So you’re looking to growing muscles, huh?

You’ve probably searched all over the internet for the perfect workout that will give you those arms of steel like Arnold in his hey day. But search result after search results yields you zero satisfying results, causing you to feel discouraged. But fear not, Coach Keith’s got your back!

Growing muscles – Chasing the Pump!

Let’s start with the concept of time under tension. In order to optimize muscular growth, the muscles must remain under tension for a certain amount of time. The National Academy of Sports Medicine has prescribed certain tempos for resistance training movements to optimize your results.

For hypertrophy, or muscle growth, the desired tempo is 2-0-2, which means that for a dumbbell curl, you would take two-seconds to curl the weight up, zero seconds at the top, and two-seconds to lower the weight back to the starting position.

Whenever you see the combination of these three numbers for a tempo, always remember that the first number represents the tempo count in the eccentric phase (muscle-lengthening), the second number represents the tempo count in the isometric phase (pause at the halfway point), and the third number represents the tempo count in the concentric phase (muscle-shortening).

Knowing how to apply the proper tempo in your workouts is critical to building real muscle that will have necks turning every time you step foot outdoors.

Take the time to concentrate on each repetition and focus on the contraction each time to fully feel the muscle engaging.

For dumbbell bicep curls, using the 2-0-2 tempo, flex your triceps during the isometric portion of the movement when your elbow goes from flexion to extension.

This will ensure that your biceps are going through a full range of motion during the movement, giving you optimum results. Exhaling as you reach the top (concentric) portion of the dumbbell bicep curls will allow you to control you breathing and execute the following repetitions with ease.

Now go pick up some dumbbells because it’s time to gain some serious lean muscle!