Arms are an important body part to focus on when you’re building a body that women find attractive. I’ve heard that forearms are like cleavage on men, in that women will take a look at a guy’s forearms like a guy takes a look at a woman’s cleavage – any truth to this ladies? A woman may look for your arms, but she’s not even going to notice you unless you have a good frame. A woman wants to feel protected and safe in a man’s arms. Sculpted, muscular, and athletic arms are important to have in an attractive physique. However, you don’t want to have massive arms that are purely bulk, with no definition. You also don’t want to be supremely focused on your arms in your training either, letting the rest of your body take a back seat – a mistake I’ve seen far too often, especially with novice lifters.
Training to Build Athletic, Lean and Muscular Arms, that Serve a Purpose
Your Biceps, Triceps & Forearms are all relatively smaller muscles compared to the other muscles in your body. This means they’re going to recover a lot faster than say your back, or your legs might. What this means is you can place more stress on these muscles, without worrying about burning them out (stress, primarily in the form of reps, not weight).
When you’re first starting out focus on compound exercises when working arms. Exercises like close grip bench press and dips for triceps, and chin-ups and reverse grip bent over rows for biceps. Your forearms will be worked in any pulling exercise, but feel free to add in a farmer’s walk-type exercise if needed. Also for your forearm development, never use straps. If you can’t lift the weight with your own two hands, then don’t lift it.
When beginning, focus on strength and hypertrophy, using sets with reps up to 10 reps.
As you progress, add in higher rep counts, even burnout sets of 30 reps at the end of a set, or drop sets.
Weekly Split – Focusing on Arms
If you really need to build bigger arms, try this weekly workout split for three weeks. You’ll hit arms individually twice, but will also hit each muscle in the arms at least one other time during the week. For example, your triceps will be isolated 1 day, but they’re also worked when doing any pushing – such as certain chest or shoulders exercises. The same can be said for your biceps and any pulling exercise.
Start the week out with a legs day – the most important group of muscles when trying to build lean mass, improve your athleticism or burn fat – so you’ll also be hitting your legs twice in the week as well.
Day 1
Quads + Calves + Abs
Day 2
Back + Triceps
Day 3
Hips + Shoulders
Day 4
Chest + Biceps
Exercises
I’m not going to go too much into exercises, I’ll let you guys do that. I think the real magic happens in varying you rep and set counts when training your arms, not necessarily the exercises you choose.
To build muscle fast you need to present the body with a stimulus that it isn’t used to. This stress will cause the body to adapt by building itself up bigger and stronger.
Where most people go wrong is that they think they need to annihilate the muscle in order to elicit any type of response. This is counterproductive. When you annihilate the muscle with tons of sets, reps and constantly train to failure and beyond you drastically increase your recovery time. The problem with that is that training frequency is very important. So when you increase your recovery time you have to decrease your training frequency. You’re shooting yourself in the foot.
The key is to do just enough to stimulate size and strength gains but not annihilate yourself so that it takes forever to recover, or worse- that you put yourself in a state of over-training.
If you want to make consistent size gains you have to make consistent strength gains (in a hypertrophy rep range), while eating enough food and allowing enough time for recovery.
The body will respond to any given stimulus one time and one time only. If you place the same demands on it a second time (like pressing the same weight for the same reps) nothing will happen. You must always be forcing it to adapt and thus you must always ask it do something it isn’t used to.
The easiest way to do this is add more weight or do more reps with the same weight (but no more than 10-12 for the upper body and 15-20 for the lower body).
Aside from making consistent strength gains the next most important thing to consider is training frequency. To improve anything in life you need to do it frequently. Building muscle is no different.
So you want to train a muscle as frequently as possible, while it is in a fresh and recovered state. This means that you should be training each body part once every 2-5 days, and not once a week like a lot of the muscle mags recommend. That’s too little frequency. The more times you can stimulate growth throughout the year the better. Obviously 104 growth stimulating workouts per year for each body part would be a lot better than 52.
Summing it up, to build muscle fast you need to do the following three things:
- Constantly get stronger.
- Stimulate but don’t annihilate (12-16 sets per workout. Don’t go to failure)
- Train each muscle group more frequently than once per week.
