Up in Arms
One of the biggest thrills for a guy who lifts is when a gorgeous gal walks up to him, grabs the bulging arm hanging out of his T-shirt and says, ‘Wow, I really love your muscles.’ (Of course, if she grabbed somewhere else and said it, it would be even better, but that’s rare’unless you’re in Amsterdam.) Yep, most every guy reading this wants huge arms, the kind that cause double takes and lure the ladies’at least the ones who, as one of my friends put it, ‘like some testosterone with their salad’ (I don’t know exactly what that means, but it has a ring to it.)
Okay, I’ve stated the obvious: Big arms are cool, you’d like yours to get bigger, and your next vacation is going to be in Amsterdam. Now for the not so obvious: How the hell can you get big arms? Every guy wants them, but few have them, so there must be some secret that only a few know about, right? Of course! There’s a big-arm fairy you summon who sprinkles magic grow dust on your biceps and triceps. Then you rub the EZ-curl bar three times and.’ Okay, I’m kidding, although I once knew a guy at a gym who said he had magic oils he wanted to rub on guys’ arms, but that’s another story.
The problem is, most trainees don’t analyze the growth process, and those who do simply aren’t willing to put in the time and effort to build gargantuan guns. What? You say you’re not like most, and you’re willing to give it your all after you understand how to make it happen? It must be the thought of all the gorgeous gals who’ll be squeezing your enlarged ham hocks (arms, that is; you’re not in Amsterdam yet).
All right, then, let’s start with the analytical part because I’m not a big fan of following a program blindly. If you’re like me, you want to know the reasons you’re doing certain exercises. In other words, you want to connect the whys with the hows. Let’s get to it so you can turn your guns into cannons.
Make a Muscle
According to Michael Wolf, Ph.D., the following changes are associated with increases in muscle size and strength:
1) The actin and myosin protein filaments increase in size.
2) The number of myofibrils increases.
3) The number of blood capillaries within the fiber may increase.
4) The amount of connective tissue within the muscle may increase.
5) The number of muscle fibers may increase. There are a few other things that govern hypertrophic actions, such as anabolic-hormone availability and proper nutrition, but let’s start by focusing on the mechanics of making muscles grow.
Muscles contract when tiny levers on myosin, a muscle protein, fit into grooves on actin, another protein, and push the actin forward like a ratchet wrench. That’s the sliding-filament theory. Research suggests that to increase the size of those protein filaments, you should train in the seven-to-12-rep range with heavy weights. If you do that often enough, striving for more weight or reps or both, you stress the anaerobic type 2, or fast-twitch, muscle fibers, which will positively affect the actin and myosin filaments and increase the number of myofibrils, groupings of those proteins (see 1 and 2 above).
To increase the number of capillaries in a muscle, item 3, you have to push as much blood into it as possible and keep it there long enough to force your body to further develop its blood-flow network to make the muscle function optimally. In other words, you have to challenge its blood capacity on a regular basis. The ideal method for making that happen is to use drop sets, a technique in which you simply perform a second set of the same exercise immediately after the first but with a lighter weight. A double drop can be even better’you reduce the weight a second time and immediately continue with a third set.
Drop sets do a number of other good things besides filling out the muscle structures with more capillaries:
‘They extend the tension time on the target muscle, which can help trigger hypertrophy in muscle fibers that are more endurance oriented. That’s especially important for hardgainers, as they usually have fewer pure fast-twitch fibers and more endurance-oriented fibers.
‘They create a more favorable anabolic-hormone profile. Studies suggest that techniques that increase tension time on the muscles and create a lactic acid burn can lower the pH of the blood and stimulate growth hormone release (Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology. 22:244-255; 1997). As for increasing the amount of connective tissue (item 4), you can do that by emphasizing heavy weights on compound, or multi-joint, exercises. Most trainees know that the basic compound exercises are best for mass stimulation because they overload the target muscle with the heaviest poundages. Common practice is to use them for most bodyparts’squats for quads, for example. But how often do you see trainees using compound exercises in their arm routines? Hardly ever, and that’s a mistake. You’ve got to use compound exercises for arms if you want to get ‘em larger than life quickly. We’ll get to the best exercises for that purpose in a moment.
