The elbow joint is used in nearly all activities involving your arms such as lifting your groceries out of the car or picking a child up. Elbow flexion involves moves in which the majority of the work is done while bending the elbow, as opposed to...
Elbow, or arm, flexion is moving your forearm and hand toward your body by bending the elbow joint, while elbow extension is moving in the opposite direction. The term active refers to the rhythmic movement of flexion and extension in your arm's...
The four muscles that facilitate elbow flexion are the biceps brachii, brachialis, brachioradialis and pronator teres, which each cross the front of the joint. Learning the anatomic structure and biomechanical function of each muscle can help you...
The dumbbell curl is an isolation weight-training exercise, meaning it requires movement only around one joint. Lifters use the exercise to develop strength and size in the upper-body muscles. Use an appropriately weighted dumbbell while...
Passive range of motion exercises need two people to do. The assistant or caregiver moves another person's joints through range of motion exercises. The person being stretched may need assistance for reasons such as surgery or diseases such as...
Bodybuilding exercises for the biceps with dumbbells involve specific joint movements that produce the most activity in the biceps brachii muscle group. Bodybuilders incorporate different joint movements for targeting particular segments of the...
The dumbbell curl exercise involves flexing and extending your elbows repeatedly to move dumbbells from near your hips to in front of your shoulders and back down. Performing any variation of the exercise on a regular basis, as part of a...
People who are seeking "big guns" want to make sure to train the brachialis muscles. When properly developed, the brachialis muscles help the biceps appear bigger, especially the lower portion of the biceps. The brachialis helps in elbow flexion...
Your elbow is a hinge joint, which is made up of bones, tendons, ligaments and cartilage, and fluid sacs. Injury to any of these structures may produce pain, swelling, decreased range of motion and strength. Physical therapy exercises are used to...
Upright row is a compound weight-training exercise, which means that it requires movement around more than one joint. The exercise can be completed with either a barbell or a set of dumbbells. It develops a variety of muscles that are situated...
Pullups are a difficult strength-training exercise, because they require you to lift your own bodyweight. The exercise can be completed using a variety of grips, including the traditional wide grip with palms facing away, narrow grip with palms...
Pull-ups are one of the best resistance exercises you can do. Few exercises draw as much attention as someone either doing lots of pull-ups or doing some variations of the basic pull-up. They require great upper body and core strength to complete....
The nerves that travel from the neck to the brachial nerves in the arm comprise the brachial plexus. An injury to this area will affect the movement of the shoulder, hand or arm. Newborns can have brachial plexus injuries, as can older children...
Your brachialis is hidden beneath the biceps. Your brachialis is the only true elbow flexor because it attaches to your ulna, the forearm bone that doesn't rotate, as opposed to the radius, which does. Because other elbow flexors like the...
You may have done it back in gym class in school, or maybe at the playground where you and your friends competed to see who got to the top fastest. Rope climbing is generally associated with gymnastics or playgrounds, but it is a great exercise...
Dumbbells make your biceps bigger, but you have to use them the right way. The biceps flex the elbow and supinate the forearm. Elbow flexion is bending the joint so the forearm moves closer to the upper arm. Forearm supination is rotating the arm...
There are numerous injuries that can occur in your elbows including sprains, fractures and tendinitis. Injuries to the elbow can be treated and prevented by regularly stretching your elbows before and after physical activity. Two important motions...
A fractured forearm can be complicated by a dislocated wrist. Most of these injuries come from a fall on an outstretched arm or another traumatic event, such as a motor vehicle accident. Because of the severity and complexity of this type of...
The biceps brachialis is an underappreciated muscle. It is positioned underneath your bicep, which generally gets the credit for elbow flexion. However, the brachialis is the only pure elbow flexor, unlike the biceps brachii, which both flexes and...
There are more than 600 muscles in the human body divided into three types: skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle and smooth muscle. The big muscles or major muscles are usually thought of in groups. When you exercise or train, you are generally working...
The biceps are the muscles of the upper arm, located anteriorly between the shoulders and the elbow. To work the biceps muscle as the primary muscle, you will need to perform an elbow flexion, which results in a curl of some sort. As an antagonist...
Radial head fractures are caused when you fall onto your outstretched hand or land on the outer elbow. The radial head is the bulge at the top of the radius that makes a joint with the ulna and humerus. According to the American Academy of...
The biceps consist of two muscles, or heads, which are the short and long heads. The short head is on the inside of the arm closer to the torso. Both heads work together to bend the elbow and turn the forearm so the palm faces up, but the short...
Almost every company that manufactures barbells also produces curl bars: shorter, lighter versions of a regular barbell. The symmetrical angles bent into the body of a curl bar allow you to vary your forearm and wrist position, depending on how...
A cable machine is a large training apparatus found in most commercial gyms. You operate the machine by pulling a cable and moving a pin-loaded weight stack up and down. The pulley on this stack can be adjusted from a position right above the...
Dumbbell curls is a popular exercise among many weightlifters. The exercise can be completed with both arms moving simultaneously or with arms alternating. Whether curling dumbbells develops strength or size in your muscles depends on the...
There are two exercises that work both the biceps and the brachioradialis: the hammer curl and the reverse curl. Both exercises are variations of the traditional biceps curl. These exercises can be performed by using various forms of exercise...
Your skeletal muscles develop tension, or contract, to produce movement. A muscle can also contract to prevent movement that would otherwise be taking place. In both cases, muscles can only exert these influences at the joints they cross. The...
Creating toned, well-defined arms involves enlarging your muscles and maintaining a healthy body-fat percentage. Additional benefits include increased muscular endurance, power and strength, and an improved level of overall fitness. Consider...
Side planks work the abdominal muscles by lifting the obliques and contracting the abs. Learn how to do side planks to strengthen ab muscles with tips from a fitness trainer in this free core exercise video.
