So many guys want a six pack so much that they neglect everything else. Almost all your mates probably do some sit ups before bed and a good selection of them will sign up to a gym in the summer to get ready for the beach (not realising you need to sign up in winter to be ready by summer…).

While a strong core is important however, abs are actually overrated. For starters having visible abs is a sign of low bodyfat – not necessarily a strong body – and unless the rest of your body is strong too there’s not really much you can do with them.

The real reason most guys want abs though is to impress the girls, hence the summer gym membership. This too is misguided however as other than at the beach and perhaps when watering your garden, girls aren’t going to see your hard work unless you wear see-through tops. You can’t just.

Now strong arms on the other hand will bulge through your shirt and give them something to hang on to. It’ll win you arm wrestles and it’ll instantly elevate your alpha male status. So train for arms.

Those who do train their arms also tend to be misguided in their methodology however. In particular a common mistake is to train only the biceps when in fact arm muscle should be 2/3rds comprised of your triceps (the back of your upper arm), so make sure you train them both setting apart a day for each to see real growth.

Training for volume is also different from training for ‘cuts’ (lean-ness) so you’ll want to take a slightly different approach. Now you’ll want heavier weights and exercises performed in sets of three taking each set to failure. You should use several consecutive moves on both muscle groups so that by the end of the sessions they feel as though they are going to be ripped in half.

For example you might consider the following for your biceps: 3 x 10 x 15kg bicep curls, 3 x 10 x 10kg reverse grip curls, 3 x 10 x 20kg barbell curls and 3 x 10 x 10kg hammer curls (you can find descriptions of these exercises all over the net ).

That’s ‘biceps days’. Now on triceps day you might want to try something like 3 x 20 tricep dips, 3 x 10 x 20kg tricep extensions, 3 x 10 x 10kg tricep kick backs, 2 x 10 x 20kg pullovers. Again instructions are all over the web or in any good bodybuilding book, e.g. the-biomatrix. net, bodybuilding. com etc etc.

Now you need to eat a lot of protein and rest your muscles for a week each. So say you train your biceps on Monday and your triceps on Tuesday, now you should wait until next Monday before working your arms again, though feel free to try working your abs, pecs or lats on the other days. Now you’ve got the bodybuilding bug you won’t be able to stop…

Mack LeMouse

Copyrighted material; do not reprint without permission.

 

View all articles by Mack LeMouse