BIG BICEPS, & HORSESHOE TRICEPS
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BIG BICEPS, & HORSESHOE TRICEPS
Learn the keys to optimize every
minute of your workout to build massive
biceps and triceps, in a fraction of the
time while never hurting your elbows
or shoulders again.
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BIG BICEPS, & HORSESHOE TRICEPS
When it comes to arm training, I spent years
beating my head against the wall wondering
why all the information that I was reading from
the top books, magazines and top
athletes just wasn’t working.
I thought it was me.
I must have bad genetics.
I followed all the common tips and tricks:
More weight, more volume, more reps, less reps, more sets, more
frequency, compound exercises.
My arms grew a little bit, but more than anything I got sore joints and
a lot of frustration. Many people are sold on the idea that the key is to
manipulate the programming variables like reps, sets, volume, load,
frequency, and density. More weight, more reps, more frequency,
compound movements, etc.
While I don’t think that is incorrect, it’s missing the most important piece
of the puzzle. The thing that absolutely must happen before any of
these variables can matter. The fact that not all reps are created equal,
and not all people are created equal. I know this sounds obvious, but
yet no one has taken the time to explain individual differences, and how
to train to make the most of your training for your body.
You and I are built very differently.
How could anyone reason that ANY exercise done by two completely
different people could yield the same result? The exact same exercise,
done by two different people will apply forces against their body
differently. One person can do an exercise, and immediately start to see
results. Another person can do the exact same exercise with seemingly
“good form” and get little to no results.
THIS HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR ABILITY TO BUILD MUSCLE.
It simply has to do with how you fit into certain exercises, machines,
and how your body decides it wants to distribute the load from the
weight you just picked up based on a few easy to understand variables.
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Consider this example:
You’re going to bench press 100lbs.
There is a very particular number of muscles that can assist in
completing that movement. It’s never just one. The Pecs, Delts, Triceps,
Biceps, Serratus, and Lats can all contribute to moving the load. The
ideal scenario is to have the pec do 100% of the work and therefore the
pecs are lifting 100lbs.
THAT’S NOT POSSIBLE.
Our job is to get as close to this ideal scenario of allowing the pecs to
do as much work as possible by manipulating the position of our body
(or SETUP) to advantage the muscle were trying to work, and
disadvantage the other muscles.
Someone may be able to get the pecs to do 70% of the work over the
entire length of a set and never lose that amount of tension in the pec.
For example 70lbs x 30 seconds. Their training partner may only get
the pec to do 30% while other muscles work way more, and that
may only be over a very small percentage of the rep in the mid
ASK YOURSELF THIS QUESTION:
range. 30lbs x 10 seconds.
When you pick up a weight, what
muscles are actually doing the
EVEN THOUGH THE WEIGHT ON
work?
THE BAR (100LBS) IS THE SAME.
Is the muscle you’re attempting
to challenge taking the tension
through every inch of every rep?
With me?
If you’re not with me, go back and read that again. It’s vital to your
understanding of all training, and what needs to happen to grow.
At the bottom: What is working
most? Can I make it harder for this
muscle? Am I resting?
Here it is again in application:
In the middle: What is working
most? Can I make it harder for this
muscle? Am I resting?
One person can do a biceps curl, and their arms take a large
percentage of the tension, over a maximum amount of every rep
and grow. Another person can do the same exercise, with what
may seem like “good form”, other muscles take over, they get
sore joints, and no muscle growth.
This DOESN’T mean that you can’t build muscle.
All this means, is that when you pick up that weight, you must
first learn the skill of placing the tension from the weight directly
into the working muscle and sustaining it there over every inch
of every rep.
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At the top: What is working most?
Can I make it harder for this
muscle? Am I resting?
If you can’t say with 100% certainty
that the muscle you’re training is in
fact taking the majority of the
tension, you’re wasting time, not
getting maximum results, creating
bad habits that are harder to break
the longer you do them, and
contributing to injuries and sore joints.
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BIG BICEPS, & HORSESHOE TRICEPS
MORE, IS NOT
THE GOAL.
Some people love to get on the
“hard work” bandwagon, and I
completely agree.
What they fail to recognize is that training your muscles with
intelligence is by definition MUCH harder than conventional methods
of lifting weights. If you read the bench press example above, you
understand exactly what I mean. Just because I’m lifting more
weight, does not mean my muscles are working harder, and does
not mean I’m working harder. Actually it’s the exact opposite.
We are taught that hard work is the key to success, and it
absolutely is. But imagine owning a sales business and working
really hard cleaning the floors and bathrooms, while neglecting the
most important aspect of your business… sales. It’s not wrong to
clean, it’s just not going to get you the results you’re after. It’s time
to shift your focus to doing the things that get you the greatest
ROI (return on investment). Just like running faster and faster in the
wrong direction isn’t going to get you where you want to go. Doing
more and more of the wrong thing, isn’t going to get you a
different result.
The goal shouldn’t be to do more and more, the
goal should be to get better and better.
Your body is designed to make things easy. If you’re not training
consciously (being present, thinking, focused on challenging
muscles), you’re not building as much muscle as you could be.
