Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 342: How to Build Impressive Arms

Episode Date: August 8, 2016

In this episode Sal and Adam talk about what it takes to build impressive arms. Get MAPS Anabolic, MAPS Performance, MAPS Aesthetic and the Butt Builder Blueprint (The RGB Super Bundle) packaged together at a substantial DISCOUNT at www.mindpumpmedia.com. Get your Kimera Koffee, Mind Pump's first official sponsor, at www.kimerakoffee.com, code "mindpump" for 10% off! Please subscribe, rate and review this show! Each week our favorite reviewers are announced on the show and sent Mind Pump T-shirts!

So the final day for the RGB bundle is when this episode drops, which is Sunday night, Doug. Yeah, right. What's the date? The seventh. So the final day for the sale or for the promotion where you get the RGB bundle, which includes maps, endabolic maps, performance maps, aesthetic, plus you get a shirt, a free shirt for each one that corresponds, right? So you're going to get a red, a green, a black, a green, green, black.

Free included. But here's a problem I have, Doug. We drop our episode Sunday night, so people are gonna get this message. It might be delayed, it might be too late. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. So can we make the final day Monday? I suppose we can.

What's the date on Monday? I like that, let's extend it one day. That's the final day. So after the eighth, you can still get the RGB bundle, just look at the first person. You won't get the three free shirts. You'll get the three free shirts if you enroll today. It's the case.

If the case falls asleep. And today if it's Monday, so the eighth is the final day. Get the three free shirts with the nine months of exercise programming, mind pump media.com. More than likely if you're listening to this right now, today is the final day. That's right. It's final. Mind pump media.com, nine likely if you're listening to this right now today is the final day. That's right. It's final mind pump media.com nine months of exercise programming three bad

ass t-shirts. If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind up, mind up with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer and Justin Andrews. Earlier before we had the mics on, you were talking about how different it felt to drink to have Camara Coffee versus regular coffee. So I told you. Well, I know. Oh, I knew it too.

I know, but you know that I'm Mr. Skeptic, right? Sure. I'm the most, I think out of all of us on the most skeptical when it comes to anything. Any, yeah, pretty much anything, right? I'm that guy. So, you know I I've been excited and I here's what I wanted to test it I wanted to have it

fasted when I first woke up in the morning and I wanted to be on my Tuesday or Thursday mornings where I religiously get up at 3.45 in the morning every morning I have this cup of coffee is how I say routine right and the foods I eat that day the amount of movement I put in, so I'm all about that, I'm all about that, okay, I have, I feel like I have enough things to compare to that if there's any sort of different feeling that I feel that's, you know, significant, I'm gonna be able to tell. So I drank it today, I drank it today and absolutely, what it felt like, and I'll be real, dude, it's not the best cup of coffee I've ever tasted.

It's not like my favorite cup of coffee. It's a good cup of coffee, but it was the way it made me feel. The way it made me feel, like if I take, and if I take, it's a different, it's a different high. It's a different high. That's what I'm trying to explain right here, is that, okay, so if I take like 400 milligrams of caffeine, I'm fucking flying, you know what I'm saying? That's a lot of Exactly. That's what I'm trying to explain right here. Is that okay? So if I take like 400 milligrams of caffeine, I'm fucking flying.

You know what I'm saying? That's a lot of caffeine in one shot. That's some pre-workout to push that much. So, you know, and it's not that feeling. It's not like I had 400 milligrams and I'm all edgy and jittery feeling of stuff. I have the mental awareness and clarity. Like I took that big of a dosage,

but I don't have the jitters. I don't have a crash. I don't feel all antsy feeling. I just felt clear. I felt like I had a ton of energy. I felt like it was long lasting. And not only did I, and I knew it was going on. So I was our, I was kind of pumped, like internally,

like, and I was like, oh, this is cool. I really am digging this coffee now. And the two front desk kids came up to me, and they came up to me about two hours into work, and they're like, and I normally they go order me coffee, and they go pick it up from Starbucks while I'm working, and they said, hey, you didn't want your coffee today. And I was like, yeah, no, I had some already,

and they're like, man, what did you have? I can tell you're just different today. What's going on? I was like, man, that I was really sold, because I was already in my head. I'm already like, man, I really feel this. I can tell you're just different today. What's going on? I was like, man, that I was really sold. Cause I was already in my head. I'm already like, man, I really feel this. But you want to know if it's noticeable, and like right away they said something

and I'm like, fuck an A, for sure. No, it's the best way I could describe it. It's a different high. And yes, you do get a high when you drink coffee. This is why people like coffee besides the taste. It's a stimulant. Yeah, it's a stimulant. You get high off of it and it is a different high.

It's a better high. That's 100%. Here's what I want you to try. So, and I a stimulant. You get high off of it and it is a different high. It's a better high. That's 100%. Here's what I want you to try. So, and I don't advocate this to our listeners. Are we recording Doug? We are probably. Yeah, let's not advocate this to the listeners. Don't do this at home unless you...

