5 Secrets To Unlock Bigger Arms

Posted on by costafitness
Me and my homeboy

There’s something about that feeling you get when you throw a shirt on and the sleeves fit snug around the arms. It’s a shot of confidence and really makes you wonder how that girl you like in class didn’t notice. On a real note, it can motivate you to want to stay in the gym which is a big key to any good looking phyisque. Today we are going over 5 secrets to unlock bigger arms!

Anytime I have noticed the biggest change in my body, especially the arms are when I am following these tips. This is just like anything else, if you don’t take it seriously and put the time and effort in then you won’t see results. Make a commitment to yourself today and start off by following these secrets I am sharing with you. If you follow these, you will be filling that shirt sleeve out in no time!

So whats the secret? Well I will start by listing them and then explaining. Stay around until the end of this article and you will get 2 workouts that will help take care of one big step.

  • Increase the frequency of arm training (Duhh, I know)
  • Increase weight
  • Increase calories
  • More triceps (it’s 2/3 the arm) 
  • Try taking creatine (check with a doctor 1st)

Increase the frequency of arm training

The first key thing to start off with is to train your arms more frequently each week. It may sound like a no brainer, but this is commonly overlooked and thought to be too much work for one area. A lot of people might only train their arms once a week compared to 2 to 3 or even 4 times a week. The thing about this is if you want bigger arms, you need to start training them more frequently. It WILL be a game changer, trust me.

Increase weight

Light weight curls is not going to get the job done, you have to start increasing weight and increasing weight overtime as well. One of my favorite movements is to do a cheat curl and really get the weight up but control it with a slow negative on the decent of the movement. This can really work on overloading the muscle and making it work at a higher level to force growth.

Increase calories

A key point in getting bigger muscles will always include consuming more calories. It is extremely hard to see a noticeable difference if you are maintaining the same caloric intake or even a lower caloric intake than your maintenance level would be. Find your maintenance calories and start adding 300 to 400 cal a day until you find an optimal range of calories to help increase weight at a steady pace.

More triceps (it’s 2/3 the arm) 

This is the part a lot of people forget about and neglect… Triceps. It’s not all about the biceps. They can’t be getting all the love. You have to spread some love to those triceps and make sure you’re working them just as much, if not even more in my opinion. The reason is because the triceps will take up 2/3 of the arm space compared to the biceps. So in turn, if you get bigger triceps, the arms will appear bigger!

Try taking creatine 

A good tool to use for getting bigger muscles and to increase strength is a supplement called creatine. Creatine works by creating extra ATP at the cellular level. This will increase the amount of reps that you can perform with a heavier weight, which will increase the strength and in turn increase muscle size. But another part that creatine helps with is holding water in the muscle to make the muscles appear slightly bigger. I recommend creatine monohydrate, but again please check with your doctor first to make sure this is a good option for you.

Don’t forget recovery!

With picking up the intensity, frequency and the soreness you’ll witness better looking arms. However if you want to get the very most out of the training and decrease the soreness to be able to continually increase and overload that muscle, you will need to take care of your recovery. Increased protein can help as well as adding in aminos and creatine into your supplement plan.

I have a subscription company called Iron Crate. We help take care of this problem by sending you some of the highest quality products on the market to help with recovery. It is also a great way to get a great deal on supplements and healthy protein packed snacks to try. I get one every month to act as a reward! It is like a monthly Christmas for the fitness lovers! You can check out my website for Iron Crate by clicking the button below. I appreciate any and all support!

IronCrate.co

Here are some of the previous Crates we have sent out recently. Oh and yea, we definitely added the cobwebs in the Iron Crates for Halloween we sent out to our customers and we sent stockings for Christmas. Wait till you see some of the new things coming! We like to keep it unique here to say the least.

Now that I got a shamless plug in, I really hope you can use this article to help get the arms you are looking for! If you use all 5 tips and keep up on your recovery, there’s no doubt you’ll be more than happy with the results you will receive.

As promised, I want to give you 2 solid workouts to help get you started. This uses some of the tips we just learned. Have fun! You can go to the Vault of Gainz page to see how to do all exercises listed!

