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Hey everybody, Kevin Weiss from bodyperfomance.net, brought to you by Rip Toned Fitness Products. And today we're going to talk about joint action and how it relates to muscle action. And by that, I mean, if you're trying to work a muscle, you have to look at where the muscles attach and how they move the joint. That may sound complicated, but it's not.
The easy one that we're going to use today to demonstrate that is going to be the bicep and the tricep. And the reason why we're using that in combination is because they're both effected by the elbow joint, the muscle, when you're trying to work your biceps, doing curls, various different types of curls, the elbow joint is the joint that should be moving and no other joints should really be affected.
The same goes for the tricep on the opposite end. Obviously the bicep, the joint is going this way and the tricep that joint is straightening. So when we look it, let's start with the bicep, where once again, on another video, I talked about the lats and how you're trying to bring the origin and the insertion closer together. And that's how you get a proper contraction and also a proper stretch in a muscle, is by taking that origin insertion further apart to stretch, closer together to contract, pretty simple concept.
So it's actually a pretty easy way to show it with the bicep because it's very simple if you straighten your arm out, and the origin of the bicep is just up in kind of by the shoulder here, and then the insertion is down here by the elbow.
So to bring those closer together, very simple to understand, tricep basically being the exact opposite. The tricep has three heads of the bicep has two heads. And same thing, it attaches up here kind of upward the lat almost attaches, and then down at the elbow. So when that is being brought closer together, it's actually when it's straightened. So the elbow, because they're opposing muscle groups, the bicep shortens when it contracts this way, tricep is lengthened. Tricep shortens, bicep lengthens. So not too hard to understand.
But where people get kind of messed up is they think you need various and multiple different exercises for these different muscles for different, they're doing three, four or five different tricep exercises or bicep exercises. Now that isn't necessarily a bad thing, I'm all for variety, but some people don't have the option of doing that. Maybe they have a set of dumbbells, maybe they have a set of bands. Maybe they only have one dumbbell or something like that, where they're very restricted in what they can do.
And that's totally fine. You can still work your biceps and triceps or any muscle very well if you understand those concepts of where it attaches, where it inserts and then what joint is being affected. So using the biceps real quick, if you want to work your biceps effectively, you take the joint and you go, this is where the bicep actually contracts. So if your grip is narrower, this just doesn't feel natural but this is where you're going to get the best contraction.
Some people don't mind that, but because the elbow is not lined up, you can see it's a bit inward here, you're putting extra stress on that joint. So a real simple way to do it is put your arms down. And if you're going to do a curl with your hands up, just pay attention, relax to how, why they're going to need to be. And then just simply flex the joint and see where the hands come up to.
Now, that's going to give you a real good idea. If you were to be in here doing your curls, you're going to be... yes, you're still going to affect the bicep, but you're putting unnecessary stress on the joint and you're not going to be able to work the bicep effectively as you want. So if you stand nice and tall and just put your arms down like that, and you can turn your grip, even if you were to use a reverse grip, which I don't typically use a lot, but some people like to do it, your hands will find their own position. And then all that happens is the elbow flexes. So when we go to the side here and the elbow flexes, you see the only joint that's moving is the elbow, which means the bicep is getting the most contraction.
Now, if I was to pull now, another joint is being affected. I'm pulling with my wrist. So I'm not necessarily taking stress off of my bicep, but I'm not adding more. I'm just adding more, more stress to my form, which is a smaller muscle group. If the elbow comes out well, now it's the shoulder that's being affected. So quite often when people are doing curls, that's what they're doing, is they're not just working their bicep using the one joint of the elbow and bringing the insertion closer to the origin...
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• Joint and Muscle Action