Arm development done Old School

Here you have the training schedule of J.P. Patches in the picture combined with Arnold. I want to post some pics of big arms and some training “secrets” of the Old School” bodybuilders. I.m.o.  Arnolds arms were the best ! Flexed ,relaxed all angles. In his side chest pose his arms are unbelievable. Dense, proportionate and symmetrical . Thank God the word “Synthol” wasn’t known then.

Most bodybuilders want impressive arms, but wanting and getting are two different things. Some of you will not be able to reach the mark you desire, and some of you will. If you’re looking for some magical shortcut to this goal I have no secret formula, but will be glad to tell you what type of training proved satisfactory for me.

To those of you who are having trouble at this time with developing the arms, maybe the way I trained will help. You won’t know until you have tried it for yourself, and don’t let anyone tell you one way works for everyone. It simply isn’t true. Once you have learned, studied and practiced the basic movements it is up to you to determine what works best for your individual set of circumstances, what will keep you engaged in training and what will prove fruitless and tiresome over time. Above all, never allow a training schedule to take all the joy out of your lifting. Train hard, when applicable, but don’t imagine for a moment that you will gain faster by denying your basic temperament. Construct your lifting plans around this temperament, and make a conscious effort to create inspiration and excitement while avoiding the tendency to turn your workouts into drudgery. Monotony has no place in the gym. Respect your fellow lifters at least enough to add some small spark of incentive when possible.

Enough of my philosophy of lifting. The object of training is not overwork, but to bring the muscles into play. Play. Heavy, lower-rep curls are best placed first in your biceps routine, followed by lighter movements done in higher reps intended to flush the area with blood. Don’t overdo the “pumping” exercises. These can drain more energy from your body and mind than most lifters take the time to realize. Always remember, the training is only part of a successful equation. You must also recover from your lifting sessions.

My biceps routine, although quite simple, has proven to give me results.

Barbell Curl, heavy – 3 sets, 3-6 reps.
Dumbell Curl, heavy – 2 sets, 5-8 reps.
Dumbell Curl, light – 2 sets, 15-20 reps.

By heavy, I mean as heavy as you can handle while maintaining quite strict form until the last few reps. At this point, I like to lighten up on my form, loosening up enough to get those last reps. The same goes for the heavy dumbell curls. Four or five strict reps followed by two or three cheated reps. The light dumbell curls are done unilaterally (one arm at a time) in very strict style, trying to make the biceps do as much of the work as possible. On one workout, usually about every two weeks, I keep curling until my arms ache, going down the rack doing one set right after another, and doing as many sets as my arms will allow until I have a puny 10-pound dumbell and it feels like 50 pounds.

A word of caution: I only do this once or twice a month, and would strongly caution against doing it any more frequently. Put more of your energy into increasing the poundage on your heavy curls instead.

So much for the biceps. For the triceps I prefer “unrestricted” movements.

Military Press – 2 sets, 3-6 reps.
Bench Press, close grip – 3 sets, 5-8 reps.
Incline Dumbell Press – 2 sets, 10-12 reps.
Dips – 2 sets, 20-30 reps.

I like to warm up before pressing with a few sets of light repetition snatches or dumbell swings. The overhead presses come first for me, simply because I enjoy putting heavy weights up and can do that more effectively first thing out of the gate. A few warmup sets should be performed before going heavy. The close grip bench presses are done with the elbows in and an overhead press grip width. The incline press has a twofold purpose of working the pectorals as well as triceps. Being a lazy man I like exercises which work more than one muscle. There’s a joke going on over here, what it is ain’t exactly clear. The more muscles an exercise engages, the more efficient and tougher that exercise is. Ask any other “lazy” man and he’ll tell you the same. Between gasps of air. Labored breath and spinning head. Seeing the white buffalo through tiny faint-spots in front of his eyes. Damn you, lazy man!

If you follow this routine for three months and find the results minimal, move on to another approach. Don’t for a minute think that because it works for me it will work for you equally. Forget paranoia centered around fear of individuality, step outta line. It may take you away.

