“Prediction?…….PAIN.”

Few realize the amount of actual PAIN one must endure to significantly increase the size of any muscle.

No…. it is not enough to simply work out with a clever plan and good work ethic. Yes… that helps, but trust me… if you really want large muscles, be prepared to endure A LOT of pain. What do I mean by pain? Well, I am not talking about performing exercises in bad form, cheating to lift as much weight as you can (although that technique could be used). I am talking about ripping the muscle fibers. Without causing damage to the muscle fibers, there will not be much growth (if any). That’s right. If you don’t rip the muscle to some degree, and your primary goal is muscular size, you are not going to get there. All the fancy, schmancy workout routines, super supplements, and attention to your diet are not going to help you one bit; UNLESS you are ripping the muscle. How do we know when we are ripping the muscle? Well, stepping into any gym will tell you that most do not have the first idea as to what it means to inflict this sort of damage upon the muscle fibers. Why do so many men want bigger muscles, but so few have them? Because they lack the methodology to apply the pain, or they are just unwilling to endure it.  Taking "supplements", or steroids, can help... An acquaintance of mine suggested another solution years ago - inject your lagging muscles with Synthol. Whatever. Your choice.  Both are temporary fixes.  Actually, using Synthol is just plain idiotic.

But let’s talk about building bigger arms, specifically biceps - the iconic muscle group of bodybuilding.

We will attack biceps (literally) because that was the original topic for this article and because you can take the simple concepts presented here and apply them to any muscle group you like. I performed my first biceps curls with weights when I was 12 years old - 6th grade, 5'2" tall, weighing 102 pounds.  The way I first learned to train them was instrumental to the way I trained them as my knowledge naturally grew with time, experience and self education.  I no longer train biceps directly because they too easily grow out of proportion to my other muscle groups when I apply this system.  Without training them directly, my arms measure about 17.5" cold (my waist is 33").  If I applied this system, as written for 3 months, they would be back over 19" (cold).  I do not want that.  My goals with training right now, do not include getting bigger and heavier. It's difficult to give every concept the detail it deserves in a written article.  A video would likely help a lot more. But try to read this article carefully and apply it exactly as written - there is real gold here. Lastly let me explain one thing. I invent nothing – I only rediscover. I don’t claim that I have existed in isolation for 35 years and emerged with these totally original methods that no one else ever thought of. I have many teachers. Where I would take credit, I pass along to them, and I know, they would pass along a measure of credit to their teachers.  Ask me who my mentors are, in any subject area, and I will happily tell you. Now, onto the training... First let’s assume you train biceps more frequently than once a week AND that you work biceps on a separate day from your Lat work (pulling and rowing movements). By the way, training biceps the same day as lats NOT the optimal way to put size on the biceps.  The main advantage of using a split routine is you have more time to devote to working each muscle group. If you want bigger biceps, wouldn’t you want more dedicated time to concentrate on that bodypart? So, why would you put biceps on the same day as lats? You cannot train the biceps as INTENSELY after doing your lats. Working lats hard is pretty exhausting. You don’t have enough energy to work biceps the same day. Biceps can tolerate more frequency than lats is another good reason to put them on separate training days. Here are two splits that I like for growing the arms; SPLIT 1 - aka "Superstrong Hams and Huge Biceps" Program Day 1: Chest, Hamstrings, Calves, and Core Day 2: Triceps, Biceps Day 3: Shoulders, Lats, Forearms Day 4: Quads, Traps, Calves and Core Day 5: off Repeat You can perform this schedule as written, or you can put in more rest days in between training days, as needed.  You might need to put another rest day after Day 1, 2, or 3; tailor it based on your individual work capacity; if you find the frequency between same bodypart workouts drops to 7 days or more, try Split 2 instead. Also, you must decide on the number of exercises per workout based on what needs more work AND based on how much work (volume) you can handle. Discussion of manipulation of the training volume warrants its own article. Stay within 1-4 exercises per bodypart. Yes, this split has a lot a press work. There is some fine print to SPLIT 1.  If your average day to day workout intensity stays within roughly 60-80% RM, then you can workout 4 days in a row without burning out your Central Nervous System (CNS).   A four days "on", one day "off" rotation will break if you try to maintain intensities of 85-100%.  The CNS cannot recover from that.  Assuming you apply the appropriate intensities, you have 4 Options for using this system: Option 1: "Old School" aka Powerlifters' Choice

