Meat Mountain Central-Arms as Dense as a Texas Brisket
Whenever I was young, I was proud of my strength. I felt I could press a mountain, but obviously the mindset of a young post-pubescent man has an altered reality. My world was shook the day I stepped into freshman year of Chemistry, though. To be technical, it was “Introduction to Physics and Chemistry”, I’d hate to be a bad story teller! Our teacher was known for her direct manner of communication, and after meeting her she told me...
“Joey, you have a big chest and I am sure are strong! But your arms are tiny, seems very disproportionate”
...WHAT?! I mean, yeah she is right and I totally support that notion. But I mean, come on, I am 14 years old, no need to destroy my manhood yet! Regardless, though, it was true. My bodacious pecs were beyond superior to my inferior arms, it needed to be addressed and surprisingly didn’t come easy. I would work all the movements necessary for growing my arms, but I still was unsuccessful. It wasn’t until my 20’s did I realize some of the mistakes I was making.
So while you’re sipping that espresso on ice, open your ears so you’ll finally be able to fill out that polo shirt your dad bought you from Banana Republic!
Close Grip Bench Press: Although the pressing motion also considers other muscle groups such as the pectoralis major and the anterior deltoids, the close grip with the intention of elbow placement can really load the triceps for massive growth. What’s nice about this movement too is that it is a multi joint movement meaning the more joints involved, the more muscles involved. The more muscles involved? The more metabolic the movement is and that can help to trigger the increase in hormonal responses of things such as “GH”. It’s always smart to start workouts with a multijoint movement so that you can put yourself in a condition to where you are secreting more GH for more growth throughout the body. Afterwards each muscle trained will gain the benefit of this environment you have created.
Eccentric Engagement-More Tension than a Reality TV Show: I used to believe that when lifting, it was always about how much was loaded on the bar. The more I lifted, the bigger I became! Although this can be true to some degree, if you are always a lifting with “speed”, you are eliminating the level of tension established in your movements. Tension is established from friction occurring in your muscle. Your muscles do not just get bigger or smaller, they overlap and cause friction when the thin and thick filaments of the sarcomere slide over and over during movement. When you work tension and build friction, you are then causing more damage to the muscle which will repair and grow into thicker and stronger muscle. If you can couple the ideas of tension and strength training, now you are talking about a deadly combination of going from pipsqueak avenue to MEAT MOUNTAIN CENTRAL
Superset-The Metabolic Trigger: We talked earlier about eliciting a hormonal response in the body due to the utilization of multijoint movements. If we can work these multijoint movements and also focus on building tension for fatigue, we are then in a tremendously metabolic state where we are huffing, puffing, and secreting the highest of GH in our body for natural growth and development. At the end of the workout, its now time to focus on the highest level of fatigue using supersets. In this video, you will see me working the hammer curl for 12 reps, then going to the flat bench and pumping some narrow grip press for as many as possible! Once you have married all three of these concepts, your muscles will be engorged with blood and make you not only girthy, but worthy of being the biggest and baddest dude with arms as dense as a Texas brisket!
So stop being the bozo who sulks in the corner about your inferior arms. Take this knowledge and apply it to your next workout. I bet afterwards you’ll be on a metabolic high, and be ready to court any southern sweetheart on Sorority Row for a night they will never forget!