On the heavy lifts, always use a weight that is within your capacity to control, yet heavy enough to make you work, and work hard for the last few reps. Strike deep, into your life gains will creep. If you find that after three months of concentrated effort this routine has done little or nothing for you, try a shorter routine altogether. I have seen lifters come into the gym and train for endless hours without getting much in the way of results. Again, work on getting your heavy exercise poundages up. Be confident this will happen and act on that confidence when under the bar. Succeed. And remember this for what it’s worth . . . Failure: it starts when you’re always afraid.

Cheating

In his Weider interviews Arnold (or his “ghost writers”) always advocate a proper form. This picture of a very young Arnold shows different.He was a big and strong guy, but that’s just asking for lower back problems!

I get asked a lot by guys at the gym how my arms are so big and strong. The short answer is, I cheat! Most gym rats know that in order to isolate, and thus grow, your biceps you need to keep your elbows tucked in and your back straight so as to make sure only the biceps are doing the lifting. This is key for triggering hypertrophy, but it will only work to a certain point. After a while, you’ll hit a ‘plateau’, and you’ll no longer be able to increase in size or strength in this movement. Aside from changing your routine to include different sorts of dumbbell or machine movements, you can also trick your biceps into curling more by using your legs and hips to help launch a heavier than usual weight upwards. Strictly speaking, this is considered to be ‘cheating’, and that’s why this movement is referred to as Cheat Curls! 

By using a little extra help to lift a heavier weight up, but then using your biceps to slowly lower the heavy weight back down, you’re teaching your muscles and nervous system that they can handle this weight. Generally cheat movements should be performed for 6 to 8 reps, as they’re generally considered to be a ‘strength training’ movement, and are quite stressful on the body. Before you know it, your arms will be ready to ‘properly’ curl your ‘cheat weight’ in no time. Just keep in mind, that while cheat movements can help stimulate growth and train your nervous system, you can’t make an entire workout out of them. Every gym has those guys who cheat on every movement, and look at them, they never seem to progress in size or strength! This is because cheating should be used sparingly, and in combination with proper, full range of motion movements in order to fully stimulate the muscle. And while it varies with each exercise and muscle group, preferably cheating should be performed after the major ‘prime mover’ exercise, but before any really strict isolation or ‘shaping’ movements.

And don’t think cheat movements are limited to curls!

On the question : “What was your secret to building that legendary peak in your biceps?” Arnold Schwarzenegger answers:

“I have discussed the technique I used to help develop my peaks so many times that it doesn’t feel like a secret anymore: supination, the outward twisting of the forearm while doing dumbbell curls (you can’t physically achieve this motion with a standard barbell).

Supination causes the outer head of the biceps to work hard, raising a peak and slapping on an extra bulge of muscle that you could see especially well when I did a back doublebiceps pose.

When doing any dumbbell curl, whether it’s standing, seated, incline, or concentration curls, start with your hand in a neutral position and then rotate it as you perform the rep so that your palm faces upward. Two inches or so from the top of the curl, twist your hand farther so that your pinkie finger is higher than your thumb and forcibly tense the biceps. The pain of the contraction is very intense, but it’s well worth it. Do this with every rep of every dumbbell curl you perform and, over the long term, it should make a big difference in your arm development. In addition to supinating, I preferred to let the dumbbell “drag” behind to get a stronger contraction of the biceps. Most people start a curl with their wrists straight, then flex their wrists toward the shoulders for better leverage as they raise the weights. That essentially eliminates gravity and nullifies the final part of the movement, where the peak contraction can really be accentuated. But when I curled the weight, I let the dumbbell roll down my hand and settle in my fingers so that my wrist was extended throughout each rep, not flat or flexed as you usually see. This made for a longer lever arm and ensured that, even at the very top of the movement, the weight wouldn’t be supported by the forearm—the tension would be on my biceps and I could really squeeze at the top. All the while, of course, I was also supinating the forearm.”

