BULGING BICEPS - Give us a Month....

Is there really anything new under the sun when it comes to training? Perhaps nothing new, but innovation, maybe. As a consumer, bodybuilder, and overall purveyor of freaky muscle, this is how you must think of any workout that's offered via magazine or website. It isn't that there is so much out there you or I haven't heard of at this point, it's more about what we do with what we already know, to come up with something that is creative and becomes a means to a successful end.

One reason innovation is so important as a bodybuilder, is that the body figures out what you're doing fairly quickly, with training, diet, exercise, etc.. So it becomes crucial to find different ways to engage each body part, or system, as a whole, to continue getting any appreciable result. This is particularly the case with a muscle that is typically seen as the pinnacle of a person's success in the gym. I'm talking about the biceps...

Truth is, if you have small biceps, it's like you've failed all around. In reality, small biceps is like having small calves - one is no different than the other. If something is missing, something is missing, period, no matter what it is. But that's not how people judge the situation. This almost necessitates having big arms, whether it's a struggle for you or not. So how can you ensure success in your biceps training? Well, give us a month and we'll give you an extra inch!

One of the things about the limbs that distinguishes them from other body part training is this: Leg workouts and arm workouts can go so against the grain of logic and reason and you can still have success. You may see this as maddening, but it's actually really a great thing. Here's why...

You can overtrain, under train, do high reps or low reps, use heavy weight or employ set complexity with 21's, negatives, concentric overload, or anything in between, and get success. And this is the key: You need to do it all. We call that shot-gunning with AAS use, but it's the same for training.... Throw enough mud against the wall and some of it is bound to stick. And the truth is, you have nothing to lose by doing it.

SHOT GUN BICEPS TRAINING

Week 1 - This week is about heavy, low rep training, and super slow movement. You'll be doing just two basic movements: Standing Barbell Curl and Preacher Curl. You'll do two workouts - one Monday and one Friday.

The weight you use is going to be substantial, but it must still be manageable. Try for 85% of max, if not 95%, as long as you can go super slow with it. It's all about using both concentric and eccentric portions of the range of motion. However, in the final few sets of each of these two exercises, you'll use concentric overload, by doing the curling part of the motion and letting your partner take the weight and hand it back to you to start again at the bottom.

Standing Barbell Curl (Straight one workout/ EZ Curl in another workout) 4 x 8 (remember to perform slowly)

Preacher Curl (EZ Curl - Inner grip and outer grip, alternating) 3 x 6 (no cheating with body - good form - slow)

Finish off with 2 sets to failure of alternate dumbbell curls - 60% of max weight

Rest: 2 minutes in between is correct if you are using heavy enough weight

Week 2 - Standard Workout - Do a workout that is varied and has 3 exercises and a pull up. Use standard rep ranges and don't do more than 9 or 10 total sets

Pull-ups - body weight only as warm up - 10 reps minimum with body, try to use biceps

Barbell Curls - Wide and Narrow grip 3 x 8

Seated Alternate Dumbbell Curls 3 x 10

Concentration Curls - seated 3 x 8

Rest: Take 1-2 minutes in between sets

Week 3 - 21's, Drop sets, Super sets. This is the week of varied set scheme. Since the type of sets you do is important, it's crucial that you get a week of two workouts in where you are utilizing all of these techniques that you may just save for pre-contest workouts. You need to have a partner work with you in this week, as well as the first week.

Standing Straight Bar Barbell Curls - Do 2 sets of 21's using moderate to heavy weight

Standing Alternate DB Curls - 2 sets - Drop DB's to lighter within set to go to failure at the lowest weight

Super Set: One armed (low or high pulley) cable curls/ Concentration curls - 2 sets of 8 to 10 reps each exercise.

Rest: 2 minutes between 21's, 3 minutes between drop sets on dumbbells, no rest within superset, but 1 minute in between supersets.

Week 4 - Cables only - all angles - this week. This accentuates both the eccentric and concentric portion of the range, and forces super control. Moderate weight and moderate reps earmark this week, but what is most important is the use of low cables and high cable attachments, as well as single arm exercises and double arm exercises. You must use these attachments: EZ Curl, Short straight bar, long straight bar, handle attachments

High Cable One Armed Pulley (alternate arms for rest - successively - 3 x 10 each arm

Low Cable Pulley Straight Bar from lowest attachment. Try to pull elbows high and use within that range, as well as pulling from bottom to mid-range in 3 x 10

EZ Curl High Cable - Top of range 3 x 8

Rest: No rest in alternating high cable one arm exercise, 2 minutes rest in all others in between. Set should take longer because you are accentuating the movements of each rep and still using moderate to heavy weight.

Varying training is something all bodybuilders ought to be doing, but with limbs, such as arms and legs, this kind of variety isn't just random and haphazard, it actually nets results. Limbs require wicked pumps to grow. But wicked pumps don't just come from heavy training... they come from heavy training, light training that burns into failure, odd attachments, varied sets, eccentric vs. concentric work, or both, and varied rest times in relation to varied work ethic.

Yours may not be to question why here, yours may be to just buckle down, give us a month, and we'll give you an inch on those stubborn biceps.