Thib's Quick Tricks
3 More Quick and Dirty Ways to
Build Muscle
by Christian Thibaudeau

My friends, it's time for another quickie. If you read
my previous quickie
article,
then you now know three great techniques for busting those stubborn plateaus.
This time, I'm reaching deeper into my big ol' bag of tricks to conjure
up three training techniques for stimulating great gains, fast.


Quick Trick 1: The High Road to Outstanding Biceps
Growth
When I was working in St. Louis, my friend Stef Cazeault,
who's also an outstanding coach, asked me how I made such drastic progress
with my biceps. He remembered me from 2003 at a time when I was lean
and muscular, but essentially had no biceps mass, separation, or thickness.
When he saw me in 2007, though, the picture was drastically different.
Now, I'm no Ronnie Coleman, but my once-flat biceps are now pretty darn
good.


Thib's arm before (left) and after (right
and lower) the 8-week biceps routine featured below.
At first he thought it took me the whole four years
to improve them, but truth be told, most of the gains I made occurred
in eight weeks. All I did was follow a special but extremely simple
biceps routine; the very same routine, in fact, that I'm going to share
with you now.
The program is performed two or three times a week.
I did it three times a week, but I have great recovery capacity from
my days of Olympic lifting. It's a very short program (around 20-25 minutes),
so you can actually perform it at the end of a regular workout. Obviously,
don't perform it two days in a row, or the day before training your back.
You'll perform three arm flexor exercises:

1. Steep preacher curl (preacher curls on the side
of the bench that's directly perpendicular to the ground).

2. Steep dumbbell hammer preacher curl.

3. Steep reverse grip preacher curl.
You'll perform 5 to 8 sets of each. Yes, you heard
me right.
And now I hear some of you screaming
"Whaaaaaat?! 15 to 24 sets for biceps, are you crazy, Thib?"
Not in the least. Before you say anything about overtraining, allow me
to continue.
None of the sets are performed to muscle failure, or
close to it. Well, it might happen at the end of the workout, especially
if your work capacity is low, but overall the actual stress of each set
isn't maximal. So 24 sets will actually have the same training stress
impact as 12-15 sets (which is within the norm when it comes to volume
for a body part).
The key is progression. My original program lasted
8 weeks (two phases of 4 weeks), but you can also use it for a short
cycle of 4 weeks to spark some new growth. The guidelines are as follow:

• You'll use the same weight for the whole
duration of a 4 weeks cycle.

• This means that if you perform the program
3 times per week you use the same weight for 12 workouts.

• You don't change the weight during a workout,
either.

• If you extend it to an 8-week cycle, you'll
increase the load only on the fifth week.

• Rest intervals are kept to 45 seconds
between sets, ideally. If your work capacity sucks you can bump it
up to 60 seconds until you improve.

• You start each cycle with a load you can
lift for 5 difficult but solid reps.

Week 1: perform 8 sets of 3 reps (with the weight you
could do 5 times) of each of the three exercises
Week 2: perform 7 sets of 4 reps with the same weights
Week 3: perform 6 sets of 5 reps with the same weights
Week 4: perform 5 sets of 6 reps with the same weights
At the conclusion of a 4-week cycle, if your nutrition
was in line (mass gaining approach) you should have added at least half
an inch to your arm. It should also look more solid and dense.
If you decide to start a new cycle, keep the same three
exercises and loading parameters but start the cycle with 5 to 10 more
pounds on each of the three movements.
As you can see it's a fairly simple and straight-forward
program. Nothing fancy, but it works! Why does it work? Relatively heavy
loading, stimulating a pump with a heavy weight, planned progression,
and a relatively high frequency (to improve neuromuscular activation
of the biceps). Give it a shot and your upper arm size and strength gains
won't disappoint you.


Quick Trick 2: Cutting the Crap About Forearms Training
1. If your biceps have been stuck at the same size
since the Reagan administration, doing an intensive forearm and hands
specialization phase is probably the best way to get those suckers to
grow! Weak forearms lead to curl poundages that are way inferior to what
your arm flexors (especially biceps and brachialis) should be able to
handle. As a result they're being under-stimulated. Drastically increasing
forearm and hand strength is thus one of the fastest ways to significantly
increase curling strength and upper arm size.


