SIZE SECRET #10: ISOLATE TO STIMULATE

STAN EFFERDING: “I’ve always struggled to build enough arm mass to compensate for my shoulders, which tend to overpower my arms. Even after working up to 225 pounds on straight bar curls for reps or 100-pound dumbbell curls, my arms still lagged behind. When I trained with Flex Wheeler, we tried a different approach and isolated the biceps by taking the shoulders out of the movement and increasing the rep range to put more blood in the muscle.

When performing standing barbell curls, the bar no longer curled away from the body. Instead, we pulled the elbows back and the bar traveled straight up my body, perpendicular to the floor. This eliminated the shoulders from the movement and created a better squeeze. Dumbbell curls were changed to seated and performed the same way — elbows back and the weight traveling straight up instead of out in front of me. We also added a lot of one-arm machine preacher curls to isolate the biceps and squeeze each contraction without rocking the weight. This workout added size to my arms. They’re over 21 inches in the offseason now and growing.”

STAN EFFERDING’S BICEPS WORKOUT

Standing Barbell Curls | SETS: 4 | REPS: 20

Seated Dumbbell Curls | SETS: 4 | REPS: 20

1-Arm Preacher Curls | SETS: 4 | REPS: 21*

* The first seven reps are performed through only the bottom half of the range of motion; the second seven reps are performed through only the top half of ROM; and the last seven reps are full ROM.

Training Tip #1: After this biceps workout, Efferding does 10 minutes of biceps focused posing (front double biceps, back double biceps, side chest, most-muscular) to push even more blood into the biceps and stimulate growth.

Training Tip #2: On the first two exercises, Efferding increases the weight every set and limits rest periods to only one minute between sets.

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