PER BERNAL
4 Tips for
Rapid Arm Growth
- Never Lose the MiNd-MuscLe coNNectioN
I encourage everyone to try and get stronger and gradually use heavier
weights in their arms training. However, this increase in resistance must
only occur if you are still able to contract the biceps or triceps on every rep
and feel that muscle group working. For instance, there is always a point
you pass on compound movements for triceps such as close-grip bench
presses or various seated dip machines where you lose that connection to
the triceps after a certain amount of weight is added. At that point, you’re
engaging far more chest and anterior deltoids than you are triceps. The
same can be said of any type of curl. Even though your form might not look
too bad to the outside observer, you will cease to feel the biceps working to
the same degree once you go too heavy. Only you will know when you’ve
crossed that line, and the solution is to lighten the load a bit and get back
to feeling the biceps or triceps flex and stretch on every rep. - KNow wheN to stop the worKout
Even though there are workouts listed here for you to follow, you need
to develop an awareness for when your biceps or triceps have been fully
expended, and no further work for them that day is either needed or should
be done. Usually you can gauge this by your pump. There should come a
point in the workout where your pump is maxed out and the skin feels tight.
You can continue to chase that pump with more exercises and sets until
you’ve completed the full routine that you are following or that you had in
mind yourself. If you start losing that pump or worse, losing the ability to
even feel the muscle working, you’re done for the day. Nothing more you
do will yield any positive result, and it may even make deeper inroads into
your recovery ability than you will be able to bounce back from before your
next arm session. - eat for GaiNs
“Duh, I knew that.” I’m sure you did, but I want you to apply it
specifically to your arm training while you follow this program. The two
meals of your day with the highest carbohydrate content should be the one
you eat about 90 minutes before your arm workout, and the one you eat
60-90 minutes afterward. As soon as the workout is over, you need to have
either essential amino acids (EAAs) or whey protein isolate along with a
generous amount of simple carbs. Those carbs can come in the form of a
high-tech modern creation such as cyclic dextrin, or you could have a cup
of fresh pineapple slices or chunks, or even some candy like jelly beans.
If you’re going to have a cheat meal, try to have it the night before you
train arms. The whole point is to provide the biceps and triceps with all the
nutrients they need to fuel a killer workout, and then fully replenish all the
spent amino acid and glycogen stores to support recovery and repair. - custoMize Your arM traiNiNG
One major problem with following prescribed workouts is that we
aren’t all built the same. We all have different limb lengths, muscle belly
insertions, leverages, and so on. Some exercises will be more suitable than
others, and you will be able to figure that out if you pay attention when
you perform them. Can you really feel that exercise working your muscle?
It often takes a few tries to make a valid decision, but eventually you will
recognize some exercises really thrash your biceps and triceps, delivering
sick pumps and making them sore, while others don’t seem to do much at
all. Keep the ones that work well for you and discard the others. Continue
trying new movements and new twists on exercises you’ve been doing
for years, because you never know what else is out there that might work
well for you. By the same token, don’t waste precious training time and
energy doing exercises that aren’t doing shit for you— assuming you have
given them a real chance and tweaked the form to see if this or that minor
adjustment might make it work for you.
July 2019 musculardevelopment.com MD 99