• Heavy (H) / Light (L) Format
• H=4-6 reps/set, L=8-12 reps/set

 Example:

• H Chest, L Hams
• L Triceps, H Biceps
• H Shoulders, L Lats
• L Quads, H Traps
• L Chest, H Hams
• H Triceps, L Biceps
• L Shoulders, H Lats
• H Quads, L Traps
• Repeat

Option 2: Same idea as Option 1, but now Heavy (H)="MAX" and Light (L)="SPEED" I credit Louie Simmons as the primary person to apply this frame of thinking.  Remember;

• "MAX", in this case, means a 4, 5, or 6 RM (Repetition Maximum), and
• "SPEED" means flipping the sets and reps (instead of 3 sets of 10 reps, perform 10 sets of 3 reps, for example)

You should research Louie Simmons' methods by checking out Westside Barbell Book of Methods - I highly recommend this book. Option 3: Bodybuilders' choice

• Lever movement / Compound movement Format
• Lever = single joint movement, Compound = multi-joint movement
• 8-15 reps/set, 40-70 seconds time under tension per set

Example:

• Day 1: Chest - lever exercises (flyes), Hams - compound exercises (sumo squat, sumo deadlifts)
• Day 2: Triceps – compound exercises (presses/dips), Biceps - lever exercises (curls)
• Day 3: Shoulders - lever exercises (front, side, rear raises), Lats - compound exercises (pulls/rows)
• Day 4: Quads - compound exercises (squats, conventional deadlifts), Traps - lever exercises (shrugs)
• Day 5: Chest - compound exercises (presses), Hams - lever exercises (leg curls, SLDL, RDL)
• Day 6: Triceps – lever exercises (tricep extensions), Biceps - compound exercises (pulls/rows)
• Day 7: Shoulders - compound exercises (overhead presses), Lats - lever exercises (pullovers)
• Day 8: Quads - lever exercises (knee extensions), Traps - compound exercises (upright rows)
• Repeat

Option 4: Similar to Option 3

• work on a different exercise (change your primary exercise) EVERY workout.

SPLIT 2 Day 1: Chest and Biceps Day 2: Quads and Triceps, core Day 3: Shoulders, Lats, Hamstrings, core Repeat This routine can be done on a Mon, Tue, Thur, Fri schedule. You could add more days if you wanted (Saturday, for example), just keeping the rolling format.