Arthur Jones said he measured Sergio's arms one time, at either the Mr. Universe or Mr. Olympia. He measured 20 inches, cold. Arnold, on the other hand, was under twenty, somewhere around 19 5/8 inches. Bill Pearl was a bit over 18 inches. Part of the interview is posted below. When bulked up and training hard in Deland...Sergio's arms were literally larger around than his head. Later in his career Arnold Schwarzenegger claimed to have 22-23 inch arms pumped

Per a GOLD's GYM BB Encyclopedia, here are some body-part workouts performed by Sergio Olivia:

BICEPS:

BB UPRIGHT CURL 6x8r
EZ-BAR PREACHER CURL 6x8r
DB PREACHER CURL 6x8r
DB CONCENTRATION CURL 4x8r

TRICEPS:

BB UPRIGHT TRICEPS EXTENSION 6x8r
PULLEY PUSHDOWN 6x8r
PULLEY KICKBACK 6x8r

Arthur Jones: “To begin with, most of the claimed measurements of top bodybuilders are simply untrue. The largest muscular arm that I ever measured -- or saw -- was Sergio Oliva’s, which, accurately measured, "cold" was 20 1/8 inches. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s arm was 19 7/8, slightly pumped -- probably 19 1/2 "cold". Bill Pearl’s largest arm, his left arm, was 18 5/8 at a bodyweight of 222 in 1960 -- at the 1971 NABBA Mr. Universe contest in London, his publicized arm size was listed as 20 1/4, but it was obvious to me that his arms were actually smaller than when I measured them in 1960, and it was obvious to anybody who saw the two men side by side that Sergio’s arms literally dwarfed Bill’s arms, and now you know how big Sergio’s arms were at the time.

 Casey Viator’s arms were 19 15/16 at their largest when he was training in DeLand -- and were 18 1/16 when he first came to DeLand, immediately after the Mr. America contest in 1970.

 But the "appearance" of size of an arm is only partially dependent upon its measurement; Bill Pearl’s forearms look very large, but in fact are not very large -- Boyer Coe’s forearms look quite small (in comparison to his upper arms), but in fact are actually larger than Bill Pearl’s. The insertion point of Bill’s forearm muscles is far down the arm, near the wrist, and as a result the major mass of his forearm muscles occurs near the middle of his forearms -- making them appear large; Boyer’s insertion point is much closer to the elbow, thus his forearms are largest up "high" and don’t appear as large as the actually are.

 Many other factors also affect the appearance of size -- the overall size of a man, the size of his head, the length of his arms, the shape of his arms, etc. Thus, an arm might measure 17 inches and look quite large, or measure 18 inches and appear to be a little above average size. But in fact, an actually muscular arm that measures a full 18 inches is enormous -- a 19 inch arm is simply huge -- and a 20 inch arm almost defies belief; claiming 20 inch arms -- or even larger measurements -- is common today, but I have measured many of the largest muscular arms in the world, Pearl’s, Coe’s, Schwarzenegger’s, Viator’s, Oliva’s, Caputo’s, and many other men’s arms, and I have measured only one 20 inch arm -- and while I haven’t measured the arms of literally "everybody" on the bodybuilding scene, I have seen all of the better-known bodybuilders standing immediately next to one of the men I have measured, and the arms of Oliva and Schwarzenegger literally dwarf the arms of any other men I have seen.

 In many cases, the actual mass of an arm may be quite large while the measurement may not be so large; if the biceps and triceps are "longer" than normal, then the bulk of muscle may be far out of proportion to the measurement -- and the same thing is true in regard to the forearms. Both Casey Viator and Sergio Oliva have very long forearm muscles -- and while both of these men have much larger than average forearm measurements, the actual mass of their forearm muscles is even greater than the measurements might indicate; Casey’s forearms are nearly 15 1/2 "cold", straight, at right-angles to the bone -- Sergio’s forearms are a bit over 15 1/2 measured in the same manner. By comparison, Bill Pearl’s largest forearm was 13 3/4 inches.”

Just to compare the past and the present: Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman has 22 inch arms on competition day. If you  consider the fact that Ronnie was taking far more drugs then the Old School bodybuilders, it would be interesting to think what if…by example Arnold would have looked like if he would be competing aged 28 today after using the slin, growth and all the roids, bodybuilders use today?

Iron Game Historical Quarterly once ran an article on lesser known strong men of the 50s and 60s including an amazing biceps photo of Chuck Ahrens. It is the only known photo of Chucks massive arm. A man famous for his eccentricities as well as his strength. Ahrens always wore long sleeves and loose fitting clothes. It was said that the arms of Chuck in this pre-steroid era measured 24". Ahrens on one occasion reportedly did a concentration curl cold, never touching any part of his body, with a Olympic bar with a pair of 35s on each side. Do remember Ahrens is strongman no bodybuilders, his armsize would change after some serious dieting.

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