You’ve probably seen the photo above of Arnold before, but may have wondered “what’s that twisted metal bar across his torso?”
In short, the performing your bicep workout with an arm blaster:
- Helps enforce strict form (when you’re using it as well as when you’re not)
- Keeps tension on the muscle for the duration of your curl, assisting with the application of progressive overload
- Prevents ego lifting (selecting a weight that’s too heavy and swinging for the fences)
- You’ll get a crazy pump due to the full contraction at the top of the curl when using your arm blaster
Here’s The Arm Blaster I Use & Recommend…
High quality, affordable and no BS. I’ve used this exact arm blaster for the last 4 years and it’s holding up strong, hell I’ve even packed it in my luggage and travelled to gyms over Indonesia with it.
3 Arm Blaster Exercises That’ll Annihilate Your Biceps
When it comes to building big biceps no gym-goer needs an introduction to the bicep curl.
Most guys alternate between a couple of variations – the barbell curl and the over the knee concentration curl.
There’s no doubt that provided you’re hitting your biceps with progressive overload by increasing the weight, reps or time under tension for each set they’ll grow.
BUT…
If you want to build monumental biceps, if you want to avoid the plateaus that often come as a result of sticking to one or two versions of the regular bicep curl you need to expand your arsenal while maintaining strict form with an arm blaster.
Dumbbell Bicep Curls
The classic dumbbell curl.
There’s not a lot to the dumbbell curl, however a lot of guys think “Oh I’ve seen a bicep curl before I know how to do that!” and don’t actually take note of the few key factors that seperate great bicep curling form from poor form.
In order to perform the dumbbell bicep curl correctly (and re-inforce this technique using your arm blaster) do the following:
- Grip a pair of dumbbells with your arms fully extended with your palms facing your sides
- Keep your elbows locked in place, curl only your upper arm as your rotate your wrist until your palm is facing toward you.
- Squeeze at the top for 1 second with your palm facing you.
- Slowly lower the dumbbell back down until its returned to your side with your palm once again facing your side in the fully extended position.
- Repeat with your other arm
Dumbbell Hammer Curls
If you want to build monumental biceps, if you want to avoid the plateaus that often come as a result of sticking to one or two versions of the regular bicep curl you need to work on the hammer curl.
The hammer curl is a very similar movement to the regular bicep curl, however the weight is continually held in a neutral grip, without the typical twist performed when curling a dumbbell up.
The dumbbell hammer curl is often performed as an ego lift, as the majority of gym-goers will be able to lift a substantial bit more weight when they’re utilizing the netural grip of the hammer curl… with excessive increases in weight our form ever so quickly goes out the window, along with the tension placed on the muscle and the growth of the biceps.
The arm blaster eliminates the ability to cheat.
- Grip a pair of dumbbells with your arms fully extended with your palms facing your sides
- Keep your elbows locked in place, curl only your upper arm until fully contracted.
- Squeeze at the top for 1 second.
- Slowly lower the dumbbell back down until its returned to your side in the fully extended position.
- Repeat with your other arm
Barbell 21s
21s are a very popular biceps exercise, I do not perform these particularly often however the arm blaster works a treat for 21s too (it will obviously be redundant in the second portion of the 3 part 21 exercise, as you’re only curling in the upper portion of your range of motion).
Select a barbell that is roughly half of the weight you would generally use for barbell biceps curls.
Perform 7 repetitions working in the lower range of motion – i.e. from your arms being full extended to your arms being horizontal with the floor.
Immediately perform 7 repetitions in the upper range of motion – i.e. from your arms being horizontal to the floor to the full contraction at the top of the biceps curl.
Now, after performing 14 repetitions (7 lower range of motion, 7 upper range of motion) immediately rep out 7 regular barbell curls, utilizing your full range of motion.
This exercise will give you a burn like no other, like most things it’s all in the mind though – do not give up as the lactic acid increases and your biceps begin to feel like they’re on fire.
Putting It Together… My Arm Blaster Workout
Got your arm blaster and these exercises dialled in? Time to put it all together into a killer arm blaster workout – use this workout every second arm day.
I don’t recommend training with an arm blaster every bicep workout, instead use it to enforce perfect form and attempt to replicate this form every other bicep workout without it.
Dumbbell Biceps Curls – 4 sets x 4-6 reps
Dumbbell Hammer Curls – 3 sets x 8 reps
Barbell 21s – 2 sets x 21 reps