We're gonna use Adam as a guinea pig. No, no, no, unless you are, unless you this is illegal and where you live and whatever. Oh, I already know where you go. Dude, this is what you do. Okay, let me hear that. If you have your Camaracoffee, and then have a nice good Sativa,

smoke a nice Sativa type of cannabis. Do I, can I have a while? I'm having my cup of coffee. Yes, okay. Yes. And right when that coffee kicks in, along with the other high you get from cannabis, it is a euphoric, it is extremely euphoric.

It's very euphoric and creative. Like I did this and I just wrote, like I just sat down and wrote. And this is usually when you guys will see me, and you know when I do stuff like this is when you'll get like five trillion text messages from me and a bunch of links to different articles and stuff on me. You get, you get this is really, it's a great combination.

I'm excited. I hope it's not bad that I'm, you know, talking about, like I'm not advocating it. It's just really cool. Whatever, dude. I mean, I'm all, I'm, I'm definitely, I'm a, I'll, I'll, I'll pariscope it. Fuck it. I'll do it. No, you won't.

Yeah, I'll do it in pariscope and see what's a, see you in. Yeah, see if I had noticed it. You know, I'm excited to do that too. I'm excited to play with some concoctions. The first test was to see if I really felt it and if I liked it. And I know, I mean, being a coffee drinker for very long time, coffee is like a wine thing, right? You become like this connoisseur after a while and then, you know, it starts off as,

you know, you drink it because it wakes you to fuck up and the mental clarity, right, that you get from it. Like, typically this is how everybody starts drinking and then over time you acquire taste for it and then it becomes like this thing where now it's like, I want a taste, but at the end of the day, it was always about how it made me feel. I mean, that, when it first,

when I first tried, why do you drink D-Calf? He's at right, exactly. He's exactly. I don't drink coffee mainly because of the taste of it. I enjoy the taste of coffee, but it's because how I feel afterwards. And, you know, for it to make me feel that way, shit, I was pumped. So, I got a question for you. So all of us, we might, I think we talked

about on Mind Pump How we're all, we're going to be doing Mind Pump full time here very, very soon. All of us are leaving our day jobs and just doing mind pump 100% and so for me that means having to tell my personal training clients that I'm no longer personal training anymore. And these people are, they've been with me for the average length of time is probably 10 years. Many of my clients have been with me longer. I have one lady who I've been training for 14 years, same day, same times for 14 years. And I was just dreading, dreading telling these people

because I myself am super connected to these people that like family. I see some of these people more than I, I see a lot of these people more than I see most of my family. You know, if I see them twice a week for than I, I see a lot of these people more than I see most of my family. You know, if I see them too twice a week for that long, for an hour dedicated. But man, it was, it's more even more difficult than I thought. Like I, I cry tears every day.

Yeah. Every single day. Yeah. Somebody is crying or, you know, people are acting kind of funny and I'll tell a client and then they're kind of pissed off with me for like, the workout and it takes like another workout before they kind of come to and then they're like, well, this is like happy that I'm you know moving on with something new and. This is the icing on the cake for being a trainer like it's the best the best part. I mean there's all kinds of great parts that being a trainer but one of the best parts for sure is, is that is that you impact lives that much that somebody would cry, not because

they're not going to get to see you anymore and train with you because of how much you've changed and molded their life. Like, that's pretty dope. I mean, there's, I feel like there's a handful of professions. I think this is what why teachers, you know, say why so many people, teachers are underpaid and they're in their, uh, yeah, the impact that they can make on a child's life and even a young adult's life is so amazing. And I think any teacher that's been a teacher

very long time can relate to that and know that feeling and being a personal trainer, you kind of get that too. Well, it's just I take it for granted a little bit. It's almost like here's these people that I've trained, I've got this amazing connection to. But it's like I said, it's been 12, 13, 14 years of consistently having one to three hours a week of dedicated time between us.

Yes, I train them, but a lot of it is relationship building. And then it turns into we are friends. And then it turns into we're family. You know how many these clients have come in to me? I got a couple that I train, okay? I train them, first started training them to get them ready for their wedding. This was years ago, it was like 10 years ago.

Train them to get them ready for their wedding. Then I train them to help her to get ready for her first pregnancy. Then I train her during the pregnancy. Then I train them to help her to get ready for her first pregnancy. Then I train her during the pregnancy. Then I train her post pregnancy. Then I train her to get, you know, they want to run their first marathon. Then they wanted to, you know, they got injured doing something to rehab them for that. Oh, now it's another baby.

Now I'm training for pre-pregnancy during pregnancy, post-pregnancy. Meanwhile, they bring their kids in. I'm playing with their kids while they're working out. When they're infants, I would change the infants diaper or feed the infant, during pregnancy, post pregnancy. Meanwhile, they bring their kids in. I'm playing with their kids while they're working out. When they're infants, I would change the infants diaper or feed the infant formula while they're working out. So they have their me time while they're working out. So it's like, I'm watching these kids grow up. And now here they are, their kids are growing up.

I got some clients with their, I got one kid I'm training, who's 17 years old, who I met when he was five. And now I've been training him for like a couple of years training who's 17 years old, who I met when he was five, you know, and now I've been training him for like a couple of years and he's 17 years old. So it's like, it's just, you've, it's, I don't know, there's no words to describe the connection I have with these people.