Workout #1

A1) Barbell cheat curls – 5 x 8

A2) Tricep cable push downs – 5 x 15

B1) Close grip bench – 5 x 8

B2) Hammer curls – 5 x 15 

Triset – 6 x 15 each 

C1) bench dips 

C2) cable curls 

C3) band tricep pushdowns 

Workout #2

Barbell cheat curls 

12, 10, 8, 6 then drop weight and go back to 12 reps— dropset immediately after the 6 reps. That will be a set of 12. So as soon as you finish the last heavy set of 6 reps, take of about 30-50% of the weight and do that new weight for 12 reps.

Triset- 5 sets here 

-Close stance push ups – till failure 

-Over head dumbbell tricep extensions – 12-15

-Band tricep push downs – 20 reps 

Triset – 5 sets here (try to grab one set of dumbbells and go through all of these here without setting the weights down)

-Dumbbell twist curls – 10-15

-Dumbbell reverse curls – 10-15

-Dumbbell hammer curls – 10-15

Thank you again for checking out this article! It would mean the world if you could share this out to your friends! Sending you all love and positive vibes. Here’s to a happy, healthy and successful 2021!

-Alex Costa-

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4 of My Best Shoulder Workouts EVER WRITTEN

Posted on by costafitness

There is something about a good balanced and toned shoulder ratio that can really make your physique look next level. As a personal trainer, I have written thousands of workouts over the years but here are 4 of my BEST shoulder workouts I have ever written. These are not easy so if you have the will power to push through each workout, you will reap the benefits of having a complete looking arm physique.

Shoulder warm up for before your workout

Exercise library : Vault of Gainz

5 minutes on the bike or treadmill
Shoulder swings
Shoulder pass throughs with band
Band pull aparts 15 reps

Workout #1

Dumbbell shoulder press – 12, 10, 8, 6

Triset- 5 sets of 15 each (don’t set the dumbbells down until one whole set is complete)
-Front raises
-Side raises
-Bent over rear delt flys

Superset – 5 sets
-Dumbbell shrugs – 20 reps
-Band face pulls – 20 reps

Finisher – 1 set of 100 reps
-Side raises with a band (as little rest as possible)

Workout #2

Superset – 4 sets
-Barbell shrugs – 15 reps
-Machine shoulder press – 20 reps

Giant set – 6 sets (keep rest pretty short here and weight a little lighter. Get a drink of water and try to get right back to the weights.)
-Band upright rows – 15 reps
-Band face pulls – 15 reps
-Dumbbell Arnold press – 12 reps
-Side raises – 12 reps

Workout #3

Shoulder Shredder – You will go back and forth between jump rope and a dumbbell shoulder press.

-Jump rope – 30 seconds
-Dumbbell shoulder press – 15 reps
*Repeat for 10 minutes straight without rest if you can*

If you can still move your arms, that’s okay wait until the next part.

Superset – 4 sets
Dumbbell side raises – 10 reps with a 3 count on the way down each rep
Dumbbell front raises – 10 reps with a 3 count on the way down each rep

RUN THE RACK – Shoulder press
-Start with the heaviest set of dumbbells you can handle and get at least 5 reps. From there, you will drop down and go 5-10 pounds lighter until failure. Then repeat until you make it through 4 total sets.

Example set: If I start with 45lb dumbbells, I will do my 5 reps then rack them. After I rack the weight, I will move down to 40s and do my shoulder press till failure then rack them. Then go to 35s and repeat then one more set with the 30s.

Workout # 4

Back for more? You know I’ll take care of ya, saved the hardest workout for the last!

Barbell shoulder press (in front to behind complex) 5 x 8 & 8
-Go 8 reps in front of head
-Go straight into 8 reps behind the head
*I recommend starting light with weight here and maybe have a spotter as you go any heavier*

Superset – 4 sets
-Dumbbell side raises – 10 reps a little heavier here
-Band side raises – 20 reps

Superset – 4 sets
-Dumbbell front raises – 10 reps a little heavier here
-Band front raises – 20 reps

Superset – 4 sets
-Barbell shrugs – 10 reps a little heavier here
-Dumbbell shrugs – 20 reps
-Cable shrugs – 30 reps

Finisher – 5 x 10 on dumbbell shoulder press or machine shoulder press.
*Keep weight a little lighter here and rest short*

There you have it. These are 4 workouts that will leave your shoulders looking shredded and toned up. Have fun in the gym and let me know what you think on these! Some of these are hard and you will really have to dig deep to complete the workout so push yourself and bring a friend to workout with!

