Develop Your Popeye Muscle: Targeting the Biceps

The biceps are located on the front part of the arm between the elbow and the bottom part of the shoulder where the crease of the armpit is. It is popularly referred to as the Popeye muscle in celebration of the popular early 20th Century cartoon character.

The biceps are composed of two major muscles: The Brachialis and the Biceps Brachii, which has a long head and short head. Since the biceps are considered a small muscle group, the strain of exercise and fatigue will be felt immediately on this muscle group.

The first exercise to tone the biceps is standing bicep curls and can be done with a resistance rubber band, dumbbells, or a curl bar.

To perform standing bicep curls with a resistance band, place rubber band securely under the middle part of your feet standing feet shoulder width apart. Pretend your arms are glued to your torso from the shoulders to the elbow. Slightly bend forward at the waist to prevent rocking and hold the resistance band handles at your sides with palms facing forward. Slowly curl your arms up toward your head, only moving at the elbow joint. Pretend there is a rod from your wrist to your elbow so you don't bend your wrist. Do about 12-15 repetitions to start.

To do standing dumbbell curls, grasp the dumbbells at your sides with palms facing forward and, once again, curl up toward the head only at the elbow joint. The upper arms should be glued to your torso. Avoid rocking. The best way to do this is with your back against a wall and feet out in front.

When using a curl bar, you have to make sure you do not rock back, as it can be tempting curling this way. Avoid curling the wrist. The wrist and the rest of the arm below the elbow should be straight and in line.

Now do modified standing bicep curls by moving the bottom part of the arms below the elbow joint out towards the sides about four inches. Execute between 10 and 15 repetitions.

The Next exercise is unilateral sitting bicep curls, which means curling one arm at a time. Sit on the edge of a chair, leaning forward with the back of one arm resting on the inside of your thigh. Your palm should be facing your opposite thigh. Curl the dumbbell up toward the shoulder, keeping the wrist in line with the rest of the arm. Do 10-15 repetitions, breathing out as you raise the dumbbell and breathing in as the dumbbell is lowered.

Now we will do hammer curls. Stand feet shoulder width apart with arms above the elbows glued to the torso and hands gripping the dumbbells or resistance bands in fists facing each other. Curl arms up, keeping palms facing each other. You can do this with alternating arms also. Do 10-15 repetitions to start.

If you want to fatigue your biceps in order to make your fast twitch muscles burst, hold the hammer curl in the up position without curling and continue holding the dumbbells with palms facing each other until your muscle can no longer hold up the weight.

To stretch your biceps, hold the first arm out straight in front of you with palm up. Now bend at the wrist until your palm is facing forward and pull your fingers toward you with the other hand. Switch arms and do the same.

There are a few machines at the gym that target biceps when you are ready to take that step. The biceps can be worked out at home as well. Begin with exercises and you will notice your Popeye muscle strengthen and develop.