Arms Development, by Reg Park. Unknow date, but second part of 70s or later.
Perhaps more words have been written about arm development than about any other part of the male musculature. This is due, no doubt to the fact that while the rest of the body is usually covered by clothing, short sleeve summer shirts and T-shirts, being the vogue, draw attention to a well developed arm.
I have always felt that a physique should be judged as a whole unit, and in my opinion an overdeveloped part of the body throws the overall balance of a physique out just as much as does an underdeveloped one, in an otherwise well balanced physique. Yet it never ceases to astound and surprise me, how many physique titles are won by
development and yet have, say a poor calf development. As compared to those who have a well developed and well balanced body. It is known and accepted that any male can
improve his physical development and appearance with the sensible application of weight training exercises, but it must be realised that ultimate maximum development of a
partucular area of any physique is dependent upon many things, but is mainly influenced by the leverage of the muscle and joints involved. For instance, if you have a relatively short upper arm you are not going to develop the same size of a person with a longer upper arm men who have enormous arm.
However, should you be in the first category there is no need for you to become despondent because men such as Reeves and Zane cound never be considered as having huge arms but more than made up for it by the overall develpment and beauty in which no particular muscle part was exceptional, with perhaps the exception of Reeves' calf development.
In addition to leverage another important factor determing ultimate maximum size is bodyweight. Obviously, the more bodyweight you put on the more size you will attain,
provided of course you are exercising regularly, otherwise, the one place you will put on most is the stomach. But I'm sure you will appreciate that your arm will increase in size, if
say, you were to gain 20 Ibs. The aim is of course to gain muscle size through bodyweight increase without getting to smooth and physical appearance is more important than how much you weigh or how big your measurements are. For instance, I've weighted as much as 245 Ibs. but I consider I look better at 215-220 Ibs. Having covered the matters of leverage and bodyweight it is necessary to mention the importance of adequate sleep and rest because your progress could be considerably held up if you do not get sufficient sleep. So if you are training regularly and intelligently, increasing your bodyweight gradually, and still
not making the gains which you feel you should be then try getting a little more rest and sleep.
Well that"s enough in the form of an introduction so let me get on to the actual exercises. The actual exercise you perform are not terribly important. What is most important is that the ones you select and perform should benefit you be means of causing the muscles to respond in the form of a muscular pump! So if after performing a particular exercise 4 or 5 workouts you do not get the pump you feel you should be getting don't hesitate to drop it out of your routine entirely and introduce another exercise.
Regarding how many exercises per muscle group you should perform this depends upon how long you have been training and how much time you have at your disposal and how many times a week you are prepared to train. In my own case I train 6 or 7 mornings a week for 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours per workout, and I work biceps and triceps on alternate days performing four exercises per group -5 sets of 8 repetitions per exercise making total of 20 sets per group.
TRICEPS DEVELOPMENT
The first triceps exercise that I almost always perform
regardless of what other triceps exercises I perform is the triceps pushdown of the lat machine for 5 sets of 8 repetitions and I do this not only for the triceps but also to fully warm up the tendons around the elbow, Icidentally, many of my pupils who have suffered "Tennis Elbow" have made remarkable recoveries from performing this exercise in sets of 30 repetitions where the injury is activated by the high reps. The light weight does not aggravate the condition as is the case with heavy weights. In fact they helped their injuries to recover completely The second triceps exercise that I currently perform is the bent over one arm extension using again the lat machine. I only recently started this movement and find provided I keep the elbow still the effect on the outside head of the triceps is quiet noticeable. I perform 5 sets of 8 repetitions each arm.
The third triceps exercise is the decline bench E-Z bar triceps. I find the E-Z bar more effective than the straight bar and lowering the bar to the crown of the head gives me a
greater range of movement. Again 5 sets of 8 repetitions.
The fourth and final exercise is the parallel bar dips movement 5 sets of 8 repetitions.
The above are the exercises that I presently perform but as I said it really does not matter which exercises you do provided you respond to them by pumping the muscle.
Part 2.
"In the first part of "Arm Development" I wrote on triceps development and how the length of limb, bodyweight and the number of sets performed all had a bearing on the size
by which your arm size could be increased. Let me recap very briefly and say that the man with the longer upper arm can ultimately develop his arm to a greater degree than can the man with a short upper arm. Also you must constantly bear in mind that unless your are atbpresent very much overweight you cannot hope to increase your arm size regrdless of how hard you exercise them, unless you incrrease your bodyweight but of course ther's no point
in simply incrasing your bodyweight by eating all kings of gargage. So you would be advised to have a well-balanced diet. Not forgetting to supplement your normal food intake
with protein, vitamins and mineral supplements. This is most important.