1. Have a clearly defined goal. You can’t put 50 pounds on your squat, lose 50 pounds of fat and gain 50 pounds of muscle at the same time, while simultaneously training for a bodybuilding contest and a world record in the hammer throw.
2. Train for performance increases from workout to workout. It’s very hard to see size gains or even fat loss gains from day to day but you can see performance improvements on a regular basis, if you train properly.
3. Set PR’s as often as possible. You can’t do the same thing over and over and expect to see any results. Setting PR’s ensures results and fun.
4. But know when to back off. Deload weeks should be taken after 3-8 weeks of intense training.
5. Do fewer things better. ADD is a very bad thing. Pick the most productive exercises and methods and get good at them. It’s the best way to make long term progress.
6. Foam roll or use a PVC pipe before training. Hit the quads, hams, IT bands, glutes, inner thighs, calves, lower and upper back.
7. If you are going to static stretch because you need to in order to get into certain positions, the best time to do it is after you foam roll and before you start your dynamic warm up.
8. Use a lacrosse ball on your piriformis and upper back. You’ll hate me at the time but will thank me later.
9. Do some type of dynamic warm up for 5-8 minutes before you start lifting heavy. This should include low intensity hopping drills, leg swings, isometric bridging exercises, activation drills, etc.
10. Do hurdle mobility drills. Hip mobility is very important and goes quickly as you age.
11. Jump or throw something after your warm up and before you start your main lift. It fires up your CNS and better prepares you to move some heavy shit.
12. Be explosive on every set; even your warm ups (to a point, you don’t have to explode the empty bar so excessively that you dislocate your shoulder).
13. Don’t cause excessive fatigue on your warm up sets. But don’t rush them or neglect them either. Find the balance.
14. When working up to a heavy triple, double or single it’s best to use smaller jumps and take about 8-12 sets to get to your max. You will find that your top end sets feel lighter when you do this versus if you just jumped right into them after only a few warm up sets.
15. Squat.
16. Always squeeze the bar as hard as you can, trying to crush it, on every lift you do.
17. Squeeze your glutes tightly and brace your abs like you’re about to be punched on every standing exercise you do.
18. Always maintain optimal posture throughout your sets. Never let your shoulders slouch forward or your lower back round out.
19. Do more moving and supporting on your hands. Practice handstands against the wall, do Power Wheel hand walks, lateral hand walks, alligator pushups, partner assisted wheel barrow walks, etc. This is great for building up strength and stability in the shoulders.
20. Use thick handles or Fat Gripz and ropes as often as possible.
21. An awesome workout template goes like this- some type of jump or throw for power development, big barbell lift for maximal strength development, bodyweight exercises for assistance work, strongman finisher. Try it.
22. Don’t train to failure on a regular basis.
23. Don’t do slow, grinding death reps. They fry your CNS and slow down or even reverse your progress.
24. Don’t use less than 70% of your max on any exercise. The resistance won’t be enough to stimulate any size or strength gains and will serve very little purpose. (There are some exceptions but this is a pretty good rule to follow)
25. Jump rope.
26. Do the majority of your exercises in a standing position. You sit or lie down to relax; not to train.
27. Pick heavy shit up off the ground.
28. Always carry or drag heavy shit as part of your program (farmers walks rule).
29. Press, support or carry heavy shit overhead more often.
30. Do more pushups. If you are beyond the beginner level figure out creative ways to load them (weight vests, plates on back) or make them harder (suspended, 1 arm, etc.).
31. Decrease your rest periods.
32. Do something active at least 4-5 days per week. Three 45 minute heavy lifting sessions will get you strong, but you won’t necessarily be in shape or healthy. Try to find the balance of both.
33. Take one day completely off. The body needs a break once in a while.
34. Don’t train for more than an hour, max. Your testosterone levels will plummet and cortisol levels will skyrocket.
35. Run, jump, climb and crawl. It’s what your body was designed to do.
36. Work up to advanced levels of planks and side planks. Your spine will thank you later.
37. Listen to your body. When you have nagging pains it’s almost always better to train around them than through them. Trust me.
38. Take a week off when your body needs it. The older you get the more frequently you will need to do this. There’s no shame in doing so. It will keep you in the game longer.