I, it hasn't hit me fully. What it's gonna, what it means to not train anymore. I, there's no way I can possibly train anymore. I just have to move on with, you know, the career and also, you know, I've told, I've talked on the show about how I'm going through a divorce and it's just, I need the flexibility to be able to spend time with my kids

and so I can't really train anymore, but it hasn't really hit me yet. How, like the heart, it hasn't hit me hard yet in terms of not seeing these people regularly. It's pretty, It's pretty crazy. It takes a minute to kind of go through that transition. I feel like, obviously I've been the one I think who's been the pushiest with all of us going full time.

And part of that is because I've already gone through this transition. I'm a little bit ahead of everybody when I came to getting rid of all the other business and focusing 100% on mine pumps So I've been just kind of waiting for all of us to be together. Oh, yeah, you've been breaking our balls now for a year So and that's just cuz I I've already been through the transition that you're you're going through right now and that what got me through or what What gets me excited I should say is now and with this Platform we have the ability

to impact literally thousands of lives, it's almost on a daily basis. So that is, and if you could just imagine what you've done for, you know, probably hundreds of people, we've trained thousands of people, but you've probably really changed hundreds of lives, right? You know, I don't know if I've had changed thousands of people's lives, I trained thousands of people, but you've probably really changed hundreds of lives, right? You know, I don't know if I've had changed thousands of people's lives. I train thousands of people.

I've probably changed hundreds of lives. We're like fundamentally. Yes, right? So, you know, think of it like that. You mean, that's taken me 15 years of my career to change, you know, a few hundred lives. Like, that could happen. We could be doing that now almost on a daily basis At the at that powerful the level level through other other platforms and avenues and that to me is Really exciting and part of what like when I anytime I started to get like the way you like you might be feeling right now

like this is when I love And I'm do I haven't been back here in a, is to go on to our iTunes and look at our reviews and just read some of the reviews, man. Some of the reviews, I'll get choked up, dude. Like, and it gives me that feeling that I missed with all these relationships that I built for so many years when I used to private train so many clients. So that's kind of like, that's the filler for me.

That's so. I think if you're, if you're thinking about getting into the fitness industry or you're in the fitness industry, you can totally relate to what we're talking about because fitness is not a, make a shit ton of money industry. Okay, it's just not. You can't, can you do very well in fitness? You can. You got to be really good., you gotta be one of the better ones. Can you sustain yourself? Sure, you absolutely can, but it's not like finance or baking or investments, where if you do okay, you're making a shit ton of money,

but the reward really comes from what we're talking about right now. And I think a lot of, sometimes you forget to really look at it and say, you know, and kind of really appreciate, you know, what you really get out of being in fitness. And if I look back, it's, that's it, 100%. As those relationships, the ways that people's lives have been changed. And let me tell you, the way my life has been changed, I'm not, look, the people who I've been training for 14 years, let's consider this. I was 23 years old when I started training them. I am not the same person.

I went through trials and tribulations like everybody does, you know, through that length of period of time. And these people were instrumental in my... Oh, God, how much personal growth is from... From training doctors and lawyers that are in their 50s, 60s, even 70 years old, that with all this experience under their belt and stories that tell you and share,

I mean, that's what I think is so neat about the dynamic between all of us is we all have that experience and yet it's different. We've all had that kind of experience, but in a different way. And so there's so much to share, which is also I think we never run into content because it's like, God, I have learned so much. I was watching the Tony Robinson also I think we never run a content because it's like God I have learned so much

I was watching the Tony Robinson. I don't want to be a spoiler for you But you know he was talking about that, you know his latest tour on if you guys aren't if you guys haven't tuned in yet He's got a thing on Netflix right now. It's a series that just started I think it's serious. It's actually a series So I'm so used to the only came out of one. Yeah, I think the first one is right down is there one or two honestly I thought it was a one one episode. No, it says it says a series Wow, yeah, that'd be crazy if you signed with Netflix to do a series. I believe he did Yeah, I haven't done it so don't hold me to that if you're listening maybe somebody else These internet like Netflix and Hulu like they're creating. Oh, I follow Netflix a big time

I'm super fascinated in their business model, I'm super fascinated in their growth and their direction. My plumbing is out of shape. Netflix would go up there and for sure, my top 10, if not top five companies that I see in the future, like the shit they're doing and staying ahead of everybody else. Anyways, he goes on to talk about what's made him into Tony Robbins and stuff, and it's kind of on the line just saying, I don't want to spoil it Okay, I gotta watch it. Yeah, you need to tune in tune in for sure.

I watch it tonight. Well, um, so for those you're tuning in, you probably noticing you're not hearing your favorite host Justin. He's the one that always gets the most love. He does, dude, he does. Justin's not here. He's at home sick with a fever right now. So he's been a pussy. He's being a yeah, he's right now. So he's being a pussy. He's being a yeah So no, we want we want him to get well soon because he needs to come back to work We actually drug him onto one episode. Yeah, yeah, I thought we were just gonna call and say hi Do I know we're gonna actually make him sit through the Q&A? Yeah, poor guy. Yeah, it's gonna take us kind of a dick

But but I figured we could take advantage of the fact that he's not here by talking about things that Justin hates talking. Oh, God. Is this being aesthetics and macros? Yeah. So why don't we do so? We've been running a few episodes lately on, you know, particular body parts. We did one on back. We did one on glutes.