A Word About Overtraining

I have heard the "overtraining" concerns and remarks often, as both a coach, and a trainee.  Indeed, I recognize that training with too much volume, frequency, and intensity in my microcycles (6 days) and macrocycles (13 weeks / quarter year) incessantly, without days off, appears to be my perennial error.  However, the vast majority of trainees are UNDER training, but they think they are "overtraining" because of lack of progress. The lack of progress  has more to do with starting every diet and training program on the next convenient Monday usually after days or even weeks off from consistent training and sensible eating.  Or that the most important lift in your program is the bench press (Day 1, exercise 1, barbell bench press!).  Or that you "don't like" to train legs.  Or that you do the same things over and over again, making the same mistakes, and expecting a different result.  So, before you go blaming it on "overtraining", perform a little introspection. Maybe your lack of progress is due to your multitude of bad habits. As an old Coach of mine would say, “You cannot sustain progress when you are out until 2am every night at the DiscoTech.”  In other words, if you have bad habits like staying up late at night (for no good reason), drinking soda, living on energy drinks, drinking alcohol, or taking drugs, it is going to be difficult for your to convince your body to put on muscle. Now for the biceps routine. The underlying principles to this routine are quite sound. I could go into a long diatribe as to why this works, why this doesn’t, etc, etc. All this “scientific explanation” doesn’t mean jack if it doesn’t produce real-world results. Plus, this article is already way too lengthy to add all that. ROUTINE 1A Exercise 1 Standing Straight Bar Curls; It doesn’t get anymore basic than this exercise, but it is of crucial importance than you adjust your form to my suggestions. GRIP; Narrow! Line up your grip by wrapping the middle fingers or the ring finger around the knurling lines (where the smooth of the bar meets the rough), about 14” apart? POSTURE; Feet together! Soft knee position, Retract scapula, start position is bar against the front of the thighs, at the top position the wrists should be cocked down slightly. TEMPO; Slow! 5-0-1 in strength coaches notation - 5 second eccentric (lowering the weight against gravity), 0 second pause in the fully extended arm position, 1 second concentric (raising the weight against gravity) (see Poliquin Principles 3rd Edition). YOU MUST control the weight on the negative (eccentric phase); this is where you rip the muscle.  Think of the set as a series of eccentrics (lowering the weight against gravity); you are just setting up for the eccentric by raising the weight to the top position. Number of sets; 4 or 5 worksets (after a adequate warmup). Number of reps; 5-8 per set. Rest interval; about 1 minute – time it! Amount of weight; as much as you can handle under these loading parameters. THE KEY; You are in a standing position which allows for cheating. HOWEVER, you should use a weight that allows you to barely perform 8 clean reps on the first set. The number of clean reps is going to decrease each set due to fatigue/incomplete recovery. We want that. On the remaining sets (sets 2, 3, 4, and maybe 5), perform as many clean reps as you can, AND ONLY THEN, cheat the bar to the top position and RESIST on the 5 sec eccentric. Try for eight total reps, but if you cannot control the eccentric, terminate the set on that rep! Exercise 2 Concentration Curls Drop Sets. POSTURE; Sit down on the edge of a flat bench. Leaning over in a seated position, stabilize one elbow against your inner thigh. Further brace the elbow with the other hand by making a fist and locking it against the elbow on the thigh. Absolutely no cheating on this one. Bottom position is FULL EXTENSION of the arm, but maintain tension in the bicep. In the top position, the wrist should be cocked down, and you should feel a hard contraction in the bicep. TEMPO; 5-0-2. Slower IS better. If you try to use the heavier weight, you won’t get the best effect. Make the light weight feel heavier by making the form more difficult. Be as strict as possible! Go lighter in weight if you have to. Again concentrate on the lowerings, feeling the ripping of the muscle as you perform the eccentric. SETS AND REPS; Yes…. I said drop sets. You need 3 dumbbells. You should be able to perform 2-5 reps with the first dumbbell (primary weight). Once you fail with the first dumbbell, IMMEDIATELY grab the second dumbbell and continue. You should failure with the second weight between 5-7 reps (NO CHEATING, in fact, try to make the form more difficult so that you fail sooner). Once you fail with the secondary weight, grab the third dumbbell IMMEDIATELY and continue. You must perform 8-12 reps with this tertiary weight in PERFECT FORM! (Here’s the pain!) The only thing that should stop you is the pain. If you don’t feel like crying, you did not execute the dropset properly. That’s one “round”. Example of the three weights someone might use; 50-25-15 dumbbells; generally you are grabbing half and half again. Round up – half of 25 is 12.5; pick 15. You might even go 50-30-20. Picking the right weights requires some trial and error. Perform 2 “rounds” for each arm. Exercise 3 Single Arm Seated Single Hammer Curls. POSTURE; Sit against an adjustable incline bench set at a high incline (about 60 degrees off horizontal). Now assuming you just finished the dropset (exercise 2) for your left arm, you are going the start this exercise with the right arm. Pick a weight that allows you to perform 5-8 perfect reps using 402 tempo. IMPORTANT; these are NOT alternating Hammer curls; do all the reps for your right arm, AND THEN match that number of reps with the left arm. Use one dumbbell, after the right arm fails, pass it over to the left arm, match reps. CONTINUE this until the reps drop below 3. The number of sets might be quite high. Example; right arm 8 reps, left arm 8 reps, right arm 6 reps, left arm 6 reps, right 5, left 5, right 4, left 4, right 3, left 3, right 2, left 2, terminate. REST INTERVAL; None, keep switching arms back and forth until the reps drop (one arm rest while the other is working). IF YOU DON’T FEEL THE PAIN, make the form stricter. You guys can perform this workout 3 times; by then you should worked out the kinks. If your are not sore, you didn’t follow directions. Remember, there is a positive correlation between muscle soreness and hypertrophy. I will release Routine 1B in a future post. Check back often, or subscribe to this blog.  Thank you for reading.