Sometimes, our fans can teach us a thing or two, which is why each week Muscle & Fitness will be selecting a Bad-Ass Workout of the Week, submitted by one of our knowledgeable readers. Then our training experts will explain why we chose the workout, how how to make it even more bad-ass, and what training style it works for.
This week, Dan Trink, Director of Training at Peak Performance, assesses this arm routine from our Facebook fan Mehmet Edip. Let us know what you think, and show off your own workout at badassworkout@muscleandfitness.com. If we think it's worthy, we'll post it on the Muscle & Fitness website.
THIS WEEK'S OFFICIAL BAD-ASS WORKOUT:
Biceps and Triceps' Annihilation
1. Concentration Curls – Superset with Weighted Dips
6 x sets using pyramids – slowly increasing the weight using increments, which means set 6 will be your heaviest.
Set 1: 15 reps Set 2: 12 reps Set 3: 10 reps Set 4: 8 reps Set 5: 6 reps Set 6: 4 reps
2. Closed Grip Bench Press – Superset with EZ Bar Preacher Bar Curls
4 x sets using same weight 10-12 reps
3. Tri-sets
Cable Hammer Curls with Rope Pulley Cable Kickbacks with Rope Pulley Cable Rope Overhead Triceps Extension 3 x sets: 12-15 reps of each exercise Last set to failure
Let’s start with the obvious: it’s an arm workout. And what’s more bad-ass than having a pair of massive, veiny slabs of USDA Prime hanging out of your shirtsleeves? Honestly, name something more bad-ass. Maybe owning your own tank or dating Mila Kunis, but that’s about it.
You’re proving that pyramids are for more than just tourists in Egypt with this nice descending pyramid superset of curls and dips. Close-grip bench press is a great compound movement that focuses mainly on triceps development, so good choice there. And your tri-set features a hammer grip cable rope curl which is an effective yet underused exercise named after a tool—and if we’ve learned anything here at Bad-Ass Workout of the Week, it’s that any exercise named after tools or an Eastern European country is totally bad-ass.
HOW TO MAKE IT BADDER:
We’re going to start with the obvious here as well. Though a big set of pipes is awesome, don’t forget you do have other body parts. And guys who put a lot of emphasis on their arms tend to neglect other aspects of their anatomy, namely their legs. Please, don’t be that guy. I don’t want our BAWOW readers to be walking around like Jay Cutler from the waist up and Jay Leno from the waist down.
OK, now that that’s out of the way, since you have a great, multi-joint triceps-dominant movement with the dips in your first superset, how about matching that with a multi-joint move for the biceps as well, such as chin-ups. This way your getting a lot more work done right out of the gate when you’re fresh. Most people tend to do more pressing than pulling in their workouts, meaning that the triceps usually get more work than the bi’s during the week. Don’t make this problem worse by utilizing two triceps exercises to one biceps exercise in your final tri-set. Lastly, no one looks cool doing kickbacks, and they aren’t particularly effective—so pick something a little more bad-ass next time.
WHO SHOULD DO IT:
If your arms are your weak body part aesthetically and you are planning on wearing a stringy tank top to your high school reunion, then you can definitely give an arms specialization program like this a shot. If you are lacking overall strength or size, are fairly new to training or have legs that would be embarrassing on a turkey, then maybe your not quite ready for something like this. Either way, I’d still recommend investing in a tank. That way you're sure to have at least one giant gun.
Dan Trink, CSCS, is a strength coach, personal trainer, fitness writer and nutritional consultant. He is also the Director of Training at Peak Performance in NYC. You can find out more about Dan at www.trinkfitness.com or on Facebook at www.faceboook/trinkfitness.