Increasing the number of muscle fibers (item 5) is probably the most controversial. It’s known as hyperplasia, and some researchers believe it to be fantasy. Nevertheless, animal-based studies have shown that it does occur as a result of ‘stretch overload’ (Antonio, J., and Gonyea, W.J. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. 25:1333-45; 1993). The possibility of even small increases in the number of fast-twitch fibers is reason enough to use stretch-position movements’or employ a stretching regimen for each bodypart after you finish training it. Even if hyperplasia doesn’t occur, stretching and stretch-position exercises stimulate the release of insulinlike growth factor 1, or IGF-1, an extremely potent anabolic hormone. They also do good things for connective tissue (item 4), so stretching triggers more growth any way you look at it. Now you have the first part of the big-arms equation: medium reps, compound exercises, heavy poundages, blood flow and stretching. There’s one more variable, and it has to do with maximum contraction.
ALLLoad Your Guns
The biggest complaint from guys who have trouble getting their arms to XL proportions is, ‘I can’t feel my biceps and/or triceps contracting.’ They also rarely get a pump in those muscles. What’s the problem? Lack of neuromuscular efficiency, meaning the nerve-to-muscle connections. If your neuromuscular efficiency isn’t so good in either your biceps or triceps, you’ll have a hard time creating the type of intense contractions that stimulate sleeve-stretching size. (By the way, hardgainers have poor neuromuscular efficiency in almost all bodyparts, which is one of the big reasons they’re hardgainers in the first place.)
So, how do you heighten your neuromuscular efficiency? Two of the best ways are by using unilateral, or single-limb, exercises and static contraction.
Studies show that when you do a one-arm curl, for example, you get more muscle fibers involved than with a two-arm curl. That heightened muscular response can go a long way toward getting your biceps higher. The same goes for one-arm pushdowns and filling out your triceps. Yes, one-arm movements take longer to perform than the two-arm variety’in effect, you have to do each set twice’but the boost in results is well worth it.
Static contraction involves holding a poundage in a muscle’s completely contracted position for as long as you can and jacking up the poundage when you can hold it for more than 30 seconds. That continuous flexing will build neuromuscular efficiency fast’if you can stand the pain. You may be thinking, ‘Oh, isometrics.’ That’s not it, however. Isometrics has you contract a muscle against a stationary object. There’s no progression, or weight increase. And because you just pull as hard as you can, you never really know if you’re pulling with all you’ve got or subconsciously holding back. Static contraction, as defined by John Little in his book Max Contraction, involves progressively increasing the poundage. That’s the essence of progressive resistance, and it will teach the muscles to contract harder. [Note: We'll have a feature from Little on his Max Contraction method'how it works and how to apply it'in the next issue of IRON MAN. It's must reading for the thinking bodybuilder.]
Anabolic Arm-ageddon
Now that you have a grasp of why muscles grow, let’s apply that analysis to the muscles of the upper arm so you can understand the specific how-tos and get some attention-grabbing new mass where it counts.
Triceps. The first order of business is to hit your triceps with a compound exercise, a movement that uses more than one joint and brings in other muscles to help them contract against heavy resistance. The two best are probably dips, arms close to your torso, and close-grip decline-bench presses’performed on a Smith machine, if possible, so you can totally focus on pushing without having to worry about balancing the bar. In both of those movements you straighten your arms down near the triceps’ completely contracted position’which is actually when the elbows are locked and slightly behind the torso’as in a kickback. So why not just use kickbacks? Because the kickback is an isolation exercise, so you get no synergy from other muscles and have to use light weights, not what you’re looking for in a first exercise.
Another good compound triceps exercise is bench dips. That’s where you set up two flat benches a few feet apart and parallel to each other and position yourself faceup with your hands on the edge of one and your heels on the other. Dip till your butt almost touches the floor, then drive back to the contracted position. The problem is that as you get stronger, you’ll have to pile weights on your lap to increase the resistance, and that can be awkward, not to mention dangerous. A heavy fixed dumbbell is probably your best bet, but warn your partner to place it on your lap gently’and don’t let anything get pinched, or you’ll be talking in a Michael Jackson pitch for a few days.
What about close-grip flat-bench presses? Not as good as the other three because your arms are farther away from the triceps’ contracted position. It’s not the best of the bunch, but it will work in a pinch.
You do three straight sets of your chosen compound exercise, adding weight on each successive set to hit a variety of fiber types. The last set is a drop set. You rest no more than one minute after each set’taking no rest on the drop set, of course.