Increasing forearm strength is essential for upper
arm development.
2. Improving forearm and hand strength is one of the
fastest ways to increase pulling strength.
3. Having balanced forearm muscles (developing every
function of the forearms) is one of the best ways to prevent elbow tendinitis,
golf elbow, and tennis elbow. Most training enthusiasts are too weak
in forearm pronation movements compared to their forearms supination
motion. And both functions often pale in comparison to elbow flexion
strength. This can open up the door to some elbow injuries, which can
be prevented by making sure that all the functions of the forearms and
elbow functions are relatively proportional. Furthermore, having strong
forearms reduces the stress of repetitive actions at the elbow joint
(e.g. golf swing, tennis swing).
4. Many sports require a high level of forearm and
hand strength. The obvious examples are baseball, golf, and tennis. However,
the benefits of having strong forearms and hands transfer to practically
every sport, such as football (especially defense and quarterback), judo,
wrestling, mixed martial arts, powerlifting and Olympic lifting, arm
wrestling, and rock climbing.
5. It's obvious that stronger hands and forearms will
improve performance in the deadlift, curls, pulls, and Olympic lifting
movements. But did you know that it can also drastically improve your
bench pressing strength? Stronger hands, thicker wrists and forearms
provide a more solid base when holding the bar. That's why powerlifters
often wear wrist wraps when bench pressing.
Weak hands, wrists and forearms lead to more wrist
strain and more energy loss when pressing. It also makes the bar feel
heavier. Don't believe me? Load the bar with close to your max and try
to bench press it while keeping your hands and forearms as relaxed as
possible: the bar will feel like it weighs a ton! Squeeze the bar as
hard as possible and it'll feel 50 pounds lighter. Having the bar feel
lighter is a psychological advantage that you shouldn't sneeze at when
attempting a maximum lift.
6. Big forearms make you look strong even in an extra
baggy t-shirt.
In fact, forearms are at the top of my MI:3 list.
These are the three areas I consider to be the most important, but also
the most neglected when it comes to being functional and reducing the
risk of injuries.
The MI:3 areas are:

• Forearms/hands: A high level of development
helps reduce the risk of elbow tendonitis, and make every movement
involving the hands more effective.

• Trunk (abdominals and lower back): Strong
trunk muscles greatly reduce the risk of lower back injuries, improve
posture and stability and make you stronger in every movement where
you're standing).

• Glutes: Weak glutes lead to hip instability,
which can lead to knee, ankle and lower back strains, which can lead
to injuries. With strong glutes, you can also run faster, jump higher,
and change direction more easily.

Perhaps they aren't glamorous muscles, but if you're
interested in being injury-free and increasing your performance level,
they're of prime importance.


From Pee-Wee to Popeye
Most trainees adopt one of two training styles when
it comes to forearms:

1. They don't perform any direct forearm work, but
get their forearm stimulation from the curls and pulling movements they're
doing.

2. They do include some form of direct forearm work,
but generally train them as an afterthought, with a few sets of wrist
curls and reverse curls here and there.
I admit that for some people these methods might be
enough to squeeze some growth out of their forearms. For most, however,
it'll lead to suboptimal gains and a functional imbalance: you're much
stronger in some actions (such as wrist flexion and elbow supination)
than in others.
The upshot is that most people would benefit greatly
from paying more attention to building and strengthening their forearms
and hands by working on every function of these structures.
So if you want big bowling pin forearms, here's a good
program for you:
A1) Thor's hammer supination/pronation
5 x 4-6 per side
Slow and controlled movements
90 seconds rest


Thor's hammer, then and now.
Note that you can make your own Thor's hammer by using
an adjustable dumbbell handle. Put weight plates only on one side. If
you're really cool, you'll refer to it as
"Mjolnir".
A2) Reverse barbell preacher curl
5 x 4-6
Extend wrist at the end of the curling movement
90 seconds rest

B1) Wrist curl (flexion)
4 x 12-15
Hold peak contraction 2 seconds on each rep
75 seconds rest

B2) Wrist roller
4 x 3-4 "up and down"
75 seconds rest