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OLD SCHOOL VS.
NEW SCHOOL
Some people can pick up a weight
and contract 60-70% of their muscle
fibres. Others will contract 20-30%.
• Who’s going to get results faster?
• Who’s going to burn more calories?
• Who’s going to get the most work done
in less time?
If you’re going to invest your time going to the gym, you should
make sure you’re getting something out of it. The good news is that
you do not have poor genetics. You just haven’t learned the keys to
maximizing muscle for YOUR body.
You are unique.
You need to select exercises, and setup for your body.
If you’re suffering from a
“weak” body part, or looking
to build as much muscle as
possible, the foundation of
all future progress is the
SKILL of placing as much
tension as possible through
a muscle.
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When I say tension, most people’s mind goes straight to thinking
about more weight. More weight does not always mean more
tension in a muscle. Our bodies are designed to make things
easy, and distribute tension to as many muscles as possible,
never to isolate muscles. The largest muscle will take the
greatest percentage of the weight, and smallest muscles will
take the least amount of weight. Therefore, large and strong
body parts keep getting stronger while the weak parts stay
weak. This gradient between the strong and weak muscles will
inhibit growth overall (you’re only as strong as your weakest link),
and lead to injuries.
So, you’re here, you’re way ahead of the curve and you’re likely
already doing 90% of the things right. But it’s in that 10% that all
the progress lives.
Let’s get to work on getting you dialed in, and
building muscle with way less effort than you
ever thought was possible.
HERE ARE SOME
GENERAL THINGS I
DON’T WANT YOU
TO DO:
• Train like everyone else.
• Thinking more is better. It’s
not. Better is better.
• Focus on moving weight
and completing sets and
reps.
• Mindlessly lift heavy.
• Go back to the same stuff
you’ve been doing.
• Avoid doing something
because it doesn’t feel
good….. yet.
• Get sloppy in your training
so you can pad your ego.
• Be attached to old school
bro-splits like once a week
per body part nonsense.
• Think lifting heavy is the
key to growth (it’s not).
• Think that free weight
movements are better than
machines, or cables. (they
typically are not).
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THE KEYS TO OPTIMIZED
ARM TRAINING FOR
MAXIMUM GROWTH:
The beauty of the biceps and triceps
is that they are mirror images of one
another.
A fully lengthened triceps, is a fully shortened biceps.
A fully lengthened biceps, is a fully shortened triceps.
The key points will overlap. What holds for one, will also hold for the other.
(*The only exception to that rule is with supination (turning the palm up) of the biceps. It will shorten the
biceps, but will not affect the triceps. NOTE: supination is an action of the forearm and no movement
should happen at the shoulder or upper arm).
• Train at multiple degrees of shoulder flexion/
• Perfect form FIRST. Heavy weights second.
extension. This impacts the long head of the
• Choose exercises that allow for maximum stability
biceps most (shoulder flexion-elbow high,
and maximum load within the realm of perfect form.
shoulder extension- shoulder extended behind
• Control is key. Can you stop at any point of the
you, and everywhere in between).
exercise and change directions on command?
• Lock your entire body in stone. Stability is the key
to strength and hard contractions.
• Learn to set your body up correctly so that the
arm (biceps/triceps) is in a straight line relative to
the resistance (no internal/external rotation at the
shoulder happens during a movement).
• Stabilize the shoulder joint. An unstable shoulder
will be the most common reason you fail on a set.
• If it moves, it’s failing.
• Overload supination of the biceps by supination
and pronation during sets of DB curls, and with
offset grip DB curls.
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• Muscles are weakest in the shortest position.
Strongest in the lengthened and the mid-range
positions. Choose resistance that matches this as
often as possible.
• Spend time where you’re weak.
• Heavy loads will not always be limited by your
muscle strength, but often by your shoulder stability.
• Progress from internally stabilized to externally
stabilized exercises within a workout. (Ex.
Standing DB curl requires you to stabilize. DB
preacher curl uses the bench to stabilize).
• A “full range of motion” does not have to happen
in every set or exercise, as long as its happening
within every workout.
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REMEMBER THIS:
S.S.I.
SETUP
Setup is the key to ensure the muscle you’re
trying to work is in fact the prime mover.
STABILIZE
You body will turn down contractions if it senses
any instability. Stability is the key to hard
contractions. Lock your body in stone.
INITIATE
Make sure the muscle you’re working is the
muscle that initiates the movement from the
stretched position on every rep.
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BIGGEST MISTAKES
IN ARM TRAINING:
• Bad exercise selection.
• Unnecessarily moving the shoulder during an exercise
(HINT: do not move the shoulder at all).
• Not understanding how to set up your body relative to the
resistance to maximize work to the muscle and not destroy your
joints. (This is key! The body, and forces applied on it during
exercise work in straight lines).
• The elbow is a hinge joint. The bicep flexes the hinge, the triceps
extends the hinge. Think about that and see previous point.
• Poor shoulder stability/allowing the shoulder to come up (inability
to adequately depress shoulder).
