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After reading it all thoroughly and accurately you'll realize how the scientific knowledge is the most powerful weapon for being successful. This knowledge is able to change your mind, your views, and your body (thus your whole life) like no other!
This article is addressed to those people who want to train the arm muscles - with the appropriate kinesiology and biomechanic backed knowledge applied to the exercises in order to train efficiently - to get the maximum training stimulation from the exercises themselves, thus, making weight training a scientific approach and not something based on the advice of others whose knowledge may be inaccurate.
Every single joint of our body is crossed by different muscles with some exerting similar actions with different degrees of contribution accordingly to their intrinsic (length, thickness, form, dimension) and extrinsic characteristics (distal and proximal insertion) respectively. As a matter of fact this doesn't allow a muscle to be stimulated without the contemporaneous stimulation of the other (or others) which exert(s) the same action on the same joint! Bodybuilding through its thousands of different exercises aim to stimulate every single muscle of the human body in order to achieve a perfect balance in their growth and development. This respectable purpose, which makes our sport the best solution (compared to all the other sports) for stimulating all the muscles through specific weight training exercises, has been misunderstood by many.
By the way, since muscle isolation technically doesn't exist, no bodybuilding exercise allows single muscles (which share common actions on the same joint) to be stimlulated seperately. However, with the right variation and appropriate execution (which still refers to the same movement on the same joint), it is possible to put more emphasis on a certain muscle than another.
The "Standing Barbell Curl" and "Standing Barbell Curl Reverse Grip" involve the same movement: the "flexion of the elbow," but the variation in the grip - being supinated in the former and pronated in the latter exercise - determines a different selective stimulation among the arm muscles (on the "biceps brachii" and on the "brachialis" in the former and latter exercise respectively).
  Click To Enlarge. Standing Barbell Curl. Video: Windows Media - Real Player Model: Anna Serra, Photo By Frank Casillo.
 Click To Enlarge. Standing Barbell Curl Reverse. Video: Windows Media - MPEG - Video iPod Model: Anna Serra, Photo By Frank Casillo. This ability to stimulate different muscular recruitment within muscles sharing a common action, on the same joint, through particular arrangements on the movement execution, is known as selective stimulation. It means that through bodybuilding exercises it is possible to select the specific muscle to be recruited (being its recruitment prevalent in respect to the other agonist muscles), but not isolated and limited to it exclusively! Important: the word "agonist muscle" doesn't refer to a specific muscle nor to its specific movement. It is simply a name addressed to muscles sharing a common action on the same joint.
 Click To Enlarge. Author, Francesco Casillo.
The biceps brachii, brachialis and brachio-radialis flex the elbow. So all of them are agonist muscles in respect to each other in reference to the elbow flexion. Therefore the "same movement" and the "same joint" are the 2 presuppositions setting the characteristic of "agonist" to a group of muscles. The lacking of 1 of these 2 aspects doesn't allow the "agonist" presupposition to relate muscles to each other.
The biceps brachii and biceps femoris both flex, but they are not agonist to each other since their common movement is not related to the same joint.
Both the biceps brachii and triceps brachii act on the elbow, but they are not agonist to each other because they exert a different action on it (being flexion and extension for the former and latter muscle respectively). Also, the agonist aspect of a given group of muscles is not intended to be absolute, but relative to the specific movement they share in common among all the others they provide on the same joint.
 Click To Enlarge. Author, Francesco Casillo.
The brachialis "flexes" the elbow and the biceps brachii "flexes" and "supinates" the elbow, so they are agonist muscles in reference to the movement they share in common on the elbow, which is the elbow flexion. However, they are not agonist in reference to the supination of the elbow since only the biceps brachii supinates, while the brachialis does not!
This article isn't based solely on evidence of only using appropriate exercises to develop the arm muscles; it is much more than that! This tells you the WHY and HOW of different exercises or slight variations in the grip or body posture (still in reference to a same given exercise) determine different kinesiological effects, thus, effecting the muscles of the arm differently. This arm "dossier" will give you, once and for all, the knowledge you need to:
This arm dossier, therefore, represents a highly valuable guide for both the personal trainers, who are serious with their clients by giving them a rational arm weight training program, and athletes who are serious about their weight training and are willing to increase their knowledge on how to properly and totally stimulate the arm muscles.
 Click To Enlarge. Author, Francesco Casillo. The following article is the pure and deep application of kinesiology and biomechanics to bodybuilding arm exercises. This detailed article will definitely put you on the right path to scientifically hit your guns and make them grow! After you begin to read it you will realize how complex and fascinating arm training can be! In order to know how to selectively stimulate all the muscles which contribute to the well rounded shape and detailed build, then look to the arm, the knowledge of anatomy, and consequently the physiology of the involved joints. The "elbow" and "shoulder" represent the foundation to establish a scientific background for creating an effective weight training schedule in the attempt of achieving such purpose. Anatomy Of The Arms:
The elbow (with both its anatomy and physiology) represents the main joint to focus on since the arm muscles pass through it and act on it. This determines its actions: flexion, extension, pronation, supination.
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