Next you want to crank up neuromuscular efficiency and continue to expand the capillary network. (Thanks to the drop set at the end of your compound exercise, you should have a pretty good pump already, so you’re on your way to mind-blowing engorgement.) The best movements for accomplishing those tasks are contracted-position exercises’ones that put the target muscle in a peak-contracted state against resistance. For triceps they include one-arm kickbacks and one-arm pushdowns. Remember, one-arm movements provide a better muscular response than two-arm movements. For your first set you use static contraction: Pick a weight you can hold for 20 seconds in the contracted position’arm locked. Try to increase your hold time at each successive workout, and increase the poundage when you can hold it for at least 30 seconds.
Do one static-contraction set for each arm, then do a drop set for each arm. Pick a weight that enables you to get eight reps, and when you hit failure, immediately pick up a lighter weight and crank out at least six more reps. If you’re really motivated’or you enjoy excruciating pain’do a double drop’that’s three progressively lighter sets performed in rapid succession. Repeat with the other arm. You can do a second drop set if you feel you need it. Most trainees won’t even want to consider it.
Last on the list is a stretch-position exercise that encourages anabolic-hormone release, hyperplasia, a.k.a. fiber splitting, and connective-tissue density. You have a few choices here: overhead extensions performed with a barbell, two dumbbells or one dumbbell; or lunging cable pushouts done with a rope. It’s best to do the overhead extensions seated with back support if you can, as that helps protect your back. For cable pushouts hook a rope attachment to a high cable, grab an end in each hand, face away from the machine, and lean forward into a lunge so that your torso is parallel to the floor. Allow the rope to pull your hands back behind your head for triceps stretch, then contract your triceps to extend your arms to lockout. At the finish position your arms are on the same plane as your torso, parallel to the ground.
‘The position at which the target muscle is elongated is the most important part of stretch exercises’that’s where you should really feel a pull in the muscle. The key is to reverse the movement as soon as you feel maximum stretch in the target muscle. That will prevent it from relaxing and activate the myotatic reflex, an emergency response that can get more fibers into the action. To make your stretch-position exercise even more effective, you do a drop set to continue the capillary expansion and finish with a bone-deep ache and pump. Ready? Here’s a sample triceps routine:
Dips or close-grip
decline presses 3 x 9, 7, 6(5)
One-arm kickbacks or
one-arm pushdowns
(static) 1 x 20-30 sec.
One-arm kickbacks or
one-arm pushdowns
(drop set) 1-2 x 8(6)
Overhead extensions
(drop set) 1 x 8(6)
A quick warning about stretch-position exercises: They are vital for best results; however, they can also be dangerous, as the muscle is in an extreme elongated state against resistance. Use poundages that are very manageable, and don’t bounce or heave the weights. Keep your form strict!
Biceps. The best compound exercise for biceps is the undergrip chin. Use a grip that’s slightly narrower than shoulder width and pull up till your chin clears the bar. If you can’t do nine good reps, use undergrip pulldowns instead. You can also try undergrip rows with a barbell, on a cable or on a rowing machine. Undergrip chins are the best of the bunch, however, because they’re the most natural movement, have the longest stroke, or range of motion, and provide the best muscle synergy with the biceps as the prime mover. As with triceps you pyramid the weight over three sets on the compound exercise and do a drop set on the last one.
Next you want a unilateral movement that gets the biceps into its fully contracted position. Unfortunately, you hit that position when your elbow is pointing toward the ceiling and your biceps is flexed, with your forearm back behind your head. Think of the finish position of an overhead triceps extension but with your palm facing down and resistance pulling up. You may be able to rig an overhead cable to do behind-the-head curls, but it may feel awkward. Nevertheless, experiment. The old Nautilus Compound Biceps machines that supported your upper arm next to your ear and allowed you to curl your hand back behind your head created a killer biceps movement. Check out the following quote from Roger Schwab about Mike Mentzer using that machine:
‘Mike was very partial to a Nautilus machine called Compound Biceps. But Nautilus made two biceps machines by that name’the second version was one that you did one arm at a time, pulling the movement arm down behind your head, and then you switched to the other side and did the other arm. The first time he did it, he contracted his biceps behind his head so intensely that his biceps muscles actually cramped up and he dropped the weight. Afterward, his biceps were contracting involuntarily, but he got used to it. His arms were absolutely huge.’
Odds are you don’t have access to that particular Nautilus machine, so try a cable setup. If that doesn’t work, use the spider bench’that’s the vertical side of a preacher bench’and a dumbbell, which will get you fairly close to the fully contracted position. If you don’t have a spider bench, use concentration curls.