An important note to make is that this will really break down the muscle and leave you sore so it is crucial to keep recovery game strong. Iron Crate supplies you with the top brands and most trustworthy products to keep you feeling your best! You can also get great deals on different protein snacks, samples and other awesome things like shaker bottles and gym gear on the website Ironcrate.co today!

Grab an Iron Crate

How To Make A Decline Bench – (GYM HACK)

Posted on by costafitness

GYM HACK💥

Want to target that lower chest? A decline angle is a great way to start. However you may be in the gym and the decline bench is taken, but need to get going. Take some bumber plates if available and set up a mini stack. I would not do more than 3-5 plates depending on how it is set up. Place them under the lower half of the bench to set up a decline angle.

This is also a great technique for if you have a flat bench at home and want to switch it up. The couple things you need to watch and check are safety factors. Make sure the bench is stable. I typically test this by pushing the bench at that end and sit on it and perform the movement WITHOUT weight first to ensure it will not slide. If you have rubber gym flooring and rubber bumber plates, you should be good. PLEASE use caution when doing this. I would try to get a spotter to help by spotting the weight and have the spotter also keep an eye on the bench to make sure it doesn’t slide.

Share with a friend and get to work! 

-Alex Costa-

Follow the website and blog to make sure you don’t miss out on any content coming!⬇️

My Mental Health Story

Posted on by costafitness
Anxiety in a picture

My name is Alex Costa and I have anxiety and go through panic attacks. I am more than anxiety and panic, I am a hard worker. I’m loving, confident, and thankful. 

Back when I was a sophomore in high school, I broke my femur in football. That year I also went through my 1st big heartbreak. I almost lost my father and on top of that, we had a couple of deaths in the family that were recent. Talk about life throwing you a curveball.

I remember sitting in class and getting dizzy. I felt more of an off-balanced feeling. I would be sitting in class and get really hot out of nowhere so I would always start wearing shorts even on the coldest of days. I wore shorts and was freezing cold going to school but I knew if I would go through this feeling, I would always get really hot and start sweating. So at least I wouldn’t be sweating during class.

Senior Year

I remember getting so scared. I thought I had things wrong with my head and started googling things which only made it worse. I would go to school and be worried about if I’d have these feelings come up again. It even got to the point that I was being more careful about playing football. I thought if I had hit my head, it would get worse. It affected my junior year slightly and my senior year heavily to where I was always concerned about what would happen if I took a hit to my head. There was no way I could play the game feeling like this. You can’t play football and play scared, it just doesn’t work. Football was my life and as my senior year came to an end, it felt like I watched my dream slip away right in front of me. At the same time, I had a relief feeling because I didn’t like my coach my senior year, he ruined football for me so I was also excited to be done. 

It wasn’t until my senior year I talked to the girl I was dating and completely opened up. I left nothing on the table and she mentioned something about anxiety. I had heard of the term before and never thought much of it till that moment. Her mother was a psychologist so we talked to her and she explained more about it to me. As I found myself opening up about this and finally getting a name for what was wrong with me, it was such a huge relief. It felt like a weight being lifted off my shoulders. 

From that day on, I started to make small progress. 

Fast forward a couple of years after I graduated high school and tried college. Notice how I put “tried”. It was not for me. I had anxiety in class and sometimes felt like I had to leave early. My heart would be racing, I would be sweating and have that dizzy feeling at times. It was impossible for me to focus with that. Oh yea, did I mention I was diagnosed with ADD when I was younger? So trying to focus on tasks for school was never my strong suit. I failed out after my 1st year which I never really talk a lot about. So this is me being open with it. It just wasn’t for me, I was distracted because I was talking to a girl I liked, I was going through anxiety, I didn’t know what I wanted to major in and its year one in college so I was always hanging out with friends. As I received my letter saying I was kicked out, I felt like a complete bum. I would wake up early, go workout, come home and nap till 12. My life felt like a joke. Finally I dedicated myself to a career path after speaking with a mentor of mine. I never looked back and was fully locked in.

