Strength Basics

Getting stronger, fitter, and healthier by sticking to the basics. It's not rocket science, it's doing the simple stuff the right way. Strength-Basics updates every Monday, plus extra posts during the week.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Arm Combo

Let's work some arms.

Don't get me wrong here. I'm not a huge fan of arm training - no "arm day" or "arm specialization program" for me or for people I train. That may be useful for a bodybuilder or for someone with a specific need, but generally, I don't think it's worth the effort. But a good, solid, efficient triceps-and-biceps combo is a great way to finish an upper-body workout or a full-body workout. Here is a combo I've been using lately with two people who train together. It's a pretty effective one for ensuring you have really worked your triceps and your biceps. That's working both your elbow extensors (useful for any kind of pushing/striking strength) and flexors (for any kind of grabbing and holding).

You can do these fairly heavy if the earlier part of your workout didn't really work your arms much, or go lighter if you just need something to get some recovery in but still want to make your arms work a bit.

Superset for 3 rounds - no rest between A1 and A2, then 60 seconds rest before the next superset.
A1 21s (7, 7, 7 reps of different curls) (video by Joe DeFranco)
A2 10 Rolling Triceps extensions (video by Smitty at Dieselcrew)

You can go lighter on the extensions, too, and do 20 of those, but usually they've gotten some pressing work in already, and we're just trying to build some muscle. It satisfies that "get in curls from different angles!" urge without having you do 3-4 sets of 10 reps of 3 different curls. You just bang them all out together, then lie down and do some triceps work.

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