One of the most motivating pics we ever saw when it comes to giant arms is Arnold’s biceps shot on the cover of his best-selling book Education of a Bodybuilder. Holy sky-high bi’s!
While the ability to build peak like that is primarily genetic, there’s no question that Arnold knew what worked in the gym to maximize that potential (to be fair, one arm was freakily peaked while his other wasn’t as pronounced).
So what was Arnold’s “secret sauce” to freak-ify his giant arms? For one thing, he used specific exercises that attacked his biceps from key angles to super-size both heads. In fact, one of his favorite programs was a Positions-of-Flexion routine: Barbell curls (midrange), incline curls (stretch), concentration curls (contracted)…
Angles of Attack for Giant Arms
Midrange: MRI studies show that wide-grip barbell or dumbbell curls emphasize inner-biceps-head size. That gives the muscle more thickness. (See the out-for-in/in-for-out method in X-traordinary Arms.)
Stretch: Incline curls provide the key anabolic stimulus of stretch overload to both heads. (Remember the bird-wing-stretch study that produced a 300 percent muscle gain after weeks of stretch overload.)
Contracted: Curling in toward the body emphasizes the outer biceps head, a key contributor to sky-high peak, according to MRI studies of close-grip style curls.
And speaking of peak, one other “secret” to Arnold’s eye-popping bi’s: He trained his brachialis muscles directly. Those snake under the biceps and connect down on the forearm. When the brachialis are beefed up underneath, they push the biceps to higher peaks.
Arnold favored standing hammer curls–and his concentration curls also trained his brachialis muscles; however, in our X-traordinary Arms e-book we reveal the best exercise for massing up that peaking muscle: INCLINE hammer curls…
MRI studies show that this exercise totally lights up the brachialis better than any other move. Standing hammer curls only stimulate it moderately with more emphasis on the outer biceps head. That’s not a bad thing–remember it’s the head that contributes most to peak.
But to blast the brachialis most effectively, use the incline version that Jonathan is demonstrating above. Notice the ball-like protrusion between his biceps and triceps–that’s the brachialis.
There’s more on which biceps and triceps exercises focus on which heads in our X-Arms e-book, along with complete routines to get your arms wide and high with sweeping size. By the way, that’s Jonathan’s arm on the cover below, and he used most of the tactics in this e-book…
Note: We will be removing the X-traordinary Arms e-book from our web site next week to streamline our X-Shop in the next few days, so add it to your mass-building library today. As a special “going-away” offer, you can get this classic best-seller for ONLY $7 before it’s gone (original value $24)…
> It will be gone forever soon, so get your copy of X-traordinary Arms for only $7.
Till next time, train hard–and smart–for BIG results.
–Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com