Lets fast forward again, maybe a year or 2 later. One day I was at the gym. It was before I was about to leave for DC to see my sister. I was sitting on the bench and started feeling my heart skip beats and felt very off. I had felt this before but for 1 split second. This was happening and wasn’t stopping. I instantly jumped up and was in a panic. I ran to the front desk to inform them about this, they were about to call the ambulance and I told them to wait. “Let me go outside and get some fresh air” I said. I calmed down and now was worried about my heart health. Woo, another thing to add to my anxiety. It happened a year after that again and it was one of the scariest days of my life. I remember laying on the ground outside of my gym at 5am and looking up at the sky thinking that was it. You really do see your life flash before your eyes in those moments. I wasn’t ready to go yet, I was like 21, I had so much to do still. 

I scheduled an appointment with the doctors and went to a cardiologist to do an ultrasound, EKG, and blood work. Everything came back okay and again, a huge relief but not satisfied because I didn’t know what the hell was going on with me. Was I broken? Was there something the doctors missed? 

Well, for your reading pleasure, let’s fast forward one more time, shall we? It’s August 21st, 2020, a year we will all remember for the rest of our life. It’s summertime and my friends invite me to stop over and hang out. I go over, we start talking and playing pong. My buddy and I were doing pretty good, although you guessed it.. My anxiety was also on my team. Let me paint you a picture of what happened next.

My heart starts to get faster, I have a feeling in my gut like I just finished eating a thanksgiving meal. You know, like where you feel so full you can barely move, breathe, and want to do nothing. Well, I finally said I needed to make a call. It was 12am so people probably thought I was a drug dealer at that point. I go out to call my parents because I was typically able to calm myself down. Well, no one answered and I call my sister, by this point my heart rate is getting faster and faster. I instantly think to myself, “oh no”. Yea, don’t do that if you have high functioning anxiety because it typically is like pouring gasoline on a flame. 

Well, the 2-minute drive back home felt like 200 miles away. I was speeding the whole time and every symptom of panic, anxiety, and fear showed itself. Heart rate is still speeding up, I’m losing my breath and can barely get a full gasp of air. There is something about not being able to breathe that sends your fear and anxiety through the roof. Oh yea, cause it doesn’t seem normal.

As I pull into my house, I remember unhooking my seatbelt and trying to get out of my car before I even put it in park. Raced inside and you would think everything settled down right? Wrong, it went down as the scariest panic attack I ever had. My heart was palpitating, skipping beats and wasn’t slowing down. I would dump ice cold water on myself and start hyperventilating as it shocked my system. I was praying, and wishing for it to stop. I remember thinking that maybe this time we would have to call 911. But would they even make it to me in time? I lost my breath every time my heart started to palpitate and skip.

Well after 30 minutes or so, it calmed down. It felt like 3 hours and I was emotionally and physically exhausted. My chest felt sore and I felt as if I looked death in the face that night. It was honestly traumatizing and was a huge set back for a while. To be completely honest, I am still recovering from that as I am writing this now. It was a downhill spiral of panic attacks and anxiety. But with this came a lot of positives.

I learned more about the topic of mental health than ever before. I watched video after video. Read article after article. Book after book and talked to a lot of great people in that time to understand this more. I felt completely hopeless at one point. I felt that I would never return to “normal”. That I was going to have this feeling of being trapped forever. Well again, WRONG. I am living proof that this mental barrier that you may be going through is temporary. The storm may come through but that sun will always come back out to shine on us.

As I learned more, I realized that I was doing this all wrong. I was fighting everything, most importantly, I was fighting myself. I was my own worst enemy. I learned a lot about going with the flow, not trying to make these symptoms stop but to simply ride the wave. I learned more about brain health and by doing so, your mind will follow. 

I am here to help you and show you that everything will be okay. I promise you will make it through it but the first step is making the initial effort to get help. And let me just say, there is NOTHING wrong with asking for help. I want this stigma to end. I am working with 2 councilors, I reached out for a psychiatrist. I am taking anxiety medication. Talked to doctors, talked to my family and it took a while but I finally reached out to my friends. These steps were the best thing I ever did for my mental health. I also started to learn more and create more awareness. I started to take care of my mind and body through better nutrition habits, mindfulness, exercise, and getting help. 