Do your first set in static-contraction style and your second as a drop set, just as you did for the kickbacks in the triceps routine. Your biceps should be throbbing after those two sets, so it’s time to finish them with a drop set of a stretch-position exercise to encourage hyperplasia and anabolic-hormone release. The best stretch-position exercise is the incline dumbbell curl. Set the bench at about 45 degrees, if you can stand that amount of stretch. And don’t forget to quick twitch out of the bottom’that is, don’t pause, but instead use a quick reversal of movement. ‘ Here’s a sample biceps routine:
Undergrip chins 3 x 9, 7, 6(5)
One-arm spider curls
(static) 1 x 20-30 sec.
One-arm spider curls
(drop set) 1-2 x 8(6)
Incline curls (drop set) 1 x 8(6)
Super Squats and Other Growth Stimulators
While stretch-position exercises have been shown to increase IGF-1, compound exercises that use the largest muscles in the body can trigger more testosterone, another key anabolic hormone (anabolic steroids are synthetic replications of testosterone). For that reason you should squat and/or deadlift at least twice a week. Those two exercises get so many muscles involved that a veritable testosterone cascade is inevitable. Diet is also key. Eat six meals a day, with at least 20 grams of protein at each meal’30 grams is better’and about 40 grams at your postworkout meal, as that’s when your body is most primed for anabolic action.
The bodypart split you use is also very important. When you’re going for big arms, it’s nice to have at least one workout that’s all arms. That sharpens your focus and will produce exceptional results. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of overlap when you work other bodyparts’when you train back, you work biceps, and when you train chest, you work triceps. So if you really want to kick your arm size into high gear, you may have to maintain the rest of your bodyparts with one workout a week. Here’s a sample program using that strategy. You do an upper-body/lower-body split for the other bodyparts, and you don’t train your arms two days in a row:
Monday: Arms, abs
Tuesday: Quads (include squats), hamstrings, calves
Wednesday: Chest, back, delts
Thursday: Rest
Friday: Arms, abs (could include
deadlifts for anabolic
stimulation)
Saturday and Sunday: Rest
That won’t fly with a lot of bodybuilders because they can’t stomach training all of their other bodyparts only once a week. If you’re in that category, you need a different split, but it has to be one that minimizes overlap so biceps and triceps don’t get trained two days in a row. That means separating chest and back and then adding triceps to the end of chest day and biceps to the end of back day. No, it’s not as focused as working arms alone, and you may be somewhat weaker when you get to your arm exercises; however, your arms will be thoroughly warmed up from the previous indirect work. Okay, maybe I’m rationalizing, but you can still make excellent gains when you blast arms after a bodypart that works them indirectly. Here are two samples, a six-day split and a four-day split:
Monday: Chest, delts, triceps
Tuesday: Quads, hams, calves
Wednesday: Back, biceps, abs
Thursday: Chest, delts, triceps
Friday: Quads, hams, calves
Saturday: Back, biceps, abs
Sunday: Off
You can also make the above a three-on/one-off regimen by taking a rest day after every third workout. Here’s a four-day version. This one mixes it up with upper- and lower-body parts:
Monday: Back, biceps, hams, calves, abs
Tuesday: Quads, chest, delts, triceps
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Back, biceps, hams, calves, abs
Friday: Quads, chest, delts, triceps
Saturday and Sunday: Off
Decisions, decisions. Of course, you can just substitute the biceps and triceps programs in this article for the ones you’re using now and keep your split as is, whatever that may be. Just be sure you’re not training arms two days in a row, or you’ll compromise your gains.
One last point: To get your biceps to really jut toward the sky when you flex them, you should develop the brachialis, a muscle that snakes under the biceps and connects down in the forearm. The best exercises are incline hammer curls and cable hammer curls. Do a double drop on either of them or two supersets using them both at the end of your biceps program, and you’ll have sky-high bi’s in no time. [Look for a feature on brachialis development in the next issue.]
If you do the exercises right, minimize overlap and eat correctly, you’re guaranteed some spectacular new arm growth with the above routines and techniques. Oh, and you’ll get plenty of attention from the ladies’no vacation to Amsterdam necessary.
