Top Body Buffers

Toughen up with 8-12 bicep curls

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Big Bang:

Another two-pronged wallop from Darden.

First, a set of 8-12 standing bicep curls with a barbell, lifting the bar up from your thighs until it almost touches your shoulders—slowly and smoothly to isolate the biceps as much as you can. Remember, you work hardest when you are pushing the weight directly up, so focus intently on the middle part of the lift, and don't stop to rest when the bar reaches your shoulders. Keep your elbows back (glancing against your sides) throughout the lift to keep the focus on your biceps (bring your elbows too far forward and the shoulder muscles are now helping out).

With no more than 3 seconds rest go right into a set of 10 underhanded-grip chin-ups (hands shoulder width apart). If you can't do this, try negative chin-ups instead, hopping up onto a chair, grabbing the bar, then lowering yourself very slowly for 8-10 seconds, as many times as you can.

Avoid:

Fully extending your arms during a preacher bicep curl. Preachers are done on a preacher machine, which you'll find in many gyms (Sitting upright in a seat, your arms are out in front of you, the backs of your arms resting on a pad that slopes down and away). Preachers are a great bicep exercise, says Westcott, but when you let your arm flatten out completely at the beginning of the lift, you're creating a problem. There's no stress at all on the bicep, plus the first part of the lift puts all the stress on the wrist, forearm and elbow, and they can't handle the kind of weight your bicep can."Don't go all the way down," says Westcott. "Sacrifice a little bit of the movement range to protect yourself against injury to the forearm, wrist and elbow."

Games to Play:

Climbing, water skiing, and wrestling.

Move on to Introduction, Upper Back, Lower Back, Shoulders, Chest, Triceps

Tone up with GORP's guide to Lower Body Workouts .