x-traordinary arms Archives

Small Bones, Big Arms

Q: I’ve been training like a madman for six months, but my arms haven’t budged. I’m getting stronger, and I do see more veins on my biceps, but my arms are still skinny. A guy at the gym told me it’s because I have small bones. My wrists are under 7 inches around, and he said I can’t expect much size with small wrists. Is that true?

A: Um, in a word, NO. It’s not true. The size of your wrist has nothing to do with where your biceps and triceps attach, how much muscle-fiber density your muscles have, or your ability to pack on muscle mass.

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Eye-Popping Biceps Peak—and More Muscle on Your Physique

Q: I have X-traordinary Arms and really appreciate the “in-for-out, out-for-in” rule. My question is, because concentration curls are an “in” exercise and work the outer head, should I do those first if I want to concentrate on more biceps peak?

A: Yes, switching the order of the exercises in Positions-of-Flexion protocol can positively affect a target-muscle’s development. Biceps is a perfect example.

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Change the Shape of Your Biceps

Q: I keep reading that the shape of your biceps is genetic and you can’t change it, but in the X-traordinary Arms e-book that came in my Anabolic After 40 package (which I love, by the way!) you say you can change the shape of your biceps. I’ve even seen respected scientists say that changing the shape of a muscle can’t be done. How do you respond?

A: What those scientists are referring to is the length of a muscle. For example, if you have a short biceps, with a gap between the lower part of the muscle and the elbow joint when it’s flexed, you can’t fill in that gap. You’ve simply been born with a high biceps insertion point (like a high calf muscle). To fill in the gap would require muscle reattachment surgery, which we obviously don’t recommend.

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The Muscles Women Notice

Q: I’m not a competitive bodybuilder or physique athlete, but I want to look muscular for more sex appeal. I train all my major muscles, but I want to specialize on the muscles women notice. Any ideas on which ones those are and the best way to make those attention-grabber muscles pop?

A: Several years ago IRON MAN did a survey, an anonymous poll of a number of women about their likes and dislikes concerning the male physique. The results were very interesting… [Read more…]

5-Minute Blasts for Fast Arm Mass

Q: Help! I need more arm mass, and I’m hoping to add about an inch quickly. I’m using the Direct/Indirect 4X Mass Workout [pages 30-32]. It has only one direct arm workout a week [on Wednesday with delts]. Can I add some extra arm work on Friday when I train chest and back again?

A: Absolutely, but you don’t want to do full arm workouts on Friday’s chest/back day. Instead, we’ve found a couple of quick-hit two-move combos that will do the trick to get your arm mass up so they’ll be looking huge and thick. [Read more…]

Burst Training for Muscle-Mass Gaining

Q: You recently referenced Mike Mentzer, and I’m wondering if you guys have ever trained with his HIT style. One-set-to-failure training seems to work for some people, and I know Mentzer’s training evolved into that after he stopped competing. Have you tried it or something similar?

A: One of Steve’s early influences was Mike Mentzer. He trained with Mike’s Heavy Duty style in his 20s, and even won his first bodybuilding contest using a Positions-of-Flexion version of Heavy Duty that he devised (more on that below)… [Read more…]

Arm Bomb to Get Your Freak On

Q: I’ve been using the POF Direct/Indirect Mass Workout in the 4X 2.0 e-book. Doing great! I’m loving it and I feel much bigger already. But my arms are my weakest muscle groups, so I’m thinking about doing a second arm workout on Saturday. That would have me training five days a week instead of four. Is that okay?

A: That’s a great program—and because you’re using moderate-weight, growth-threshold training, you can tolerate more frequent work for most bodyparts; however… [Read more…]

3 Simple Changes to Get You Growing

You know our mantra: You can trigger bigger gains with one small change. But let’s multiply that for even more mass. We’ve got 3 simple things to get you growing immediately… [Read more…]

Best Moves for Big Arms

Q: I love [3D Positions of Flexion training]. It makes sense and has helped me bring up my chest and delts with fewer sets. My question is about biceps. For the contracted-position exercise, which is best: one-arm spider curls or concentration curls? Or are they about the same?

A: In the X-traordinary Arms e-book we explain the in-for-out/out-for-in principle. For biceps that means that to focus on the outer head for peak, you use an inner-grip exercise. Concentration curls are about as “in” as you can get… [Read more…]

New Density for Muscle Immensity Workout

I just saw Jonathan’s new read-me page about XRX and the workout he is now using. I turned 48 and am making the best size gains of my life with the [high-rep-set-first] Reload program. Is Jonathan’s similar? Is it better? Should I switch?

The reason Jonathan put together his new after-40 workout is that he Hates—with a capital H—high reps…

While he made amazing size gains when he first went on the high-rep-set-first program outlined in [Read more…]