I am not here to say this is an easy fix because it typically isn’t, but I am saying you ARE WORTH IT. This is worth it. I am so happy you are here because I know how hard it can be. Please don’t lose hope. I am telling you, there is so much to try and so many things that can work. It just takes time and effort to find what works for you. This is why I wanted to bring the mental health page to Costafitness. I want to spread awareness, give you hope, give you things to try and I want to build a community that makes us feel at home. 

Let’s become mentally and physically healthier together. You are not alone and either am I. I love you, keep up the great work.

-Alex Costa-

Things will get better, I promise. Please keep trying and don’t hesitate to reach out for help.

Iron Made Arm Workout

Posted on by costafitness

I know there’s a lot of stress right now with the election so what better way to simmer down and relieve stress than with a solid arm workout! Stop watching the news all day, take a break and get out of the house to enjoy the weather. Get some exercise, eat healthy food, practice some meditation and yoga. This is a simple way to relive a little stress that may be coming up.

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I put together a video you can watch while you workout so you can see form, sets and reps. I also included exercise tips on the video!

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Barbell curls 5×8

Tricep rope extensions 5×15

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Barbell skull crushers 4×12 

Hammer curls 4×8

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Bodyweight skull crushers 6×10-15

Seated curls 6×15

Band pushdowns 6×20

How To Smoothie

Posted on by costafitness

Into smoothies and protein shakes? So am I! When I started to do my first couple smoothies, I wasn’t exactly sure how to start. I have always been one to do a traditional protein shake consisting of a scoop of protein and milk. So when I tried to wrap my head around putting spinach in that, the thought wasn’t making me jump with joy at first.

My mom and dad got me a ninja blender for smoothies a couple Christmas’ ago and that’s where I started to learn more about it. I tried a bunch of fruit and handful of greens in the first smoothie. I was so excited that I forgot to add any milk or water. Rookie mistake, I know. As I took my 1st sip and spit it all back out, I decided at that moment to learn more about the art of making a smoothie.

I tried a lot of different recipes and tried my own. Be ready for a bunch of failures if you try it yourself. Nothing wrong with it, don’t get discouraged at first. Just takes some time to learn how to properly mix up a solid smoothie.

As you start to get it all down, you can really spice it up with different ingredients.

I was looking through my social media feed today and saw a post from Precision Nutrition and loved it enough to want to share with you today! It was perfect for this article and really adds a visual to help you out!

One of my favorite ones to do is almond milk, chocolate protein powder, spinach, banana and peanut butter.

This post is from @precisionnutrition I love their content for nutrition 🥦

What’s a shake recipe you are thinking of trying out?

Like this content? Follow my gym page @Ironstrengthandconditioning for more health related tips! I post a lot of exercises, breakdowns, fitness/nutrition content as well as mental health content and plenty of helpful stuff for the athletes!

Have an amazing day!

-Alex Costa-

At Home Vertical Jump Workout

Posted on by costafitness

I know it seems hard to get a good workout in without a gym or equipment but it’s still possible! For my athletes that want to increase their vertical and those of you wanting a different workout, I have something for you!

This is a workout that can be done at home! I will be doing some more workouts like this, including speed workouts and more strength building, fat loss workouts!

I hope everyone is having a great day!

-Alex Costa-

Welcome Back! Let's Make A Change

Posted on by costafitness

Welcome back to Costafitness! Watch this video and you can get a very good understanding of what I will be doing to try helping you and all of our viewers. I will be making some changes to the website so don’t be alarmed if you see a few noticeable changes through the next few days and weeks.

Some things you may notice is slightly different content, other authors/ publishers and more focus on things that we currently need.

This seems like a good time to get back on here and try spreading more positivity, smiles and knowledge. You can expect a good laugh from time to time, content that will be valuable and a true understanding for fitness so we can keep making progress while we face world problems as a team. Let’s tackle this together and let me help you!