39. Don’t do more than 10 reps on most upper body exercises and 15-20 reps on most lower body exercises.
40. Play.
41. Get at least 20 minutes of sunlight per day.
42. Do hill sprints.
43. Go to bed by 10:30 every night. Eleven at the latest.
44. Get 8-9 hours of sleep. It’s very difficult to get bigger, faster, stronger or leaner on minimal amounts of sleep.
45. Get up at the same time every day.
46. Take naps. It’s an awesome way to boost recovery and get a little surge of growth hormone.
47. Get Active Release.
48. Take contrast baths or showers after training. Hot as you can handle for 1-3 minutes. Cold as you can handle for 30-60 seconds. Repeat for 10 minutes. This really helps with recovery.
49. Get massages. Being dedicated to this on a regular basis lately has made a tremendous difference in how I feel. The key is to find a really good masseuse who really knows what’s up.
50. Train outside from time to time. Bring a bunch of stuff outside and get after it. Or just go to the park and do a bunch of bodyweight stuff on the monkey bars. But do something.
51. Meditate!
Start incorporating any or all of those tips today and pretty soon it will be impossible for you to walk into a room without people stopping to note, “That dude’s fuckin awesome.”
Let me know what you think of this list and feel free to add to it in the comments section below.
There is a potion that magically strips away pounds from your body, improves your overall health, lengthens your life, makes you more attractive to the opposite sex, and keeps you lean forever. Even better, you can have as much of this magic weight-loss potion as you want, for free, and start stripping away pounds—perhaps even several dozen pounds this year alone—without exercise or without dieting!
What is this magical elixir? It’s water.
Really? Yes! Really! You don't even need to mix in that fancy fat-burning stuff from the vitamin store. In fact, the less you supplement your food and beverage intake, the more weight you’ll lose (and the more money you’ll save).So begin your no diet weight-loss goals today. You'll sip your way to a flat belly in record time--and keep it well beyond summer.
Step 1: Swear Off the Soda and Iced Tea (Annual Weight Loss: 18 Pounds!)
The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey measured where most of our calories come from. Researchers broke up America’s food intake into 143 different categories and discovered, to their horror, that the category making up the largest percentage of our calorie intake—7.1 percent, to be exact—was not a food at all. It was soda. (Vegetables, on the other hand, accounted for only 6.5 percent of our intake. Chicken and fish together only added up to 5.7 percent.) To put that into perspective, if you ate an average of 2,500 calories a day, and you cut 7 percent of your calories, you’d automatically drop down to 2,325, a difference that would save you 1.5 pounds per month. You could be 9 pounds lighter in 6 months by going cold-turkey today! Another thing to remember: You're far better off eating your vitamins than drinking them.
Step 2: Drink 8 Cups of Water Every Day (Annual Weight Loss: 26 Pounds!)
Yes, the magic elixir really does have amazing powers. In one study, a group of 173 overweight women were put through diet and nutrition training using mainstream diet programs. Researchers then followed them for 10 months, with dietary and body composition being recorded up to 12 months after the classes. All women in the program lost weight, but those drinking more water lost more weight. Drinking more than 1 liter of water per day (nearly 4½ cups) was associated with an extra 5.07 pounds lost in 12 months.
And researchers from the University of Utah found that people who drink the most water have higher metabolisms. In a study, subjects drank 4, 8, or 12 cups of water each day. Those who drank at least 8 cups reported better concentration and higher energy levels, and tests showed that they were burning more calories than the 4-cups-a-day group.
Step 3: Enjoy One, Two, or Even Three Yogurt-Based Smoothies a Day (Annual Weight Loss: 10 Pounds!)
I love the sound of a cranking blender. But a combination of ice, dairy, and fruit does more than just make a teeth-rattling cacophony in your kitchen. It also helps strip pounds from your body.
There are three simple reasons why: Smoothies take little time to make (so you can quash your hunger pangs quickly), they’re packed with nutrition (especially if you start with Greek yogurt and add berries, whey protein, and some flax), and their thickness takes up a lot of space in your stomach, crowding out the Doritos. In fact, researchers at PurdueUniversity found that people stayed fuller longer when they drank thick drinks than when they drank thin ones, and a study at PennState found that people who drank yogurt shakes that had been blended until they doubled in volume ate 96 fewer calories a day than those consuming thinner drinks.