We did one that I don't think we've aired yet on another body part. And so one of the body parts I can think about right now that I know Justin would just roll his eyes at talking about is how to train your arms. How to trade your arms? I don't know if he's ever done it. The show muscles. Yeah, I don't think he's ever done it. I think he probably knows too by surprise at the exercise. That's it.

You know what? This is a great point. It is the biggest arms. This is a huge arms. This is a great point. I'd like to go into this. So first off, when we talk about the arms the arms Probably get the besides the abs and the glutes. They probably get the most attention when it comes to you know

Guys and girls in the gym or especially guys in the whole we released that we recently debated all this right whether it's number one or not But for sure it's one of the top, what I think glutes are for guys, when guys are like, oh my God, glutes on girls. I feel like girls are with arms, so arms, guys are gonna have arms. Yeah, arms are big, they're a big thing. You know, if you have nice arms,

you basically look like you work out, even if you don't have nice too much anything else. But, you know. Well, they stick out of your sleeves, that's why. Your abs are covered, your chest is covered, your back is covered, most your legs are covered unless you're wearing shorts. Yeah, unless you're wearing ass-less chaps,

it's not really whole- Oh, I don't know. So here's the thing with arms, and you brought up Justin never working out his arms, and it's true, Justin doesn't work out his arms specifically. However, he does a lot of heavy pulling and pushing, and as a result, he's got very developed arms. So I think we should talk about that.

If we're gonna talk about the best exercises, if we had to pick for big arms, it's compound movements. It's not necessarily the isolation movements. Oh, 100%. I mean, I don't anymore. When I first started, that was my thing was arms, thighs and tries, and I used to work them out at least three, four times a week.

Three, four times a week, I was training thighs and tries, and never missed a day. If I took a week off of the gym, six, something happened, first work out of day back, thighs and tries, for sure. Fierce and tries. At least a good three to five years of my weightlifting career when I first started as a kid. So I think I can contribute a lot of that to the size that I have now, because I put a lot of time and frequency into them.

But I now don't literally have to do anything of them, just by heavy compound lifting, it maintains the size that I've spent years and years and years trying to build, which for me sucks, because I think like, God, if I was only doing those movements back when I was a kid, not only would it, would those, my arms be just as big probably if not bigger?

On top of that, I would have developed all the other bigger body parts. Well, yeah, if you wanna, if you compare head to head, I'll give you an example. If you look at a Palms Up reverse grip or supinated grip, otherwise known as, pull up versus let's say a barbell curl or a dumbbell curl, which is also considered a great bicep builder, right?

So the bicep curl versus a heavy, supernity grip pull up. And you got stronger in both exercises or you had two people and you're comparing who's getting better arms. The guy who's doing pull ups and who's adding weight to his heavy-ups versus the guy who's just getting, adding weight to his curls. The guy doing pull-ups will probably build better and bigger biceps from doing the pull-ups. But along with that, he's going to get more developed back, maybe more muscle-cularity along shoulders, a little bit more in his forearms. So he's just getting more bang for his buck. So rule number one with arm training is get really strong with your compound movements.

Get really strong with your heavy rows, your heavy pull ups, your heavy bench presses, your heavy overhead presses, and your heavy dips if you wanna have really nice muscular arms, and you wanna build a good size on them. So I'd say that's a rule number one. Would you- 100% that would be. Yeah, I'd say that's a rule number one. Would you? 100% that would be.

Yeah, I wish I would have done it that way. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I spent a lot of years going the other way. There has to be something said too about genetics play a big role in this. Of course. So I mean, and I know that that's kind of a duh, right? For everybody.

But it needs to be said that, you know, a lot of times you see, and why I want to dress because you see a lot of articles on, oh, if you want to work on the peak of the bicep or oh, if you, where you want to look at the longer biceps or round, are you going for a more rounder part? They start breaking up the bicep as if there's ways to train it to develop to look a certain way. And it's just, it's not like that. Like you, you have an origin insertion for it, and everybody's is a little bit different. And that has a lot to do with the shape of your muscle.

Yeah, you can change, you can change activation of muscles as long as one of the origins or assertions or whatever is a long, a broad line or whatever, like the chest. If you look at where it inserts at the sternum, it's pretty long, right? All the way up at the clavicle and it goes all the way down the sternum. In that case, I can work more upper or more lower chest. But if you look at the biceps, for example, the attachments of both heads, because there's two heads of the bicep, they're so close to each other that trying to work more of the outer inner head is futile, so waste your time.

