Wednesday 31 July 2013

How To Chisel Your Biceps Like Sylvester Stallone

By Russ Howe


If you asked 100 men why they first joined a gym and started lifting weights, a large portion of them would reference an action movie such as Rambo as their primary influence for making the first step into the fitness community. However, dreaming of owning an action hero physique and actually doing it are two very different things, as you are about to find out when we tackle the Sylvester Stallone arm workout below.

However, you would be wise to avoid the common mistake of presuming that movie stars have a secret formula or an easy way to sculpt the end product which you see on the silver screen. They do not.

The workout Sly Stallone used to build his sculpted arms is renowned for it's simplicity and it's brutality. While the exercises are very basic, the techniques deployed are certainly not basic!

This workout is broken up into four stages. They are aimed at biceps, forearms, triceps and a cool down. It is performed as a circuit, with one set of each exercise in the phase without rest being classed as one round of the circuit for that particular muscle. You need four rounds before you can move on to the next round.

Hammer Curl - 12 reps with a fairly heavy weight to get you warmed up.

Incline Bench Dumbbell Curls - Set a bench to a 45 degree angle and perform dumbbell curls, ensuring you get the twist at the top of each rep to build the peak of your biceps muscle. Shoot for 12-15 reps here.

Biceps Curl - The old classic exercise is yours for 12 reps. After reaching 12 reps, switch to a wide grip and try to push out up to six more.

Flat Cable Curls - Pull a flat bench underneath a cable pulley station and lie on it. Curl down towards your head. The constant tension provided by the cables will make this variation of a curl much more difficult, so aim for 15 reps with a significantly lighter load.

Zottman Curl - Bring your forearms into the equation for the final 10 reps of the biceps section with this move. It's a regular biceps curl twinned with a great forearm builder by simply putting a twist at the top of the motion so that your wrist is facing away from you. You need 12 reps here.

Phase two begins with Reverse Curls, an often overlooked exercise which will not only help you to develop your forearms but also minimize the gap at the bottom of your biceps muscle. 15 repetitions will suffice. This exercise is paired with Wrist Curls and Reverse Wrist Curls, which both need 20 repetitions each, before performing a timed hang from a monkey bar for as long as you can hold it. The forearm round is finished off with one of Sly's favorite moves, Handshake Curls. This move needs 30 reps with a light weight, and simulates a handshaking motion with a dumbbell.

Triceps are the biggest muscle involved in this particular gym session and it is important to remember that factor when deciding upon what weight to use. Go as heavy as possible for the reps prescribed to maximize your results. It begins with a set of 10 Close-Grip Bench Presses.

Bench Dips form a large part of this phase. Perform them to failure before moving onto a set of 12 Triceps Pushdowns with a rope attachment. Then go back into dips until you reach failure again and finish off with 20 Dumbbell Kickbacks.

After four rounds of each phase, you will be feeling pretty exhausted by the time you round out the triceps phase. There is only a cool down phase remaining. It is always advisable to do a cool down, particularly after a session as brutal as this one, because it will help you to prevent blood pooling and feeling faint. The cool down only consists of two exercises - holding the plank to failure three times and a set of close-grip push ups to failure.

The time and dedication which goes into building a physique for the big screen is quite daunting. Rome was not built in a day, as they say, and this workout is certainly structured with that quote in mind. The high intensity circuit style often tricks people into thinking it's going to be easy. You will increase your chances of success if you don't make that mistake.

The Sylvester Stallone arm workout is one of the oldest and most effective ways to blast your arms with a completely new approach. It is a well known workout and one which has been attempted many times in gyms around the world. Now it's your turn.




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