Better Biceps in Minutes- Episode 402

We’re going to do that by working on a, what we call, neuromechanic drill for the musculocutaneous nerve. So, if you are going to the gym today and going to be doing some pull-ups, going to be doing some chin-ups, you have a history of biceps tendinitis, you have some golfer’s elbow or tennis elbow or some kind of other pain issue, it is often worthwhile to work on the musculocutaneous nerve. So what we’re gonna do first is we’re going to check your bicep contraction capacity. The way that we’re going to do that is by doing what I consider to be kind of a maximal isometric contraction. We’re not going to do that with a barbell instead. We’re just going to do it through movement. So put your arm out in front of you. I’m going be working on my left arm. Begin with your palm down. So first, we want to supinate so turn your palm up, you should feel some tension beginning to come up in the bicep. From here, now flex the elbow completely, as you continue to work on that supination. Should really feel the bicep intensifying the contraction. Elevate your elbow, a little bit, so flex the shoulder and then finally pull everything in at the same time and as you do that, you probably are getting pretty close to a cramp. So you just want to see how much tension you can create. Just make sure that you don’t hurt yourself because it is a really intense bicep contraction.

Now, the way that we do the nerve glide, just like we always teach in our neuromechancis section, is we’re going to be aiming
for a tension of 3 out of 10, so do not do this super intensely. We’re just going to start gradually and work our way in.
So, the basic setup is this. Begin in a neutral stance. Let your arm hang down by the side by your side. Now you’re going to grab your thumb with your other fingers. From here you’re going to push your wrist forward. All right, so thumb across, grab it. Push your thumb forward. Now make sure that you’ve locked your elbow and what I want you to do next is I want you to depress your scapula. So, pull your shoulder blade down, and then begin to take your arm back behind you a little bit. Depending on how your nerves are kind of arranged, you’ll begin to feel some tingling, typically right along the thumb side of the forearm.
If you’re feeling a stretch or some tingling there, that means that you’re impacting on the musculocutaneous nerve.
Some people will not feel anything, and they may need to add a little bit of either internal or external shoulder rotation in order to really feel that in the distribution. And so once you have that tension in the musculocutaneous, you want to tilt your head away, and then we’re going to do a little bit of the flossing If you want to think of it that way. So I’m going to bend my elbow, straighten my elbow. Everything else has to stay the same. So that’s a great starting point. From there I’m going to elevate my scapula, depress my scapula. And then finally I will do that with my neck. Typically three to five repetitions with each one of those, what we call drivers ,for the neuromechanic drill is a great place to start.