And then trying to break up the muscle into upper and lower is not just futile, it's stupid, because the muscle contracts and it only has two anchors. It's got anchor at the top and anchor at the bottom, so trying to work, you know, the muscle from the bottom anchor into the middle where there is no anchor, makes no sense. Well, now let's get into this because this is the part that, you know, mind pump will go out

and sometimes we, we talk shit about an exercise, right? And then everybody like, you know, oh my God, you know, they said this is so bad. Well, then how come you did it or, you know, how come I read this, this read this guru or expert is saying that this is great for this. Here's the thing, all these different exercises, your overhead tries to extension and try some kickbacks and doing a cable with your elbow flared out and doing some sort of pronation

while you kick back. All these little techniques and stuff, they're all they're all moot in comparison to the the been over row or a close barbell push press. These big heavy compound movements are going to give the greatest change. So if you are somebody who starts fucking around with all these angles and weird exercises to try and get every you you should have mastered those and those should be a huge portion of what you're doing. You want to look at those as great ways to add volume and frequency.

Yeah, so if I replace. Correct, if I have a big jar and I'm trying to fill up that space in that jar, I'm gonna use big blocks and rocks first, which is gonna fill up most of the space. So now I've got most of the space filled up in that jar. I'm going to use big blocks and rocks first, which is going to fill up most of the space. So now I've got most of the space filled up in that jar, but there's still little cracks and crevices that I can fill up as well. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to fill those up with sand. And so think of those, those little extra movements as the little rocks, a little pieces of sand, they're going to fill up the cracks. And

they're great ways to add volume and frequency. So if you're doing your heavy movements, you're heavy barbell movements and dumbbell movements and compound movements, and now you can handle more volume, you can handle more frequency, but you can't handle more big heavy compound movements because there's only so many, I can only heavy bench press or heavy push press

so many times a week before I fry myself, but I may be able to overhead tricep extension. That's like an a fry my central nervous myself, but I may be able to do overhead tricep extension. That's like in a fry my central nervous system, but my muscle can handle more volume. That's when you throw in those things. That's when you throw in that extra volume. And here's what you want to consider when you look at arm training. It does a preacher curl work the lower part of the bicep more than say, you know, an incline curl. No, you're not going to,

you're splitting hair so finely. Number one, it's debated. And if there were any difference, you're splitting hair so finely, it's an absolute waste of your time to do it that way. However, what you are doing is you're changing the resistance, or at least where you feel most of the resistance in the rep. So if my arms are in front of me, my bicep is contracting with my arms in front of me, and then of course the weight that I'm holding might be fighting gravity differently because the preacher bench is at a certain angle,

and there's, you know, it might be hardest at the midpoint of the rep, or if I'm doing a concentration curl, maybe the hardest part of the rep is at the top of the rep. So my muscle fibers have to contract and hold on hardest there, or if I'm doing it with my elbows or behind me in an incline curl, maybe the hardest part of the rep is at the top of the rep, so my muscle fibers have to contract and hold on hardest there, or if I'm doing it with my elbows or behind me in an incline curl,

maybe the hardest part of the rep is a lower part. My point is, these different angles will train your muscles a little bit differently, and that's what you wanna look at when you're trying to add volume and frequency. And really it's about elbow positioning in relationship to the body. So with the biceps, elbows behind me,

elbows next to my body, and then elbows on front of me, those are three positions you should consider when considering bicep exercise. And that includes a tricep, try. That includes a tricep too. That's a great rule of thumb is, you knock out your big compound movements first. That's gotta be in the program.

So that's whatever, if you're following maps, it's structured in there. So there's no more. It's all structured in there. That's part of the programming. Yeah, so if you're following maps, that part is handled. That's part of, you know, people always ask like,

you know, could you explain how you guys program? And well, here's an element. And I feel like we've done hundreds of episodes to talk about how programming is, because there's so many pieces that go in. Well, this is a piece. We know that if you're trying to develop the arms, well, what's the best thing to do that? Well, how do you do that?

Well, you make sure you incorporate these moves that are not only going to do that, but they're also going to benefit these people in so many other ways. And then you have somebody, okay, who says that's, they want that to be more of a focus. Well, that's what Maps Black was all about. Maps Black was, okay, take a body part like your bias, and that now becomes your focus. So now we increase volume. This is where you now, because before people are like,

why don't you understand like, you guys do all these old school, you know, barbell movements and stuff. Does that mean there's no place for all these other dumbbell exercises? And we know, where do those fit into working out, because we used to talk shit about a lot of stuff like that. So people think that like we're anti those movements,

like no, not at all, there's a priority. And like Sal was saying, like the priority first are these compound movements. Now let's say you're like somebody who is trying to focus on bicep and tricep. They're trying, it's an underdeveloped muscle, you want more to it. So it's gonna require more volume, more adaptation to it. So that's where Maps Black comes in.

