The push toward HUGE ARMS starts right now!

If I've ever had a "weak" bodypart, by bodybuilding standards, it's always been arms. Everything else - chest, back, legs, shoulders - have always come along really well when I get to hard training. But, arms have always been tough. I'm definitely NOT one of those guys with the big, freaky arms that fills up a shirt sleeve really nicely.

So, I had a brainstorm a few days ago. In the spirit of the old Stuart McRobert/Brooks Kubrik mini-books "Big Arms" and "Big Bench" I decided to do some "specialization" work on my arms this summer and make them huge.

If you don't remember or aren't familiar with the McRobert/Kubrik books, they're an OLD SCHOOL approach to weights and body building. Abbreviated training, heavy basics (squats, deadlifts, bench press), lots of food, etc. The classic approach from the early days.

I suppose I could just follow Stuart's approach in "Big Arms" but I wanted to put a modern twist on it. I've been playing with Kettlebells a lot recently and I've been doing a lot of research on them. I was also inspired by Mike Mahler's writing and physical development (http://www.mikemahler.com/).

Here's what I'm gonna do: I'm going to take the summer - starting right now - and develop a Kettlebell specialization routine for arms. To some, this is probably a perversion of the "Kettlebells for core strength and all around functional development" but I really don't care :-P I want to seriously bring up my arms and I want a context to explore Kettlebell training within.

The routine is going to be based around a standard abbreviated, heavy basics routine that I'm already working with. I'm going to drop some of the barbell exercises and substitute in Kettlebell work.

Part of my plan is to create a "modular" Kettlebell routine that focuses on arm and shoulder development that I can do as a standalone routine or after the big basics in my larger weight routine.

So far, the Kettlebell routine looks like this (It's still under refinement):

Dead Clean and Press

Renegade Row

Bottoms Up Clean and Press (Dynamic)

Crush Curl

Halo

This is a 2-3 times per week routine at this point, but I suspect it could lead to some overtraining and I might have to either lower the frequency or slow down on my core powerlifting program.

My lifting program looks like this:

Monday

Deadlift

Bent Over Row

Chins

Wednesday

Powerclean

Flat Bench

Incline Dumbell Bench w/ 2in Handled Dumbells

Dip

Friday

Squat

Stiff Legged Deadlift

Front Squats

The Kettlebell work, plus the weight work, plus regular training in BJJ/MMA is going to, no doubt, prove to be a lot of work. I'm expecting I'm going to have to adjust and manage my frequency as I go along, but I wanted to start off ambitious and at least find my current physical limits.

Let me know what you think, and I'll post more soon.

ttys

Adam

Adam Farrah is a Personal Trainer and Freelance Writer for Mixed Martial Arts, Kettlebell Training, Weightlifting, Bodybuilding, Power Lifting and Nutrition. He serves Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts and the online and internet community.

Adam's blogs are alphanolimits.blogspot.com and adamfarrah.blogspot.com.