• Poor posture (rounded mid back will kill stability and gains).
• Lack of trunk/core stability.
• Poor shoulder mobility (lacking external rotation- often due to
slouched shoulders and rounded back)
• Not challenging every inch of the range of motion.
Here are the Core Exercises to Master for Arms:
BICEPS [4]
• Standing Dumbbell Curl
• Preacher Dumbbell Curl
• High Cable Curl
• Incline Cable Curl
TRICEPS [5]
• Two-Arm Triceps Pushdown
(facing cable machine/facing away from machine)
• Single Arm Cable Pushdown
(facing machine/facing away from machine cross body)
• Single Arm Overhead Cable Extension
• Single Arm Dumbbell Floor Extensions
• Dip. (Machine or free weight).
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Videos for these
exercises, and all
the Core 40 exercises
are in MI40 Nation.
Head there now and
watch them.
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HOW MUCH,
HOW OFTEN?
How much, and how often is a question
that is dependent on a number of different
individual variables:
SKILL
How well do you execute this exercise?
The better you train with a Muscle IntelligenceTM
approach and without extraneous movement
(swinging), the more direct tension you send
through a muscle. More tension means the muscle
will receive more damage and direct fatigue, and
therefore need more time to recover.
The muscular system doesn’t need as long as the
nervous system does to recover, so when training
with intelligence, you can really expect to feel better
physically and mentally even when training more
often and with higher volume.
Neurologically taxing workouts (heavy workouts or
mindless lifting) tend to cause more overall fatigue
to the body and mind. Doing this strategically, or
when the goal is to get strong, is a necessary part
of the training adaptation. However, this type of
neurologically taxing training is not the best way to
build muscle.
Think of training like this:
You can only ever have one “choke point”. One
system that is challenged most. If your goal is to
build muscle, this has to be the muscular system
more often than not.
If your choke point is the nervous system, or
metabolic system (your ability to produce energy),
those systems will be taxed the most and therefore
they will be the one to adapt.
Ensure the muscular system is most often the one
being taxed by not training to complete failure every
set (let your perfect execution be your guide), and
by measuring rest periods to allow enough time for
the body to replenish energy substrates.
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RECOVERABILITY
Your ability to recover from your training is dependent
on: nutrition, sleep, stress, environment, perception of
effort, history, aerobic fitness, mitochondrial health.
If any of these are not optimized, your recovery will vary.
Make a list, assess yourself subjectively.
TYPE OF TRAINING STIMULUS.
Neurological, hypertrophy and metabolic style training
will all impact your recovery time differently and therefore
how often you should train.
In general, the nervous system will take 48-72 hours,
the muscular system will 24-72 hours*, and the
metabolic system can take much less time.
*NOTE: the more time spent eccentrically in training,
the more time you need for recovery of the muscular
system.
VOLUME & FREQUENCY
Volume and Frequency is inversely proportional. As one
goes up the other goes down.
Training a body part more often (every 1-3 day), means
the volume in each session must go down.
This is a great place to begin for someone looking to
improve the skill and contractile ability within a muscle.
In general, the faster you want to learn a skill, the more
often you should do it.
Training with a lot of volume in a workout, and the
muscle needs longer to recover. Typically 48-72 hours
between workouts, or more for the muscular system
to recover.
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MINDSET
• You must walk into the gym with absolute confidence.
• Prepare your mind. Create an anchor of the person you
are in the gym.
• Become a Jedi. Laser focused effort.
• Skill mastery must precede hard work.
• You must know your plan, and execute with relentless
effort.
• Focused savagery during sets.
• Equanimity (Calm, undisturbed mind ) between sets.
• No anger, no anxiety, no fear.
• Absolute certainty that you will accomplish every rep
with perfection and aggression.
• Always do more than is expected of you.
• You can do so much more than you believe. Your mind
will always limit you.
•N
ever let anyone beat you. Find their weakness, and
exploit it.
• Every single workout is an opportunity to create your
greatest self, or retreat into weakness and defeat.
• You must feel the fear, and smile, knowing you’re
becoming a better version of yourself.
• Seek to challenge your muscles, not to pad your ego.
• Challenge your weaknesses, don’t simply pursue your
strengths.
• Seek to challenge all properties of the muscle.
Strength, Endurance, Volume. No weaknesses.
• Skill of exercise is the foundation of all growth.
• Your mind is your greatest ally, or your biggest enemy.
Train it.
• Never quit.
Don’t EVER be a victim.
Choose your words.
Choose your company.
Choose your body.
Choose your mindset.
Create your life.
• Never quit.
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AND THE BIGGEST
LESSON OF ALL:
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CONCLUSION:
Now that you’re well versed at the
keys to develop this and any body
part, the next step is implementation
and progression.
How to Proceed and Succeed:
START NOW! Do not wait to implement these tips tricks and cues.
READ one tip a day and master it.
WATCH one video a day and practice practice practice.
NEVER revert to poor habits. Your ego will be a worthy opponent.
FOLLOW up with one of our intelligently designed workout
programs. They are designed to increase skill acquisition and
progress maximally without plateaus.
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