Editor’s note: Steve Holman is the author of Train, Eat, Grow: The Positions-of-Flexion Muscle-Training Manual. It’s available for $19.95 plus shipping and handling from Home Gym Warehouse. To order call 1-800-447-0008 or visit www.home-gym.com. IM
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Up in Arms
How to Build Yours to Outrageous Proportions FastOne of the biggest thrills for a guy who lifts is when a gorgeous gal walks up to him, grabs the bulging arm hanging out of his T-shirt and says, ‘Wow, I really love your muscles.’ (Of course, if she grabbed somewhere else and said it, it would be even better, but that’s rare’unless you’re in Amsterdam.) Yep, most every guy reading this wants huge arms, the kind that cause double takes and lure the ladies’at least the ones who, as one of my friends put it, ‘like some testosterone with their salad’ (I don’t know exactly what that means, but it has a ring to it.)
Okay, I’ve stated the obvious: Big arms are cool, you’d like yours to get bigger, and your next vacation is going to be in Amsterdam. Now for the not so obvious: How the hell can you get big arms? Every guy wants them, but few have them, so there must be some secret that only a few know about, right? Of course! There’s a big-arm fairy you summon who sprinkles magic grow dust on your biceps and triceps. Then you rub the EZ-curl bar three times and.’ Okay, I’m kidding, although I once knew a guy at a gym who said he had magic oils he wanted to rub on guys’ arms, but that’s another story.
The problem is, most trainees don’t analyze the growth process, and those who do simply aren’t willing to put in the time and effort to build gargantuan guns. What? You say you’re not like most, and you’re willing to give it your all after you understand how to make it happen? It must be the thought of all the gorgeous gals who’ll be squeezing your enlarged ham hocks (arms, that is; you’re not in Amsterdam yet).
All right, then, let’s start with the analytical part because I’m not a big fan of following a program blindly. If you’re like me, you want to know the reasons you’re doing certain exercises. In other words, you want to connect the whys with the hows. Let’s get to it so you can turn your guns into cannons.
Make a Muscle
According to Michael Wolf, Ph.D., the following changes are associated with increases in muscle size and strength:
1) The actin and myosin protein filaments increase in size.
2) The number of myofibrils increases.
3) The number of blood capillaries within the fiber may increase.
4) The amount of connective tissue within the muscle may increase.
5) The number of muscle fibers may increase. There are a few other things that govern hypertrophic actions, such as anabolic-hormone availability and proper nutrition, but let’s start by focusing on the mechanics of making muscles grow.
Muscles contract when tiny levers on myosin, a muscle protein, fit into grooves on actin, another protein, and push the actin forward like a ratchet wrench. That’s the sliding-filament theory. Research suggests that to increase the size of those protein filaments, you should train in the seven-to-12-rep range with heavy weights. If you do that often enough, striving for more weight or reps or both, you stress the anaerobic type 2, or fast-twitch, muscle fibers, which will positively affect the actin and myosin filaments and increase the number of myofibrils, groupings of those proteins (see 1 and 2 above).
To increase the number of capillaries in a muscle, item 3, you have to push as much blood into it as possible and keep it there long enough to force your body to further develop its blood-flow network to make the muscle function optimally. In other words, you have to challenge its blood capacity on a regular basis. The ideal method for making that happen is to use drop sets, a technique in which you simply perform a second set of the same exercise immediately after the first but with a lighter weight. A double drop can be even better’you reduce the weight a second time and immediately continue with a third set.
Drop sets do a number of other good things besides filling out the muscle structures with more capillaries:
‘They extend the tension time on the target muscle, which can help trigger hypertrophy in muscle fibers that are more endurance oriented. That’s especially important for hardgainers, as they usually have fewer pure fast-twitch fibers and more endurance-oriented fibers.
‘They create a more favorable anabolic-hormone profile. Studies suggest that techniques that increase tension time on the muscles and create a lactic acid burn can lower the pH of the blood and stimulate growth hormone release (Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology. 22:244-255; 1997). As for increasing the amount of connective tissue (item 4), you can do that by emphasizing heavy weights on compound, or multi-joint, exercises. Most trainees know that the basic compound exercises are best for mass stimulation because they overload the target muscle with the heaviest poundages. Common practice is to use them for most bodyparts’squats for quads, for example. But how often do you see trainees using compound exercises in their arm routines? Hardly ever, and that’s a mistake. You’ve got to use compound exercises for arms if you want to get ‘em larger than life quickly. We’ll get to the best exercises for that purpose in a moment.
