Little Secrets for Great Arms Training tips 1BigBosnian

Almin

Ramic

Last two or so years I started getting many compliments about my arm size and shape. At first I did not

give it a much attention, but recently I’ve started thinking about it. What is the main difference, what

changed in my training 3-4 years ago when compared to first 15 years of training? So I’ve came up with

the short list of 5 things that have made a difference for me.

1. Arm Training Day

For years I have trained Biceps and Triceps a secondary muscle group, meaning it was

always addition to the chest, or back, sometimes even leg training. This is not bad, but if you

are at a beginner or an intermediate stages of your training. Yes, bi’s and tri’s do work on

those days, but in order to build some serious mass, you need to start to focus more on

them as a primary muscle group. So, my bi’s and tri’s got a training day of their own.

2. Range Of Motion and Isolation

This is very important for both biceps and triceps. As you progress through your arm

workout use different angles to focus on different biceps and triceps heads. Consider adding

movements that better isolate the muscle. Concentration and preacher curls, in which your

arm is stabilized completely eliminates your ability to use momentum to aid you in the

movement and requires you to reduce the amount of weight you use. Often in the gym we

can see “that guy” that is definitely pushing or curling too much weight on an isolation

exercise, where he is missing the range and using lots of other muscle groups to completely

“un-isolate” the movement. Of course, in a serious training there is a place for a cheat set,

or a few cheat reps in a set to stimulate that mass growth, but not every set or every rep of

each set should be a cheat, and definitely not on an isolation exercise.

When curling, gravity force is pushing down on the bar, against your biceps, until the bar

gets too high. That means when

you curl the bar up to your chest,

there's no or little force on the bar

for the last quarter of the rep.

Meaning, you get to rest at the top

of your rep because there's no

force pushing down once the bar

passes a certain point. So if you are

doing a preacher curl, one of my

favorite biceps mass building

exercises, and your range of motion

is from your chest to half way

down, with too much weight, you

are missing the point. If you want

your curls to be really hard, start at

the bottom and stop as soon as you feel that force diminishing. Stopping your reps at peak

force contraction (going from 0 (straight arm) to 110 degrees) will make every rep much,

much more effective.

Triceps Extensions, my favorite, no

matter what grip, rope, v-bar or straight

bar you use, just do it right. It should

work only your triceps, not your back,

shoulders or any other muscle group. It is

an opposite of biceps curl, basically you

go from that 110 degree angle down to 0.

Feel your muscle contract when in the

bottom position. If you can’t feel contraction that means you are using too much weight.

3. Feel The Pump

After warming up, do relatively heavy sets as low as 6 reps to really stimulate your arms.

Challenge yourself! Do not let your biceps get accustomed to the weights you are using. So

push yourself especially on those first sets before fatigue starts to set in, and on the last

exercise focus on the exercise that will bring that volcano to a blowing up point. I started

using my form of 21 reps exercise for biceps as a final exercise, every other arm workout (on

days that I do triceps first). It drains you, it is 84 reps that sends you packing to go home.

Basically, it is done with cables with EZ bar attached to it. 7 reps of close grip, than 7 of wide

grip followed by 7 reps of reverse grip, for four sets. Each set you change the grip order, so

basically 1st and 4th are the same.

I do the same for triceps extension, using EZ bar attachment on the cable. 7 reps close grip,

7wide grip and 7 reverse wide grip for final 4 sets of my triceps exercise on ever other arm

workout day (Day I do Biceps first).

4. Change It Up

Falling into a routine is one of your biggest enemies in the gym. So change it up. For my arm

workout I not only change the order and type of exercises I do, but I change up the muscle

group I do first. So one day I will do Biceps first, and other day it will be the triceps. This

allows for symmetrical approach to grow both muscle groups. There is nothing less

appealing that seeing someone with overdeveloped biceps and underdeveloped triceps, and

vice versa.

5. Surprise The Muscle

This is a final, but most important tip that I can give. Surprise the muscle. I remember that

for a certain period of time I would come to gym and do my arms two days in a row, just to

shock them, but approach like this requires great nutrition and of course rest.

So next time you come to gym after doing your lagging body part yesterday think about

this.