Maps Black comes in. You decide, okay, buys and tries are my two focus muscles that I'm going to focus on. Now they become your, you know, in your focus days, you now have exercises addressing. This is where those exercises come. Right. So in other words, you know, you're, let's say, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, you're focusing on your big heavy movements, your most important movements. Well, now you've got Tuesday and Thursday and maybe Saturday and Sunday available. You can do those heavy movements again

at that intensity again, because it's just gonna overwrite. You're good, but it wouldn't be ideal. It wouldn't be ideal, but you can add volume. And if your focus area is bicep and tricep, well, that's a great time. Explain this though right here. So, you know, because someone would be like,

okay, well then why don't I just do compound movements every single day if those are the biggest bang for my buck? Because you're limited, you're limited by your body's ability and capacity to repair and recover. If that wasn't a problem, if you had no, if there was no limitation, then literally, I would literally squat bench press

row, deadlift, pull up every day all day long. I would do it five times a day and I'd go hard and heavy all day long. However, I'm severely limited by, and all of us are, by our body's ability to recover and repair and rebuild. Compound movements, they send a loudest signal. Part of the reason, this isn't all of the reason, but part of the reason why they do is they cause the most damage to muscle and they cause the most damage to the greatest area of muscles. And they also cause the biggest hit to your central nervous system. If I did a set of barbell squats to failure for 20 reps,

it's going to tax the shit out of my central nervous system far more than if I did a set of leg extensions and leg curls to failure for 20 reps, far, far, far more. So again, these are all tools that you can use in programming your workout. When you think of programming, you wanna think of all you're doing is you're taking pieces and you're putting them together and inserting them

in the right order and at the right intensity is to come out to this wonderful program, which comes out to this equation of how your body, you want it to look and how you want it to feel. And so you have to add the right pieces at the right times and know how to combine them right. And if you think of, look, if you're making a beef stew, your heavy compound movements is the beef, okay? Your smaller movements are the spices. Like you can't make a beef stew without

beef. You can make it without spices. It might not be as delicious as it's going to be, but it's going to be beef stew. But you ain't't gonna make a beef stew with no beef. You say what I'm saying? You gotta have the main ingredients. I hope that was a good one. You get extra points for that enough. Is that a good one? It's so far.

You're like, beef stew, did you just make that recently? Completely, I just came from it. Did you not make beef stew recently? Or did you know why beef stew was all here? I completely, just came up with that shit. So here's the thing. So look at elbow positioning when you're working with your arms and start and pick exercises

within different positions of the elbow. So how about this? So since there, it is three elbow positions. Yeah, we'll narrow it down to three. So then let's go one more step and what would be your three favorite? There you go. Three favorite moves, which one?

Perfect. So here's the three that the elbow positions I'm looking at for arms, okay? I'm looking at, for biceps, excuse me, elbows behind my back, elbows next to my body, and then elbows in front of my body. So elbows behind my back would be, and what is called an incline curl,

that's one of my favorite exercises for that. It's where you're laying on an incline, like an incline bench press or whatever, 45 degrees. My arms are hanging at my sides. I'm keeping that position, so my elbows always pointing down and I'm doing curls. Now, at the bottom of the rep, you may notice a slight stretch in the muscle.

That's good. That's what you want from that position. You want a little bit of a stretch in the bicep. The next position would be where my elbows are next to my body. And in this position, you have some of your best overall bicep exercise. Let's go back to your first one.

Let's give a little bit more information on what I just thought about listening to you. Because here's what someone will take this exercise and how they'll spin it in a magazine as like the best bicep exercise ever or why it's so great or superior to another is look at physics, look at where the dumbbell is through most of this move. One, you put it in a full stretch position so we know there's better. Yes, that's the biggest part of it.

Right. It's a fully stretched out position when you're at the bottom of that. And then when you're at a fully contracted position, there's actually still a lot of tension on the bicep where some other bicep curls, when you're at the top of the curl, there's actually a little bit of relief on the bicep. And now the shoulder actually takes over a lot of it. So someone will look at that move and then somebody will try and wrap a program or wrap something around it is. You know, this, you know, and because maybe not everyone's done that, you know, people,

not ever, I don't see that exercise a lot, you know, not a lot of people actually sit on it. It's one, I would agree with you. It's one of my top three, for sure. And you don't see a lot of people do it and that's the real benefit behind that movement, but it's an excellent movement. Yeah, so that would be the one with the elbows behind my body. The one with my elbows next to my body would be your regular barbell curl. I like easy bar using an easy bar because it's a little easier on my wrist.

So standing barbell curl, again like Adam's saying, you're gonna notice that the resistance is easier at the top than it is at the middle of the rep because that's your fighting gravity directly when you're at the middle of the rep. And then the one where my elbows in front of my body, there's a couple and they're both very different. A preacher curl, my elbows in front of my body, however, a lot of the resistance is near

the bottom of the rep or a concentration curl, Arnold style, the one where you're bent over where your arm is out in front of you. That one also my elbows in front of my body, however, the top of the rep is where the weight is heaviest, the squeeze at the top. So it would be between those two that I would pick. So there's your three positions, or three or four exercises, incline curl, barbell curl, and then either a preacher curl or a concentration curl

for the elbow in front of the body. I'd have to say I'm right with you now. Yeah, yeah, I don't to say I'm right with you. Yeah. Yeah, yeah I don't know if I would great minds. Yeah, no Maybe a weird one that's totally out there That I always really liked and it wouldn't seem like this would be a great one is I like to lie down if I can get a cable that I can lie down and I can pull a cable down towards My my forehead so that position automatically when I on at the top and I'm curling down.

