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3 X a week biceps workout
Posted by Shawn
If you have been training for a while, then you will know that training a small body-art like biceps three times a week will be overtraining. When doing biceps 3 X week there is a very important, but fine line between 3 to 7 weeks where you are not overtraining but over-reaching.
The difference is that overtraining takes time, you don't reach overtraining from just a few workouts, it takes about two to three weeks and up to 7 weeks in some people who have been training for years. The other advantage of training 3 X week per body-part is something called the staircase effect.
The staircase effect is a term used by bodybuilding commentators and sports scientists that refer to a type of intensity where growth hormone genes (GHG) are activated to enable muscle growth. Amongst the many adaptations that happen after this release of GHG is strength and muscle increase.
Technically you are over-reaching because you have not reached the definition of overtraining. It is at this point that we can take advantage of this over-reach phase by training a small body-part like biceps three times in one week. Studies done at the University of Connecticut prove this to be true.
The studies were done on athletes over-reaching for three to five weeks of intense training. In the study, each athlete was eating correctly balanced food, they showed all of the volunteers, after 3-5 weeks' intensity, put on more muscle than any other time in their training.
If we think back to the king of biceps Arnold, and how he would train his biceps, despite his genetics, he got those well-shaped guns of his to 23 inches. The first principal of progressive overload should be variety because when you mix it up you get better results.
Planning ahead so that you can get all your daily nutrition sorted out, you can then do the 3 X week biceps bang, training with heavy weights. Your biceps need a break after that first week of onslaught, so you then do a week of low volume high rep workouts.
Variety is key when mixing it up with 3 X week biceps, so it is suggested you train biceps and triceps on some weeks and others you do chest and biceps or back and biceps. But you could also switch it to chest and biceps with back and triceps for a week, there are no rules.
Below is a typical triceps/biceps routine done in the first hard intensity week, followed by a week of high reps and low volume as you rest up. You then start the process again going hard and heavy for a week doing negatives with 20% more than your 1RM. Plus a spotter who knows what he/she is doing, lowering for 3 to 5 seconds.
Close-grip bench-press 3 X 3-5 reps with a 2-3-minute rest between sets doing negatives with a 20% increase in your 1RM plus a spotter to help you get through the concentric or positive and then lower for 3-5 seconds.
Close-grip bench-press 3 X 6-8 reps with 2-3 minutes' rest doing 2 rest-pauses and resting 15 sec after muscle failure before pushing on.
Seated triceps press 3 X 6-8 reps with 2-3 minutes' rest with drop set on the last set reducing 20-30% of the weight to continue with the set.
Triceps pushdowns 3 X 6-8 reps with 2-3 minutes' rest and doing a drop set again on the last set reducing a 20-30% weight reduction.
Barbell curls 3 X 3-5 reps with 2-3 minutes' rest using negatives lowering for 3 to 5 seconds.
Barbell curls 3 X 6-8 reps with 2-3 minutes' rest doing two rest-pause reps on the last set resting 15 seconds after muscle failure and then push on.
Incline D/B curls 3 X 6-8 reps with a 2-3-minute rest doing drop sets by reducing the weight by no more than 20-30% and continuing the set.
Preacher curls 3 X 6-8 reps with a 2-3-minute rest between sets doing drop sets with 20-30% reduction in weight and complete the set.
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