Ideal Move for Massive Arms

I said this yesterday in my points about stretch-position exercises…

The stretch position is where a target muscle is strongest, which is why “ideal” exercises have the most resistance at stretch and least at contraction.

I want to elaborate on that—specifically how it relates to growing your triceps quickly. We all want big, sleeve-stretching arms…

If you pick the right ideal exercise, you will get a decent stretch, and then resistance tails off as you reach contraction—BUT you still want some tension at the finish…

That’s hard to do with free weights, which is why I consider the lying triceps extension slightly less ideal than a cable extension—there’s no resistance at the top of a free-weight lying extension…

Compare that to the cable triceps extension included in the workouts in Old Man Young Muscle 2…

Notice at the top, that the cable isn’t completely parallel with the upper arms. That provides some, but not excessive, resistance at contraction.

So with an “ultimate” ideal exercise, you get the most resistance at stretch and less at contraction—but not zero.

One factor I do encourage you to experiment with is the angle of the bench and/or the height of the cable.

I prefer the position in the above photos—which provides a bit more stretch than if the cable were higher, driving your hands more down than out…

My version is closer to an overhead extension, which can bring in more of the large long head of the triceps—that’s the beefiest head.

If you like the high-cable version, I’ll discuss a forgotten triceps add-on move that directly targets the long head in the next training newsletter (Wednesday). You can get some big, hanging triceps with this one.

Note: See OMYM and OMYM2 for the most effective ideal, stretch and contracted exercises and how to use them for optimal hypertrophy in every target muscle.

Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.