Let’s make a difference and listen to what we need to do to conquer this virus. You can help a lot of others out there by sharing this content published on Costafitness.org and telling your friends and family about it! Also sharing it on social media. Keep checking in daily for workouts and more content that is sure to help you in someway, shape or form. Also please reach out if you have any questions or ideas for content you would like me to cover!

Have a great day!

-Alex Costa-

My Deadlift Warm up

Posted on by costafitness

The deadlift is one of the most taxing exercises. With tons of variations that can be down, it can make it easy to be injured if you don’t warm up properly. I have seen a lot of injuries due to not warming up, so lets break down the warm up for your deadlift in todays article.

Why warm up?

The warm up and cool down are crucial for your workout. Without an efficient warm up, you are opening up your chances to injury. Without cooling down, you are increasing your chances to what is called venous pooling of blood in the lower extremities. This can cause you to be light headed and also cause dizziness especially in higher intensity workouts.

What should your warm up look like?

When I discuss warm ups with someone, I take into account what kind of workout they are getting ready to perform. I also look at a few other factors such as the clients health, previous injuries, age, equipment around the gym and more. That is how important the warm up is and it should be thought of as so.

It would take a long time to go over how your warm up should look if I listed every possibility so that is why I will be talking about warming up for the deadlift.

Every good warm up should have you breaking a very light sweat or right on the edge to start sweating. Starting off on a cardio movement such as a bike, treadmill, elliptical, etc. would be good to start with. Again depending on the workout listed, would vary the warm up time but 3-10 minutes should do in most strength workouts for the cardio. I would like to also list that it should be down at a low intensity such as a 50-75% speed in most machines.

Next I look at performing a self myofascial release method such as foam rolling. 5-10 minutes could be spent here if needed. I like this because this followed up with some dynamics will allow an increase in blood flow in the areas worked. This will help increase mobility for the time being, warm up that muscle and allow a decrease in chances of injury.

Dynamics are next on the list. A dynamic movement is typically described as a movement allowing a full range of motion, in turn giving a light but efficient stretch to the muscle.

I do not typically perform static stretches because this tends to relax the muscle as where the dynamic stretches can ready the muscle to fire for our strength movements.

After dynamics, I work my weakness areas to wake the muscles up to fire properly. This is where the warm up can sometimes be very specific and specialized to the individuals needs. Lets say you have low back pain, or your back is a little tight on a day we are scheduled to deadlift. I would incorporate a couple exercises like the reverse hyper, walking lunges, and back extensions or band good mornings. This would allow more blood flow into the back and assisting muscles to increase the stability for the low back. This portion can be different for everyone most of the time.

Last we have what I call “pre activation work” which is very similar to the strength movement we will do. This may also look like the weak areas we hit depending on the individual. Since we are on the subject of the deadlift, I like to incorporate stiff leg deadlifts, goblet squats, and sometimes a couple sets of pile squats to wake up the adductors (inner thigh muscles) if we have a sumo deadlift day.

I also want to mention that when doing any strength movement, especially the deadlift, START LIGHT and do a couple warm up sets to check technique and get the right muscles firing.

My deadlift warm up routine

Bike

Foam roll

Leg swings

Hip circle walks – front, back, sides

Stiff leg deadlift w/ dumbbells

Iso Glute raise with band pullovers

Start with lighter weight to check technique

That sums up the majority of the things needed to be covered today but if you have any questions on warming up, please reach out to me and ask some questions! I hope you all have a great day and enjoy this article and video!

-Alex Costa-

5 Of My Favorite Arm Exercises (Workout Included!)

Posted on by costafitness

Summer is around the corner which means the t-shirts and tank tops will be making an appearance. Let’s start working on those arms to make sure you’re looking good by the pool!

I’m a meathead at heart so of course I always have some workouts ready for an extra arm day here and there. There are a couple main things I have learned about training my arms that have made a huge difference.

  1. Using a progressive overload method will almost always win in the long run.
  2. It’s not always about the pump, but the pump is nice to see and motivates you.
  3. There is a time to heave the weight up and arm training is about 90% the opposite. Make sure you work form strictly.
  4. Don’t be afraid to hit arms heavy here and there.
  5. Increase frequency to increase size and strength.
  6. Don’t forget the triceps!! The triceps take up about 2/3 of the arm.