Increasing the number of muscle fibers (item 5) is probably the most controversial. It’s known as hyperplasia, and some researchers believe it to be fantasy. Nevertheless, animal-based studies have shown that it does occur as a result of ‘stretch overload’ (Antonio, J., and Gonyea, W.J. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. 25:1333-45; 1993). The possibility of even small increases in the number of fast-twitch fibers is reason enough to use stretch-position movements’or employ a stretching regimen for each bodypart after you finish training it. Even if hyperplasia doesn’t occur, stretching and stretch-position exercises stimulate the release of insulinlike growth factor 1, or IGF-1, an extremely potent anabolic hormone. They also do good things for connective tissue (item 4), so stretching triggers more growth any way you look at it. Now you have the first part of the big-arms equation: medium reps, compound exercises, heavy poundages, blood flow and stretching. There’s one more variable, and it has to do with maximum contraction.
Load Your Guns
The biggest complaint from guys who have trouble getting their arms to XL proportions is, ‘I can’t feel my biceps and/or triceps contracting.’ They also rarely get a pump in those muscles. What’s the problem? Lack of neuromuscular efficiency, meaning the nerve-to-muscle connections. If your neuromuscular efficiency isn’t so good in either your biceps or triceps, you’ll have a hard time creating the type of intense contractions that stimulate sleeve-stretching size. (By the way, hardgainers have poor neuromuscular efficiency in almost all bodyparts, which is one of the big reasons they’re hardgainers in the first place.)
So, how do you heighten your neuromuscular efficiency? Two of the best ways are by using unilateral, or single-limb, exercises and static contraction.
Studies show that when you do a one-arm curl, for example, you get more muscle fibers involved than with a two-arm curl. That heightened muscular response can go a long way toward getting your biceps higher. The same goes for one-arm pushdowns and filling out your triceps. Yes, one-arm movements take longer to perform than the two-arm variety’in effect, you have to do each set twice’but the boost in results is well worth it.
Static contraction involves holding a poundage in a muscle’s completely contracted position for as long as you can and jacking up the poundage when you can hold it for more than 30 seconds. That continuous flexing will build neuromuscular efficiency fast’if you can stand the pain. You may be thinking, ‘Oh, isometrics.’ That’s not it, however. Isometrics has you contract a muscle against a stationary object. There’s no progression, or weight increase. And because you just pull as hard as you can, you never really know if you’re pulling with all you’ve got or subconsciously holding back. Static contraction, as defined by John Little in his book Max Contraction, involves progressively increasing the poundage. That’s the essence of progressive resistance, and it will teach the muscles to contract harder. [Note: We'll have a feature from Little on his Max Contraction method'how it works and how to apply it'in the next issue of IRON MAN. It's must reading for the thinking bodybuilder.]
Anabolic Arm-ageddon
Now that you have a grasp of why muscles grow, let’s apply that analysis to the muscles of the upper arm so you can understand the specific how-tos and get some attention-grabbing new mass where it counts.
Triceps. The first order of business is to hit your triceps with a compound exercise, a movement that uses more than one joint and brings in other muscles to help them contract against heavy resistance. The two best are probably dips, arms close to your torso, and close-grip decline-bench presses’performed on a Smith machine, if possible, so you can totally focus on pushing without having to worry about balancing the bar. In both of those movements you straighten your arms down near the triceps’ completely contracted position’which is actually when the elbows are locked and slightly behind the torso’as in a kickback. So why not just use kickbacks? Because the kickback is an isolation exercise, so you get no synergy from other muscles and have to use light weights, not what you’re looking for in a first exercise.
Another good compound triceps exercise is bench dips. That’s where you set up two flat benches a few feet apart and parallel to each other and position yourself faceup with your hands on the edge of one and your heels on the other. Dip till your butt almost touches the floor, then drive back to the contracted position. The problem is that as you get stronger, you’ll have to pile weights on your lap to increase the resistance, and that can be awkward, not to mention dangerous. A heavy fixed dumbbell is probably your best bet, but warn your partner to place it on your lap gently’and don’t let anything get pinched, or you’ll be talking in a Michael Jackson pitch for a few days.
What about close-grip flat-bench presses? Not as good as the other three because your arms are farther away from the triceps’ contracted position. It’s not the best of the bunch, but it will work in a pinch.
You do three straight sets of your chosen compound exercise, adding weight on each successive set to hit a variety of fiber types. The last set is a drop set. You rest no more than one minute after each set’taking no rest on the drop set, of course.
