Flex

When you want to flex to impress people, you need to first build up some muscles to show off. The biceps, abdominals, and pectorals are the primary muscles that you’ll want to bulk up. Basic weight curls are the easiest way to build your biceps. Sculpt defined ab muscles by hitting each part of the abdominal, as well as eating right and being consistent in your workouts. Increase the mass of your pec muscles by doing close-hand pushups and increasing your reps on bench press.

Steps

Flexing Your Biceps

1. Make a fist. Form the hand of the arm your want to flex into a tight fist. The simple action of forming a fist already begins to tighten your muscles. It's impossible to fully flex your arms if you don't make a fist first.
2. Extend and tense your arm. Straighten your arm either downward or out to the side. This lets the arm start at its most expanded state. Starting with a straight arm and a fist gives you the best ending result.
3. Bend your elbow slowly to tighten your bicep. Raise your hand upward and bend your elbow. Go slowly so the tension builds through your muscle as it tightens. Focus your energy into tightening the muscles in the arms. Hold the position to showcase your muscles. Don't hold a flex for too long before you release it.

Curling to Build Your Biceps

1. Use dumbbells or barbells to build your biceps. Choose whichever type of weight is available to you and you are most comfortable with. Use dumbbells to work each arm on its own, or use barbells to work both arms at the same time. Each has its benefits and limitations.
   • Dumbbells give your arms a broader range of motion because the arms move separately, while barbells require your hands to remain in one position.
   • A drawback to dumbbells is that you risk one arm doing more work than the other arm, which will grow your muscles unevenly.
2. Start the lift with your arms hanging at your sides. Grab weights that you can lift. As you perform the lift, keep your elbows pressed tight to your sides. If you feel them starting to drift forward to rest on your hips, resist that feeling.
   • Drifting your elbows to the front of your body lets other muscles assist with the lift, which takes focus from the biceps.
3. Bend your elbow and raise the weights to the level of your chin. Perform the lift slowly, using only your biceps to lift the weights. Keep your back straight and don’t rock as you lift. Don't arch your back or you’ll engage other muscles, which reduces the strengthening of your biceps.
   • If you can’t get the weights up to the level of your chin, you need to carefully set the weights down and use lighter ones.
   • If you have not lifted much before, it may take a few tries to find the weights that are right for you.
   • As you are lifting, the main thing is to focus your energy solely on your biceps. Using any other muscles to assist in the lift reduces the effectiveness.
4. Tense the bicep muscle while the weight is up. Push your biceps further by tightening your bicep muscles while your elbows are bent. This extra tensing of the muscle increases the strengthening of the muscle with each rep that you do.
5. Lower the weights slowly. After you’ve completed the curl and tensed your biceps, slowly extend your elbows so the weights hang down where they began. Lowering the weights slowly is the most important part because it affects the strengthening of the biceps.
   • It takes more work to lower them slowly than it does to let them fall, so slow is the most effective option.

Defining Your Abdominals

1. Hit each section of abdominal muscles. Your abs have three main sections: the upper abdominal, lower abdominal, and the obliques. Make sure that when you are doing ab exercises you specifically target each of these parts of muscle group. Each part adds to the overall look of your abs.
   • There are many ab exercises that target each part of your abs, so do some research to find exercises that you feel the most comfortable with.
2. Perform the bicycle crunch to work your lower abs. Lay flat on your back with your legs straight and your hands behind your head. Bend one knee and lift the opposite elbow up to touch the knee. Repeat with the other leg and arm.
   • The number of reps that you do is up to you. Start with a low number of reps and work your way up to more reps.
3. Perform V-ups to work your upper abs. Lay flat on your back with your legs out straight on the floor and your arms extended overhead on the floor. Slowly raise your legs and arms at the same time until they are in a “V” shape. Hold it for one second, then slowly lower your arms and legs back down.
   • This may be difficult for you if you have not done a lot of abdominal work before. Perform only as many reps as you feel comfortable with.
4. Perform Russian twists to work your obliques. Sit on the floor with your knees bent and your upper body almost straight up. Hold a medicine ball or a weight, or don’t use a weight at all but lock your hands in front of you. Twist slowly to the left as far as you can and hold the position for one second. Then twist to the right as far as you can and hold it.
   • Repeat this motion for the desired number of reps.
   • You’ll get a harder workout with a weight, but this is a good exercise for you if you have not done many ab exercises before.
5. Work out your abs consistently. Don’t expect to do one day of abs each week and make significant progress. You also can’t do three hard days in a row and then take two weeks off. Get on a routine that works for you and stick to it. It’s good to do an ab routine three non-consecutive days a week.
6. Reduce the number of calories you take in. If you want to see your abs, you need to lose spare fat that’s stored on your body. Doing lots of ab exercises will not help if you don’t reduce your calorie intake. Commit to an eating plan that reduces your overall intake. Defining your abs starts with your diet.
   • You don’t have to join a specific diet program like South Beach or Weight Watchers, although these can help. All you need to do is evaluate how much you are eating and work to consistently reduce the amount.
   • Besides quantity of food, this also deals with quality. Reduce the fat, sugar, and overall calorie count of your daily food intake.

Emphasizing Your Pectorals

1. Move your hands closer together when you do push ups. Place your hands so that they are almost touching forefingers and thumbs in a diamond shape. Lower yourself slowly and engage the pecs when you push up.
   • Standard push ups place your hands about shoulder width apart, but moving the hands closer together targets your pectoral muscles, as well as your triceps.
2. Do a high number of reps with lower weight on bench press. Muscle is built over time with multiple reps, not by busting out the highest weight possible on one rep. It’s okay to push for a high max once in awhile, but don’t forget that reps are what build your pec muscles.
3. Rest your muscles so that they grow. Exercising your muscles is sort of like tearing them, while resting gives them a chance to repair. Do pectoral exercises twice a week, a few days apart, and let them rest and grow on the other days. Flex and stretch them on the days where you are not doing exercises.

Sources and Citations

See also

• Supplement Your Stretching Routine With Dynamic Stretching
• Stretch Before a Bicycle Ride
• Do the Windshield Wiper Stretch
• Get Rid of Sore Muscles
• Stretch Your Inner Thighs
• Stretch the Upper Back
• Do the Splits in a Week or Less
• Do a Handstand
• Get a More Flexible Back
• Stretch

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