BICEPS DEVELOPMENT
As I wrote in Part 1 it is not crucial which exercise you perform for development. What is important, is that you should respond when performing your exercises. So by trial and error, find which two exercises, cause your biceps to pump most. if you peform an exercise for the biceps and you get little or no response then there is obviously no point in
continuing with that ecericse; so rather try another.
The number of exercises and the number of sets per exercise which you perfrom, say for biceps depends upon the length of time you have been exercising and the progress you have made. In my own case I find 20 sets made up of four exercises performed 5 sets of 8 repetition each, gives the best results.
The four exercises I perform at present are as follows:
Exercise 1 is the sitting dumbell curl between the legs. Sitting upright curl the dumbell up to shoulder level slowly. Take care not to swing the dumbell or lean back when curling.
When you perform single arm movements it is always policy to start with the weaker arm Even though you do alternate arms because your rest will be a completion of the set
performed with the stronger arm. Perform 5 sets of 8 repetitions with each arm. Inhale before you start the curl and exhale on return to starting position.
Exercise 2 is the curl over bench making full use of a floor pulley and it helps if the bar used has a revolving sleeve. Use a wide grip and start with the arms straight then inhale and
curl the bar to just under the jaw and lower to the starting position and repeat. Again be sure not to jerk or swing the start of the exercise, but perform it slowly and over the full
range. Perform 5 sets of 8 repetitions.
Exercise 3 is the barbell curl over the bench. This is very similar to exercise number 2 but the bar allows you to take a much wider grip and also I personally prefer to start this
exercise at the top inhaling before lowering straight and exhaling on return to the starting position and repeat. Again, be sure not to jerk or swing the start of the exercise, but perform it slowly and over the full range. Perform 5 sets of 8 repetitions.
Exercise 4 is the incline dumbells curl and as in the previous exercise I start at the top and inhale before lowering and exhaling upon return to the starting positon and perform 5 sets of 8 repetitions.
Irespective of which biceps exercises you choose to perform, particular attention must be paid to the performance of each exercise to ensure that you work the muscle over the full range and to do this avoid swinging the weight or bending your body backwards and forwards. Also perform each repetition at a nice even tempo neigher too slow nor too fast.
Much has been written about wrist rotation when the arm is in the straight position when biceps exercises with dumbells are performed. In order to give the biceps a more full
appearance in the lower part. You can check this action by rotating your wrist and forearm
while keeping the upper arm stationary without any weight in your hand. This technique and the other one involving dumbell biceps ecercises where the dumbells are curled at right angles to the body are both worth introducing in to your training; but not at the same time.
For the best effect I would suggest dumbell biceps exercises performed in the conventional manner for a period of say two months then use the wrist forearm rotation principle for two months and finally two months with dumbells curled at right angles all of which will prevent biceps getting into a rut
FOREARM DEVELOPMENT
Not too many years ago most bodybuilders with the exception of John Grimek gave little or no attention to forearm development but since the emphasis has been on bigger and bigger arm size obviously, something had to be done about forearm development also otherwise the contrast would be too ridiculous for words. And so today almost all top bodybuilders devote time to forearm exercises
The most commonly perfomed ones being the reverse grip barbell curl in the regularbmanner, or over a curl bench. Another is the wrist flexion with forearms resting bench, and this can be done with the palms in the upwards and downwards position. There are of course many other forearm exercises but those mentioned are the most popular
the calves, by virute of the fact the forearms are used more often than other muscles, they require slightly hgiher repetitions than you would use when exercising biceps and triceps; and usually 15 repetitions per set are found to be ideal performing each exercise 5 sets.
Each person reacts differently but normally three complete arm workouts per week are ideal and you can either exercise biceps and forearms together with triceps on the same day
or split them and exercise them on alternate days.
Remember to get plenty of sleep, an adequate diet together with protein, vitamin and mineral supplements and try to obtain a pumped feeling when working the arms.
There may be times when your arms fail to respond by way of a pumped feelling and you will feel litle or no response to your workout. If or when this happens, leave arm exercise
completely out of your training for four or five days during which time you should increase carbohydrat intake After the rest your arms will respond again and you will generally have
benefited from the rest