Next you want to crank up neuromuscular efficiency and continue to expand the capillary network. (Thanks to the drop set at the end of your compound exercise, you should have a pretty good pump already, so you’re on your way to mind-blowing engorgement.) The best movements for accomplishing those tasks are contracted-position exercises’ones that put the target muscle in a peak-contracted state against resistance. For triceps they include one-arm kickbacks and one-arm pushdowns. Remember, one-arm movements provide a better muscular response than two-arm movements. For your first set you use static contraction: Pick a weight you can hold for 20 seconds in the contracted position’arm locked. Try to increase your hold time at each successive workout, and increase the poundage when you can hold it for at least 30 seconds.
Do one static-contraction set for each arm, then do a drop set for each arm. Pick a weight that enables you to get eight reps, and when you hit failure, immediately pick up a lighter weight and crank out at least six more reps. If you’re really motivated’or you enjoy excruciating pain’do a double drop’that’s three progressively lighter sets performed in rapid succession. Repeat with the other arm. You can do a second drop set if you feel you need it. Most trainees won’t even want to consider it.
Last on the list is a stretch-position exercise that encourages anabolic-hormone release, hyperplasia, a.k.a. fiber splitting, and connective-tissue density. You have a few choices here: overhead extensions performed with a barbell, two dumbbells or one dumbbell; or lunging cable pushouts done with a rope. It’s best to do the overhead extensions seated with back support if you can, as that helps protect your back. For cable pushouts hook a rope attachment to a high cable, grab an end in each hand, face away from the machine, and lean forward into a lunge so that your torso is parallel to the floor. Allow the rope to pull your hands back behind your head for triceps stretch, then contract your triceps to extend your arms to lockout. At the finish position your arms are on the same plane as your torso, parallel to the ground.
‘The position at which the target muscle is elongated is the most important part of stretch exercises’that’s where you should really feel a pull in the muscle. The key is to reverse the movement as soon as you feel maximum stretch in the target muscle. That will prevent it from relaxing and activate the myotatic reflex, an emergency response that can get more fibers into the action. To make your stretch-position exercise even more effective, you do a drop set to continue the capillary expansion and finish with a bone-deep ache and pump. Ready? Here’s a sample triceps routine:
Dips or close-grip
decline presses 3 x 9, 7, 6(5)
One-arm kickbacks or
one-arm pushdowns
(static) 1 x 20-30 sec.
One-arm kickbacks or
one-arm pushdowns
(drop set) 1-2 x 8(6)
Overhead extensions
(drop set) 1 x 8(6)
A quick warning about stretch-position exercises: They are vital for best results; however, they can also be dangerous, as the muscle is in an extreme elongated state against resistance. Use poundages that are very manageable, and don’t bounce or heave the weights. Keep your form strict!
Biceps. The best compound exercise for biceps is the undergrip chin. Use a grip that’s slightly narrower than shoulder width and pull up till your chin clears the bar. If you can’t do nine good reps, use undergrip pulldowns instead. You can also try undergrip rows with a barbell, on a cable or on a rowing machine. Undergrip chins are the best of the bunch, however, because they’re the most natural movement, have the longest stroke, or range of motion, and provide the best muscle synergy with the biceps as the prime mover. As with triceps you pyramid the weight over three sets on the compound exercise and do a drop set on the last one.
Next you want a unilateral movement that gets the biceps into its fully contracted position. Unfortunately, you hit that position when your elbow is pointing toward the ceiling and your biceps is flexed, with your forearm back behind your head. Think of the finish position of an overhead triceps extension but with your palm facing down and resistance pulling up. You may be able to rig an overhead cable to do behind-the-head curls, but it may feel awkward. Nevertheless, experiment. The old Nautilus Compound Biceps machines that supported your upper arm next to your ear and allowed you to curl your hand back behind your head created a killer biceps movement. Check out the following quote from Roger Schwab about Mike Mentzer using that machine:
‘Mike was very partial to a Nautilus machine called Compound Biceps. But Nautilus made two biceps machines by that name’the second version was one that you did one arm at a time, pulling the movement arm down behind your head, and then you switched to the other side and did the other arm. The first time he did it, he contracted his biceps behind his head so intensely that his biceps muscles actually cramped up and he dropped the weight. Afterward, his biceps were contracting involuntarily, but he got used to it. His arms were absolutely huge.’
Odds are you don’t have access to that particular Nautilus machine, so try a cable setup. If that doesn’t work, use the spider bench’that’s the vertical side of a preacher bench’and a dumbbell, which will get you fairly close to the fully contracted position. If you don’t have a spider bench, use concentration curls.
