I like doing 5-6 sets of a big exercise, like BB curl, and slowly racheting up the intensity, say 50-100% as you move to different sets, while keeping the weight constant. I usually start with about 30 seconds between sets, increasing to 2 min for the 4th and 5th set, then back down to 30 for the 6th. The slow increase in intensity just teases my muscles, and preps them for a huge pump. Continued…
I’ve always found that keeping your body tense while doing slow curls does wonders.
That and weighted chins with a long negative and supersetted by close grip bench presses.
I only do this when I’m gaining mass, and it feels like my biceps are going to pop through my skin by the time I’m done. I do the same thing with overhead ext. for triceps. After those workouts, I swear my arms have gained like 2 inches, though they do deflate a bit later… : )
for big arms first is biceps, do standing curls at 3 different widths,
inside shoulders,at the shoulders and
outside shoulders, increasing weight
on each set. triceps do pulldowns and dips (with weights if possible).
hope my advise is good…cause i would like to try the grow…
Barton
I was suffering from biceps tendinitis in the right arm for a couple months, until I found the “Cure for Tendinitis” in an old issue of TMag. I started doing what was essentially daily sets (2x15) of eccentrics for the right arm, using very light DBs to start and working upards in weight slowly. In order to not let the left arm lag behind (it was always slightly smaller), I usually chose a DB that was slightly heavier than the one I was using for the sore right arm. I matched the right arm’s reps on the left arm, with the heavier DB.
In 8-10 weeks, my biceps tendinitis was all but gone. What surprised me, though, was that I had actually added about a half inch to my right bicep, and MORE to the left bicep, because it was closer in size to the right than it had ever been before.
Since then, I’ve re-read “100 Reps to Bigger Muscles” and realized that the daily attention using weights that didn’t cause overload was an ideal environment for growth. I’m now starting to use the “100 Reps” method for other body parts.
After a couple months, I’m going to go back to daily eccentrics for the biceps, and see if I can add some more (especially since I won’t be starting with an injury).
Tim
chins on a doorway chinning bar with the door closed (forearms against door). Works the biceps differently than curls.
Rob Gray
To hit my forearms hard nothing works better (for me) then the good old hockey stick twister. Take an old hockey stick and tie a rope to the middle so that when you hold the stick horizontally at shoulder level the other end touches the ground. Tie the ground end to a db or plate. Now you twist the stick in your hands so the rope wraps around the stick until the weight touches the stick. DO NOT let the weight fall, slowly roll it back to the floor. Burns like hell, but builds nice strength.
Tip 1) Use EDT for arms, and only arms.
Tip 2) For bicep development, do bicep curls at high volume every day. Doesn’t work if you’re overtraining the rest of ya, though.
Like everybody else has already said, compound movements are the best. My personal favorites are dips, chins, and one-arm deadlifts for grip/forearms.
I’ve found my arms (both bi’s and tri’s) respond best when I throw in some high rep direct arm work at the end of a workout that indirectly ‘hit’ the muscle. Therefore I suggest throwing in some strict high rep (i.e. 10-15 reps)db curls and/or cable curls on the day one trains their back and skull crushers and/or cable tri pressdowns on chest days. Keep the tempo controlled, the movement strict, and hit them hard at the end and watch 'em grow!
To develop the arms:
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Do Close grip rack presses. This does wonders for the triceps. Follow this up with some explosive triceps pushups. Then do your other exercises. Do this twice per week.
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For biceps train 3 days a week, doing 2 sets per day. One day do regular dumbell curls with a moderate weight, cutting it 1 rep short of failure. The next day should be reverse curls, one rep away from failure. The last day should be pull-ups, holding it at the top for 5 seconds, to failure.
Do the tricep and bicep exercises for four weeks and its a guaranteed muscle/strength gain!
Deads, pulls, dips, cg-bench will all lead to big guns.
The only tip I can add to this large ammount on knowledge is this: I have found that I get a much better reaction from my tri’s if, at peak contraction, I hold the weight for 2 seconds and flex the tri’s as hard as possible.
Try doing one arm barbell curls, as opposed to using dumbells. The extra work of stabilizing the BB will fry your grip muscles and your forearms. Good stuff!
Blasting the Bi’s with barbell curls followed by Scott curls works really well for me. Alternate weekes with standing dumbell curls followed by hammer or preacher curls.
For the Tri’s heavy close grip bench press and weighted dips do wonders. Follow it up with skull crushers.
forget those people that spend hours doing 15 sets of differet curls, Incorporate compund movements in to ur training routine, Dips, Chins, Pulls, Deads, Push Press, which is amazing for forearms.
Then only do around 5-7 sets focusing on curls with heavy weights and providing ur eating well ur arms will grow.
A monster finishing exercise for both biceps and forearms that me and a buddy used to do that totally thrashed our arms AND gave great results when used sporadically:
The movement is performed on a preacher curl bench.
Using the broomstick or the lightest bar you can find, perform as many reps as possible (to failure) while your buddy provides manual resistance both eccentric and concentric. Give 100% on every rep until you cannot lift the broomstick/bar by yourself.
On really good days we would perform 3 or 4 sets this way, going to failure each time.
You might need someone to drive you home. Good Luck!
~Jason
Focus on chins and big movements before you focus on small movements like preacher curls. Nothing wrong with those, just don’t leave out the big stuff.
I find that a heavy 5 by 5 works well,with one day stimlating the biceps more (preacher curls and dumbell press) and the othe day stimulating the triceps more (close grip bench press, parrallel grip rows) Obviously, the days are not two days in a row.
For triceps, make sure to hit all three heads of the tricep. Weighted dips and close grip bench are awesome exercises. You get explosive power from them and will make massive gains. Supinated grip tricep pulldowns will hit the medial head of the tricep very well.
With biceps, I personally feel that the superset of CT’s Gironda Perfect Curl (which can be found in T-Mag issue 303 under the article “Violent Variations”) followed up by Zottman Curls really gets a complete bicep workout. You are putting such a great amount of tension on the biceps during the Gironda Perfect Curl, and then following up with Zottman Curls where you get to hit not only the biceps brachii, but also the brachioradialis and brachialis muscles, which will hit the full bicep.
As always, proper form is key when doing all of the exercises.