Step 4: Avoid Juice Drinks (Annual Weight Loss: 19 Pounds!)
Imagine a world in which we called products what they really were: Hungry Man Dinners would be called Lonely Man Dinners. ESPN would be called the Fat Nerds Yap about Jocks Channel. And SunnyD would be called Obesi-D because there’s nothing sunny about a drink marketed to kids that looks and tastes like juice, but is 95 percent water and corn syrup.
While even 100 percent juice has its problems, juice drinks and their ilk are the worse offenders. One 16-ounce bottle of SunnyD Smooth packs a whopping 180 straight-up empty calories and 40 grams of sugar. If you drink one a day, cut it out. You’ll lose 19 pounds in a year!
Step 5: Drink Coffee, Not Coffee Drinks (Annual Weight Loss: 18 Pounds!)
Researchers studied coffee habits in New York and found that two-thirds of Starbucks’ customers opted for blended coffee drinks over regular brewed coffee or tea. The average caloric impact of the blended drinks was 239 calories. The regular coffee or tea, by comparison, was only 63 calories after factoring in added cream and sugar. So even if you like your coffee sweet and light, you can strip away 176 calories every day, just by making this one swap.
Now, budding mathematicians among you may notice that all this adds up to a whopping 91 pounds lost in a single year. This is not good news if you weigh 125. (However, travel just got a lot cheaper because now you can mail yourself all over the world.) Fact is, unless you're currently engaging in all of the bad habits above, you probably don't have 91 pounds to lose.
But this five-point plan illustrates how extraordinarily easy it is to shed extra weight—a lot of weight—just by watching what we drink. And that, my friends, is something worth raising a glass to.
I have worked out with couple of athletes, weekend warriors, and average Joe’s. Some needed to drop a few pounds while others would be considered “hardgainers”; those guys that say “no matter what I do I can’t gain weight.” Thankfully, I had the remedy and was able to change their ways.
1. Sleep – If you want to pack on muscle, your hormones need to be optimal. Get at least 6 to 8 hours of sleep a day preferably at the same time every night. If you find that you are waking up fairly often, then supplements such as zinc, magnesium, cordyceps, ashwaghanda, and 5-HTP may help you out.
2. Eat 6 Small meals per day – If you want to get big you cannot skip meals. If you skip a meal you’ll never get it back! Hardgainers generally have higher metabolisms and need to eat more calories.
3. Get enough protein – You will need to get 1 – 1.5 times your bodyweight in grams of protein daily. If you weigh 150lbs that would be 150g-225g daily. Break that up into 6 meals and you should be in the range of 25-38g per meal. On workout days I like to be taking in a little more than on my off days.
4. Train at the same time – Studies show that if you are on a routine of getting to sleep, waking up, and training at the same time every day, then your results will be improved. Schedule your workouts like they are appointments that you will not miss.
5. During the workout – We recommend taking BCAA’s during your workout. We use Poliquin brand BCAA’s because they have the optimal ratio of Leucine, Isoleucine, and Valine. You need to take 15-20g during the workout, or don’t bother. This will help keep you in an anabolic state and give you the building blocks to repair your muscles after a grueling workout.
6. Post workout shake – We like to use a combination of Carbohydrates, Protein, and Glutamine. The amount works out to approximately 1g of Carbs per lb of bodyweight, 0.25g of protein per lb, and 0.10g of Glutamine per lb. Timing is important, so try to have it as soon as you finish your last set. Do not mix protein with liquids until right before you are going to ingest it.
7. Time under tension – If you want to put on muscle, you need to make sure that you are keeping your muscles working, or under tension, for 40 -70 seconds. We use tempo in our exercise prescriptions. Say you are performing a bench press at a tempo of 4010, 4 seconds down and 1 second up; that means every rep takes 5 seconds to complete. If you are doing 10 reps that’s 50 seconds that your muscle is under tension. That’s a huge difference from 10 reps at 1010. If you want your body to change, you need to push it to make it do so.