Do your first set in static-contraction style and your second as a drop set, just as you did for the kickbacks in the triceps routine. Your biceps should be throbbing after those two sets, so it’s time to finish them with a drop set of a stretch-position exercise to encourage hyperplasia and anabolic-hormone release. The best stretch-position exercise is the incline dumbbell curl. Set the bench at about 45 degrees, if you can stand that amount of stretch. And don’t forget to quick twitch out of the bottom’that is, don’t pause, but instead use a quick reversal of movement. ‘ Here’s a sample biceps routine:
Undergrip chins 3 x 9, 7, 6(5)
One-arm spider curls
(static) 1 x 20-30 sec.
One-arm spider curls
(drop set) 1-2 x 8(6)
Incline curls (drop set) 1 x 8(6)Super Squats and Other Growth Stimulators
While stretch-position exercises have been shown to increase IGF-1, compound exercises that use the largest muscles in the body can trigger more testosterone, another key anabolic hormone (anabolic steroids are synthetic replications of testosterone). For that reason you should squat and/or deadlift at least twice a week. Those two exercises get so many muscles involved that a veritable testosterone cascade is inevitable. Diet is also key. Eat six meals a day, with at least 20 grams of protein at each meal’30 grams is better’and about 40 grams at your postworkout meal, as that’s when your body is most primed for anabolic action.
The bodypart split you use is also very important. When you’re going for big arms, it’s nice to have at least one workout that’s all arms. That sharpens your focus and will produce exceptional results. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of overlap when you work other bodyparts’when you train back, you work biceps, and when you train chest, you work triceps. So if you really want to kick your arm size into high gear, you may have to maintain the rest of your bodyparts with one workout a week. Here’s a sample program using that strategy. You do an upper-body/lower-body split for the other bodyparts, and you don’t train your arms two days in a row:
Monday: Arms, abs
Tuesday: Quads (include squats), hamstrings, calves
Wednesday: Chest, back, delts
Thursday: Rest
Friday: Arms, abs (could include
deadlifts for anabolic
stimulation)
Saturday and Sunday: Rest
That won’t fly with a lot of bodybuilders because they can’t stomach training all of their other bodyparts only once a week. If you’re in that category, you need a different split, but it has to be one that minimizes overlap so biceps and triceps don’t get trained two days in a row. That means separating chest and back and then adding triceps to the end of chest day and biceps to the end of back day. No, it’s not as focused as working arms alone, and you may be somewhat weaker when you get to your arm exercises; however, your arms will be thoroughly warmed up from the previous indirect work. Okay, maybe I’m rationalizing, but you can still make excellent gains when you blast arms after a bodypart that works them indirectly. Here are two samples, a six-day split and a four-day split:
Monday: Chest, delts, triceps
Tuesday: Quads, hams, calves
Wednesday: Back, biceps, abs
Thursday: Chest, delts, triceps
Friday: Quads, hams, calves
Saturday: Back, biceps, abs
Sunday: Off
You can also make the above a three-on/one-off regimen by taking a rest day after every third workout. Here’s a four-day version. This one mixes it up with upper- and lower-body parts:
Monday: Back, biceps, hams, calves, abs
Tuesday: Quads, chest, delts, triceps
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Back, biceps, hams, calves, abs
Friday: Quads, chest, delts, triceps
Saturday and Sunday: Off
Decisions, decisions. Of course, you can just substitute the biceps and triceps programs in this article for the ones you’re using now and keep your split as is, whatever that may be. Just be sure you’re not training arms two days in a row, or you’ll compromise your gains.
One last point: To get your biceps to really jut toward the sky when you flex them, you should develop the brachialis, a muscle that snakes under the biceps and connects down in the forearm. The best exercises are incline hammer curls and cable hammer curls. Do a double drop on either of them or two supersets using them both at the end of your biceps program, and you’ll have sky-high bi’s in no time. [Look for a feature on brachialis development in the next issue.]
If you do the exercises right, minimize overlap and eat correctly, you’re guaranteed some spectacular new arm growth with the above routines and techniques. Oh, and you’ll get plenty of attention from the ladies’no vacation to Amsterdam necessary.
Editor’s note: Steve Holman is the author of Train, Eat, Grow: The Positions-of-Flexion Muscle-Training Manual. It’s available for $19.95 plus shipping and handling from Home Gym Warehouse. To order call 1-800-447-0008 or visit www.home-gym.com. IM
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