Introducing The Arm Blaster!
The arm blaster is an old school piece of training equipment, rarely seen in gyms today. I first discovered the arm blaster while reading through some information on Arnold’s training regime and the workouts performed during the golden era of bodybuilding.
Shortly after while travelling abroad in Bali, Indonesia I found an arm blaster in an old school gym, after doing a couple of arm blaster workouts I promptly ordered one after returning home to Australia.
The primary purpose of the arm blaster is to isolate your biceps curls to your biceps only, this may sound relatively redundant and unnecessary but the majority of gym-goers and curl bros utilize poor form when performing an arm workout – with swaying, calf raises, not utilizing a full range of motion and not contracting properly at the top of each rep.
The arm blaster helps ‘lock in’ good form
I would go as far as saying it’s almost impossible to practise bad form when using an arm blaster.
I personally have relatively long biceps insertions – this means my biceps appear large and thick from the side on, however when it comes to flexing and overall biceps peak that’s is one of my main genetic shortcomings. I bought an arm blaster to overcome this, to build up my biceps peak and ensure I’m practising better form.
Here’s an example video of me performing 120lbs barbell biceps curls with my arm blaster, as you can see when I’m performing the exercise side on my elbows are locked in hard against bent portion of the arm blaster.
The arm blaster workout regime I follow and recommend is:
Barbell Biceps Curls – 4 sets x 4-6 reps
Dumbbell Biceps Curls – 3 sets x 8 reps
Dumbbell Hammer Curls – 4 sets x 6-8 reps
An alternate workout I perform partially utilizing the arm blaster is as follows:
Barbell biceps curls (cheat reps) – 4 sets x 4-6 reps
Dumbbell hammer curls (arm blaster) 4 sets x 8 – 10 reps
Incline dumbbell curls – 2 sets x 8-10 reps
Barbell 21s (arm blaster) – 1 set (21 reps)
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).
Quick refresher on 21s:
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.
A common question I get asked is whether a bicep blaster should be utilized for every arm workout. Frankly, there’s no right or wrong way to do it – we’ve established the fact that you do not need to constantly switch up your workout regime to make progress as your muscles do not have cognitive abilities…
However...
The arm blaster limits the weight you’ll be lifting, you’ll more than likely almost have to half the weight you’re currently lifting to perform the same amount of sets and reps with your arm blaster.
As you know I advocate form over weight, when it comes to your main compound exercises. Cheat curls on the other hand, as performed by Arnold definitely do come in handy when building strength and attempting to overload the muscle. I opt to use my arm blaster for every second workout, alternating between strict form barbell curls with my arm blaster and strictly less strict form with substantially heavier weight (currently around 140lbs).
In summary:
- The bicep blaster is an old school piece of equipment utilized in the golden era of bodybuilding to ensure isolation of the biceps
- When using the arm blaster you’ll need to lower the weight you’re currently lifting
- When utilizing strict form with an arm blaster you’ll get a pump unlike any other
- I personally have used the arm blaster to focus on my contractions to build up my genetically weak bicep peak
- There is no right or wrong way to use an arm blaster in terms of which exercise or workout to use it on
- I personally use my arm blaster for every second arm workout
Pick up your own arm blaster here.
