Put These Arm Training Tactics To Use for Your Figure Contest Prep…

Arm training for your figure contest has to be right!  Well-developed arms with interlined deep definition crossing full muscle bellies is the pinnacle of a figure-ready physique worthy of stepping on stage with the goal of winning your figure competition.

If you want to be on top of your game on your big day, it is acceptable ESSENTIAL that you build a solid pair of arms to present to, not only the audience, but also the panel of judges.  All too often the first-time figure competitor becomes too eager to be figure-ready, skimping out on a solid arm training workout necessary to build great shoulders, triceps, and biceps.

I’m going to share with you some of the BEST arm training exercises you can include in your figure training so you can develop strong and well-rounded arms to stomp the comp and earn you a first place and overall victory.  Cool deal?  Great!  Here we go…

First and foremost, to have that sweet muscle definition shine through, you are going to have to lower your body fat.  The best way to decrease body fat is through proper dieting.  Added figure cardio programs can serve as a way to burn more stored body fat.  However, diet and cardio are only part of the process of being stage-ready.  You also have to weight train to build that solid foundation.  Without a solid muscle base built, you cannot have definition.

Shoulders (Capped And Ready)

The deltoids are the high point of your physique, as they embody the triceps and biceps.  You want your shoulders to be round and strong, having clear and precise separation from the triceps and biceps.   Underdeveloped shoulders on stage can be overlooked by the judges.  You Do Not want to go unnoticed.  But, you CAN snag each of the judge’s attention by having an awesome set of delts.

So how do you build great shoulders?  Glad you asked.  The most important thing to do in your should workout is to begin your shoulder arm training with the shoulder presses, since it is a compound exercise. This exercise will target all the shoulder’s muscles simultaneously.

Do 3-4 sets of the shoulder press (barbell, dumbbells, or machine) in the 8-12 rep range for optimal stimulation.  Once you have finished the presses, continue your shoulder training with 3-4 sets of rear delt rows to build strong rear delts.  After that move on to your front shoulders, doing the Arnold press, 3-4 sets.  Finally, finish off with some lateral work such as the upright row to cap off the delts.

Triceps (Stuff You Gotta Know)

Another important factor in your arm training for your figure contest is having well-developed triceps. The triceps muscle can be a painstaking area for many figure competitors to develop.  The biggest problems with triceps training are the lifter is training this muscle out of sequence, or the lifter fails to hit all three heads.

Greg Merritt, Senior Writer of Flex Magazine comments, “Your triceps have three heads: long (upper inside), medial (lower inside) and lateral (outside). The heads always work together, so it’s impossible to isolate one from the others. However, the angle of your arms changes the emphasis, stressing the heads differently. Too many bodybuilders are unaware of how various exercises hit their tri’s, and thus they typically overemphasize their lateral heads and under-emphasize the long and medial heads.”

Just as with the shoulders, your triceps arm training should target the largest muscle first and then work down to the smallest muscle.  If you train the triceps short head first, that leaves less intensity to be applied to the long head, the belly of the triceps.

Start your triceps arm training with targeting the long head first.  Choose the close-grip bench press, overhead extensions, or dips and do 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps.  Once completed, move on to the medial head with such exercises as skulls (lying triceps extension), reverse grip pushdown, v-bar or straight bar pushdowns.  Include 3-4 sets in the 8-12 rep range.

Finish off your triceps by targeting the lateral head, commonly known as the familiar horseshoe muscle.  Many guys think these are sissy exercises, but they REALLY ZONE IN on that horseshoe muscle.  Implement kickbacks, rope extensions and pull that rope apart wide at the contraction, and v-bar pushdowns.  Try 3-4 sets in the 12 rep range for best stimulation.

Biceps (How to Load Them)

Many athletes gauge their strength or development in the amount they can curl, and justifiably so because it’s the first body part flexed when one wants to show-off.  It’s an easy pose to go into, and hey, loaded guns just look GREAT!

Just as with the previous muscle groups discussed, you need to begin your biceps arm training with hitting the long head first.  This can be easily done by starting off with straight bar curls.  Can you do EZ Bar curls?  Sure, but the long head of the biceps is FULLY stimulated when the palms are facing upward.  The EZ Bar allows a break in the arm, slightly taking 100% focus off the long head in full.  Do you eliminate the EZ Bar in your biceps training? No, but do make room for the straight bar curl at least half the time.

Now that you have obliterated the long head of the biceps, continue your training by zoning in on the short head.  You can do up to two exercises for the short head.  Exercises to include are alternate dumbbells curls, wide-grip curls, and Zottoman curls.

For all biceps exercises, you can do 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps.

Ensure That You Have The Best Arm Training

I have given you some pretty good arm training details here.  I revealed some tips on how to build great shoulders, triceps, and even biceps.  If you implement these tactics for the next few weeks, you’ll see some amazing changes.  Trust me.