Oh, yeah. So I'm lying down on my back and I'm curling the bar. Are you curling the bar towards your forehead or behind your head? Yes. Well, it depends on the angle, right? I'm positioning the elbows into whatever, you know, I want my elbows out in front of me. So however, the angle, the bench I'm lying on, if it's flat surface or where the cable's coming from,

but I'm basically laying flat, bringing it down to my forehead or behind my head in that position. And so I'm getting a full, the entire time you have complete tension, the entire time, you get fully stretched all the way out and the weight pulls it out and stretches it out for you. And then when you crawl, I could take it through full range of motion, I get good contraction.

And so that would be an elbows in front of you. Yeah, so it would be an elbows in front of me. And I know we're all super barbell and dumbbell guys, but that is a move that I've been able to really be able to focus and try my best to isolate the muscles. Well, here's the thing, cables come in handy when you're looking at this kind of stuff, because like with triceps, it's sometimes

it's difficult to get, you know, in the right position with a freeway and that's where cables may come in handy. Here's another thing though, here's a very, geez, I totally forgot about the exercise until you said what you were saying. Here's a forgotten exercise that I even haven't done for a long time.

You take a lat pull down bar with a supinated grip and instead of doing a pull down, you do a curl behind your head. That is an extremely shortened position of the biceps, because your elbows are pulling straight up. Your biceps are already shortened, and you're curling it behind your head, and that may be even a fourth position of the elbows

for a curl. Very difficult, by the way. If you've never done that before, it's not a mass builder. You have to use very light weight, but it gives you a completely different feel. So I literally just did this last workout with Katrina. I did independent arms, though. So I did independent arms, and I got off, I pulled my headphones off, and I was laughing. And she says, what's so funny? And I'm like, look at, I said, I have like 15 more pounds in you and I'm like shaking.

And it was because I've been doing so much barbell dumbbell work. I hadn't done any real cable and I had not put my elbow and there's nothing else that really mimics that. No, you'd have to hang upside down. Exactly. There's nothing and I haven't been doing pull-ups for a long time because of my pro-nader terrorists, right? So I hadn't done pull-ups for her.

So I've done nothing in that position to really, so you could just see my central nerve. And I was explained, this is where I was, you know, this is like a nerdy with my girl when she wore a salivary time, she makes fun of me, right? So I'm like, you wanna know what's going on? Like, I'm shaking because like my central nerve system is like going crazy right now

because I have not trained it in this. It's not really heavy weight, but my body is responding like it's super heavy and it was shaking, so. That's pretty rad. Yeah, it's pretty funny. You just brought that up. So I thought I'd share that. So now when we look at triceps, since I went with biceps, why don't you go with triceps

Adam? So a tricep move for me that I love for sure, body weight dips, and then eventually working your way to where you can do weighted is a big for sure move. So now does that, so I was thinking about that dips are fundamental. It's compound. It's a compound movement. Yeah. Would you consider that a behind elbows behind the back

or elbows next year back? Cause it's kind of all of those, right? Yeah, that's why it's such a great move. Yeah. You know, it's such a great move. And you could mess with the way you position your chest and shoulders to kind of play with it a little bit, you know, so I don't know if I would probably count it as elbows back.

I think I think that's the closest to that. And depending on how you do that, would also dictate on if I would do what the next one on flat or incline, I love a close grip barbell press, close grip barbell press for the triceps for me. And then either a standard dumbbell, skull crusher or overhead extension. So if we're messing with the elbows and so if I'm messing with the elbows, I'm like, I'm trying to make the most drastic angle difference, right? So I've got one really behind me like you were saying and then one by my side and then one all the way up front.

So I'm trying to be as drastic of a difference on the three moves that I'm going to choose. And so that would decide whether I do flat or incline, but a barbell press, a dumbbell skull crusher, and then a bodyweight dip. So I like, I love dips. They're fantastic for triceps, but if I were to go isolation, let's say we're going isolation or less compound, because those are great exercises. I can't debate those. But if I was going a little more isolation, elbows behind the back, I think a bench dip, right? Because they're always kind of stay there, a little more isolation. Elbows next to my sides would be like just a cable press down. Elbows in front of me is skull crusher and then a good old fashioned standing overhead

tricep extension for elbows above my head. Now with the triceps, I will say this because of the attachment of the long head of the tricep extension for elbows above my head. Now, with the triceps, I will say this, because of the attachment of the long head of the tricep on the scapula, there is a little bit more of a difference than with the biceps. There's more importance to elbow position even. Yes, like if I go real heavy with a closed grip press or a dip or a tricep press down,

I'm going to get more of the outer head of my tricep. The lower, the long head or the inner head of the tricep, the big head, that's the big meaty part of the tricep. You actually stretch that when your arm is above your head. So if you think of a tricep stretch, where I was thinking the one where our arm is pointed up above our head, we'll grab our elbow, pull it across. So heavy overhead tricep extensions, we will hit that long head a little bit more.

And I've noticed this to myself, I get more sore in that position probably because it's stretched. But I will say this, some people, actually, relatively large amount of people have a elbow problem. You think it's sore? I would think your soreness would be more because just like I was just noticing with the elbow positioning in those bicep curls is it's a very rare position for your body. Yeah, just how often are you,

when you do an overhead extension, how often are you in a position like that where your elbows are all the way behind your head in a fully stretched tricep position and then you're actually moving any sort of significant weight. Think about that. Like anything else where your elbows are positioned by your side barely out in front of

you, even back behind you a little bit, that's getting out of bed, that's getting coach, that's pushing something in front of you, that's carrying stuff. Like, that's a very, very common and functional movement to bring something from behind your head. I can't just do extension. Yeah. And then extend out like that. I can't off the top of my head.

