Q: I remember reading an article that said you could add almost a half inch to arm girth in one day. The workouts had a lot of very slow negative reps, some sets as heavy pure-negatives [only lowering a heavy weight for a number of reps]. Do you think this is possible? Should I try it? [Read more…]
Moment of Bodybuilding Zen 196: Danny Padilla’s Double-Biceps Perfection
Even at only 5’2”, Danny Padilla was still one of the greatest bodybuilders of the Golden Era. Here he is, looking like the perfect Tesla hood ornament. Elon? [Read more…]
Ultimate Triceps Mass Workout
Yesterday I explained that Positions-of-Flexion mass training has you use three exercises to train a muscle at three key points for full-range activation.
That trifecta for titanic tri’s is arms perpendicular to the torso (lying extensions), arms overhead (overhead extensions), and arms down next to the torso (pushdowns)… [Read more…]
Moment of Bodybuilding Zen 173: Larry Scott’s Beach-Ball Biceps
Larry Scott’s guns aroused attention everywhere in the ’60s, especially on the beach. Ladies would swoon as they walked up to him and asked, “So exactly how did you shed all of your body hair?” [Read more…]
Half-Inch of Arm Mass in 1 Workout
Back in the early 1970s, Nautilus Machine creator and pistol-toting gator wrangler Arthur Jones wrote this in Iron Man magazine: [Read more…]
Moment of Bodybuilding Zen 123: Arnold’s Interview Arm Flex
Here’s a unique shot of Arnold wowing a female reporter. This exemplifies one reason so many of us lift—to roll back our sleeve and flex a massively peaked biceps… [Read more…]
Moment of Bodybuilding Zen 107: Larry Scott’s Awesome Arms
He was the very first Mr. Olympia, and while his entire physique was excellent, it was Larry Scott’s awesome arms that had people shaking their heads in disbelief… [Read more…]
Moment of Bodybuilding Zen 92: Larry Scott’s Shocking Arms
Larry Scott was the very first Mr. Olympia, and while his entire physique was excellent, it was his arms that had people shaking their heads in disbelief… [Read more…]
Progressive-Shock Size-Surge Tips
Q: I’m astounded by Jonathan’s Size Surge transformation in only 10 weeks. His arms got huge, and he said his gains really took off during the second phase when he started using Positions of Flexion. I was thinking that I should do POF for arms in phase 1 too. Like for biceps, he has two sets of barbell curls and two sets of concentration curls. Wouldn’t I make better gains if I did two sets of barbell curls followed by one set of incline curls [for stretch] then one set of concentration curls? That’s the same number of sets, but now it’s full-range POF. I could do the same for triceps too.
A: That sounds like a good plan—at least until you realize one reason phase 2 in the Size Surge program works so well is because the muscles get a progressive-shock size effect when you shift to full-range training for the last four weeks. In other words, you force more growth adaptation to happen when you add stretch-position exercises like incline curls for biceps and overhead extensions for triceps at week 7… [Read more…]
Moment of Bodybuilding Zen 77: Frank Zane’s Greatest Shot?
Frank Zane wasn’t the biggest bodybuilder of his era by any stretch. He competed and won the Mr. Olympia weighing around 190 at 5’9”. And 40 years later, his physique is still considered an ultimate ideal by the many…
His secret was that he always came in super-crisp with delineated abs. In fact, his abs stood out in bold relief even when he was standing relaxed, as in this photo. [Read more…]