Knowing the various muscle heads of the biceps and triceps can help you to effectively add muscle size, strength and definition to your upper arms. The biceps muscles help to flex the elbow and run along the front of your upper arm, while the triceps help to extend the elbow and run along the back of the upper arm area. Both muscle groups combined contain five separate heads.
Biceps Muscle Heads
An article on Bodybuilding.com notes the biceps muscle consists of an outer region, or long head, and an inner region, or short head. The biceps is responsible for moving your hands up toward your shoulders and rotating the palm upward. You can stimulate growth in the entire biceps region by putting stress on the biceps brachii and brachialis muscles with a rigorous weight training regimen.
Triceps Muscle Heads
The triceps brachii consists of a medial head, lateral head and long head. According to Bodybuilding.com, the long head runs from the lower edge of the glenoid cavity of the scalpula. The lateral head of the triceps muscle runs along the posterior humerus bone in the upper arm. The medial, or short, head runs along the inner portion of the upper posterior humerus bone.
Pronator Teres
The pronator teres muscle is recruited during many biceps and triceps exercises. The pronator teres originates in the elbow and spans across the middle forearm. This muscle is responsible for pronating the forearm and flexing the elbow.
Bicep Workouts
To target both the long and short heads of the biceps muscle perform standing barbell curls with an EZ bar of barbell. Standing curls are an effective mass builder which can also add muscle strength and size to the upper arm area. Dumbbell hammer curls can help to accentuate the peak of your biceps when flexing and dumbbell preacher curls can pack on muscle mass in the flexors and lower biceps area.
Triceps Workouts
Weighted dips, cable triceps pushdowns, dumbbell kickbacks and close-grip bench presses help to target each head of the triceps region. Weighted dips and close-grip bench presses add mass and strength to the long head of the triceps while dumbbell kickbacks and cable triceps pushdowns bring definition to the entire triceps region.
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