I can't even think of a time where that's really practical. Well the other thing too is a lot of times people have elbow pain When they're doing triceps especially skull crushes are overhead tricep extensions and so for those people I would say Avoid them for a while wait to elbows get better and then when you reintroduce those exercises do them at the end of your Workout when you're fatigued and you can focus on your form because you have a lot of potential for strength in those positions. I got to the point where I got real fucking strong in those moves. I could do overhead dumbbell, uh, trisip extension where I'm holding one dumbbell with both hands. I got up to 130 pound dumbbell and I was doing reps with that.

And then my elbow started talking to me. And now I rarely go over 75, 80 pounds at the most and I'm just really focusing on my form and I have better arms than I did back then. And if I'm gonna add heavy weight, I'm still gonna focus on my presses instead. You know, my dips and my bench presses and close grip presses and stuff like that.

So I guess the takeaways are this, do not neglect the big heavy compound movements. That's what's going to develop your arms more than anything. And then when you're ready to add volume and you want to add volume to really focus on your arms, what you should consider when picking your exercises is your elbow positioning. That's where you should pick from your arsenal. Don't just pick a bunch of your favorite bicep exercises from that. You want to pick elbow positioning. And oh, one thing we forgot to say, hand positioning for biceps is also important.

I can't believe we forgot that. So whether my hand is pronated, neutral or supinated, will dictate different adaptations for my bicep. And I do think it's important to include some form of a hammer curl or even pronated curl for strength and balance in the biceps and in the forearms. You got to have those strong. Which ironically matters for the bicep, but does not for the triceps.

No, rotating the hand really makes ships. So, yeah, and this is an important point because I don't know how many times I've seen people do this before where they're like, they're tricep, they're whole tricep routine of the day is consistent of them standing at a cable machine and they do the rope push downs, they do tricep push downs,

and they do reverse grip push downs. It's all push downs. Elbow next to the body the entire time, no variation that the only difference is their hand positioning, which really has nothing to do with the triceps, that's all about biceps. Here's what they notice, because people, I've actually argued with people.

Of course, I can totally feel the difference. I feel the difference. Here's what they're noticing. When I take my hand and I rotate it so that it's palm face up, which is called supinated, what that's doing is it's forcing the elbows closer to my body. So what they're noticing is their elbows either further away or closer to the body.

Stay straighter, tighter inside of their body. Has nothing to do with their... Naturally, if you have a push down and you're in a pronated grip, you automatically flare out a little bit unless you have really good discipline to stay tight. It's actually not a good idea to do a press down with a supinated grip because that's the weaker position for your hand, and really you're limiting factor that becomes your hands when you're

doing that extra. So you're better with your hands facing down or each other, so you can use more weight and put more stress on the triceps. So that little bit of advice we just gave you, incorporate that in your arm training. And important to note though, that there's, you know, and this is how we've phased the programs. It's the reason why, you know, red, green and black. There's there's actually an order to go in. If you, if you were someone who hired me and said, Hey, Adam, I want to build my, in my buys and tries. Should I do black and start

focusing on arms right away? I'd actually say no. I'd say, I'd still want you to go through red and build through the foundation because that's where you learn all these compound movements and you start to structure on that. And the volume is less. And then as you start to progress, because you're automatically going to see change in your arms and stuff just from following map's red, then as you start to see progression from there, because that's three months of programming, then we can transition into, you know, black where we can add more volume and then try and add more. And let's not forget like there is a volume adding tool in maps and a ball or maps red, which is the trigger session. And trigger sessions are in a nutshell very light low intensity exercises done on your off days, and you do them several times a day,

and you can add volume to your arms by making it just arms trigger. Well, I was gonna say that we've modified that. This is also the form is for, you know, the form we use, someone gets, they just bought maps red, and they're on the form and they're like, hey, you know, I know this is the ideal

and everyone's told me follow the program to a tee, but, you know, I really feel like I'm lagging in my biceps and triceps, what would you guys recommend I do or do I not worry about that? It's absolutely, you have trigger days and on your trigger days now, instead of doing kind of full body triggers and hitting all the other muscle groups,

you don't have to focus on the ones that you are your strengths, focus on your buys and tries and use those as your triggers and do those more frequently throughout the day. So there's, and that's the idea of all the programs is to be able to modify it towards you and your specific goals.

Yeah, and so you can find those programs at mindpumpmedia.com. Listen, if you like MindPump, leave us a five star rating and review on iTunes. We will give the winners, because we pick out the best ones, free t-shirts, free mind pump t-shirts. They're pretty awesome. You can also find us on Instagram at Mind Pump Radio.

You can find me, Mind Pump Sal, you can find Adam, at Mind Pump Adam, and you can find poor sick Justin at Mind Pump Justin. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbumble at MindPumpMedia.com. The RGB Superbumble includes maps and a ballad, maps performance, and maps aesthetic.

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