8. Choose Compound movements as your base – Squats, Deadlifts, Dips, Military Press, Chin Ups, Bench Press, and Bent Rows. You can do some isolation exercises, but these compound movements need to be your major lifts. Do not be afraid to lift heavy weights, either. When you are done your workout, you should be dragging yourself out of the gym.
9. Working out is not a social event – On your program you need to have specific rest periods. When you are done a set, start your stopwatch. When it reaches the specific time you’d better be lifting! Do not be hanging around talking to everyone that walks by…..maintain your focus! You can pick up girls on the weekend!
10. Train Hard …Then go Home – Your workouts should not keep you in the gym. After your general warm up (approximately 10 min) your workout should be 45 minutes to 1 hour. After that your testosterone levels start decreasing. You should be able to determine how long it takes by multiplying tempo x reps x sets and adding in the rest periods. We like to use antagonist muscle pairings to get more work done in less time. For example, Chest/Back. You perform a set of chest, rest, and then move on to the back. If you take 60s rest between sets it will be 2½ to 3 min between chest sets. You should be fully recovered and be able to handle more weight.
Hollywood seems to have a healthy obsession on Superheroes, So I was thinking, why not blog about some Super-Hero Inspired Muscle Building Techniques
Superman Back Extension: Lie face down on a hyperextension bench, tucking your ankles securely under the footpads. Adjust the upper pad if possible so your upper thighs lie flat across the wide pad, leaving enough room for you to bend at the waist without any restriction. Next, grab a pair of dumbbells keeping the abs and the midsection tight for optimal outcome as you raise both arms until the body comes to a straight line position making you look like superman flying. Hold to the position for few seconds and finally, lower yourself down This will help you achieve a well trained and defined core, works the lower back and other targeted muscles. Do 10 reps with this type of superman-enthused routine.
Spiderman Pull up - This type of muscle building routine is stirred by the superhero, Spiderman. All you have to do is grab a pull up bar with a handle grip. Raise your arms at a distance a bit apart from the shoulder width. Pull up with the use of your right hand with the right leg and knee bent concurrently. This workout routine gives a perfect picture of Spiderman climbing a wall - but this time one knee is lifted towards the bar. Once done and your chin reaches the top of the bar, you can repeat the same procedure with your left hand and knee in motion. This kind of body building routine helps strengthens the torso, arms and legs.
Thor's Hammer - This is considered as an excellent complete workout in building muscles specifically the biceps. This is done in a standing position with a barbell and your palm facing up. Start the routine by curling the weight up the shoulder and lifting the bar overhead. Next, you need to rotate your palm from a face up position to face forward as you try to push the weights as high as you can reach. It is important to note, that in a routine like this, twisting the wrists plays a major role in shaping and sculpting the forearms and the biceps all at the same time. Once done, you can switch arms and repeat the routine for a maximum of 10 reps on each side.
Hulk Super Leap - This position either does not need any equipment or you need a little elevated box, bench or something so sturdy enough that it wont collapse once you jump on it. All you do is stand on a mat with the hips and knees bent in a halfway squat position and both hands arch on the side. Swing both hands overhead as you blow up and on to the box. Upon the blast, immediately go back and land to your original half squat position.
You haven’t lived until you’ve experienced the pleasures of a great shave at a barber. This weekend, I went to a barber here in town to get a shave. I reclined in the plush old school barber chairs that had ash trays in the arm rests, a throw back to a time when people could smoke in public places. Then my shave commenced. The barber first wrapped a hot towel around my face. Next, the barber massaged in a lemon based cream to clean out my pores.
After that, several more hot towels were applied. By then, I was feeling nice and relaxed, on the verge of falling asleep relaxed. The barber then massaged in some cocoa butter to soften my beard. Next, the barber brushed a warm lather into my beard that smelled like man and not like that crappy artificial goo you buy in a can. The barber then took a piece of razor sharp metal and scraped my beard off for the closest, best shave I’ve ever had. Allowing another man to hold a razor to your neck is a good way to remind yourself that you’re alive.
To finish it all off, I got another hot towel wrapped on my face along with a final face massage with a soothing vanishing cream. When I stepped out of the shop, I felt like a new man, ready to take on the world.