I will write an article on arm training and include these but for now lets get to what you want… the exercises and workout!

Exercise #1 The cheat curl

This is a classic exercise used back in the golden era bodybuilding days to really create some mass. I have learned a couple twist and tweaks to make it even better!

Start with a straight barbell and load it to a desired weight. Take an underhand grip right outside shoulder width and unrack it. Curl it up, as the bar gets a little heavy, you can use your body to get a little momentum helping the bar go up. (Don’t over extend your lower back, that is how you can hurt yourself.) Once you get the rep to the top, squeeze your bicep and when you go to let the bar down, we are going to take it down nice and slow, preferably about 4 seconds on the way down. The muscle damage happens during the eccentric portion of the lift or in this case, when you lower the weight.

This is an exercise I usually try to work a little heavier in weight with. This will really help build some mass for your biceps.

Exercise #2 Close grip bench

This in my opinion is almost the same effect for your triceps as the cheat curl is for the biceps. This is another exercise I tend to work a little heavier in to overload the triceps.

Set up on a bench just like a standard bench press, except instead of taking your normal grip width, bring the grip into about shoulder width. (Picture of my setup shown below) Take the bar and wrap your hand around it, unrack weight and bring it down just like a bench press. The main difference is that your grip will be closer and your elbows will come down by your sides closer than a normal bench. You can do touch and go reps or pause reps if desired.

My close grip bench setup

This is a great exercise to add some size to your triceps and add strength to get a stronger bench press.

Exercise #3 Bench dips

This makes my list because I love loading up with weight to increase the difficulty. Standard dips can be a little stressful on my shoulders at times so this is another variation that you can use to hit your triceps.

Start by going to a flat bench and sit on the side. Bring your hands in to your sides so that your thumb is right underneath the butt when you are sitting down. That is the width I use to really target the triceps. From there, walk out your legs or put your legs on another bench a few feet away from you. This will leave you in a starting position with your body being held up by your arms. Your arms will start to bend and you will descend into a dip. Don’t go to far forward during your dip as this can stress the shoulders. Think about keeping your back sliding along the side of the bench as you go into your dip. When you get your arms to about 90 degrees (depending on your mobility) you will use your triceps to push yourself back up to complete the rep.

I have always noticed that when I include this exercise, my arms look more defined and my bench is stronger than usual.

Exercise #4 Overhead tricep extension

The tricep anatomy. Picture is from http://www.physio-pedia.com

The overhead tricep extension is a great exercise that has a solid purpose. Your tricep is composed of three muscles, hence “tri”. One of the muscles called the tricep brachii or the long head of the tricep connects to the scapula. (Shown here with a circle) That is important to remember when we use the tricep to function. We can really hit the long head when we lift the arms overhead for an exercise like this when we use an extension of the elbow.

I love using this exercise to hit the tricep and add some nice looking definition to my arm.

Exercise #5 The preacher curl

I couldn’t do this list and not add this exercise. This is one of the main exercises a lot of people do in the gym just because the machine is there and easy to use. I love this exercise because it can really help you isolate the bicep without cheating the rep. This adds a lot of stress to the biceps, in a positive way.

This exercise hits what is called the brachialis and the biceps brachii. This exercise can put immense tension on the biceps so be sure to warm up with lighter weight for 1-2 sets before adding anything heavier.

You can add this in for a finisher at your gym if it is a machine and switch weight a lot faster!

The Workout

Time for the workout… We learned what each exercise does and how to do it if you watched the videos. Now let me go over a few important side notes to ensure you have a solid arm workout.

Cheat curls and close grip bench should be a little heavier but still make sure you have good form. For the overhead extensions, I want you to do 1-2 warm up sets to get the joints ready for the movement. After that I want you to start with a heavy weight that you can control for about 10-15 reps. Do your reps TILL FAILURE then rack that weight. Immediately pick up 5-10 pounds less and go till failure again. Now do that same thing 2 more times so you end up with a total of 4 sets right back to back with each other. This is a great arm finisher just make sure you either have a spotter or have a spot to drop the weight safely if you are able to do so.

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-Alex Costa-