

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