You Don’t Need An Arm Day
I know Arnold had an arm day.
Muscle and Fiction told you otherwise.
Hell, they said you could add an inch to your arms in one day.
That’s kinda, sorta, straight up bullshit not the truth.
On all fronts.
Yes. Arnold did have an “arm day”, and apparently pro body builders today still have arm days..
And they have Exceptional Genetics, They’re Hella Strong and get a massive “Spillover Effect” from training other body parts, The Juice….ya know, little things like that.
However, most people simply don’t need an “Arm Day”.
But, if you’ve been lifting for a while you would probably benefit from doing some curls.
I Thought Single Joint Exercises Are Worthless?
No, single joint exercises are definitely NOT worthless.
What they tend to be is,
Less Valuable than Multi-Joint Compound Lifts
But not worthless.
Big Rocks Vs. Small Rocks
It’s really simple big, compound, multi-joint, lifts like Dumbbell Rows, Pullups, Carries will do MORE for your overall development, both in terms of performance and aesthetics than any curl would.
They’re the BIG ROCKS of training.
It ain’t rocket science.
Rows, pullups, carries stress more systemic muscle and therefore lead to more systemic muscle growth.
For THE VAST MAJORITY OF PEOPLE
You’ll get FAR better results focusing on the BIG rocks at least 80% of the time.
If you’re only training 1-2 hours a week, hell, even 3 hours, I would argue that you should only devote 1-3 sets a week to single joint movements for the VAST MAJORITY of your workouts.
That said,
Single Joint Exercises Can Have A Place
Sure you’ll get a “spillover” effect of training the biceps if you’re doing rows, but the primary movers of any row movement should be lats and rhomboids with the rear delts and biceps being secondary movers.
Sometimes you need more.
More strength in a weak(er) muscle,
Size in a lagging muscle,
Activation in a dormant muscle
Symmetry across an unbalanced joint.
Strengthen the ligaments and tendons/ joint structure.
Using single joint exercises can help give that a more directed/ laser sharp focus.
The Zottman Curl
Checklist:
- Tight is right, right is tight <—-if you’re waving in the wind, you’re wrong
- The turning of the wrist is NOT turning the wrist. Its turning the WHOLE FOREARM at the elbow, not just flipping the wrist around.
- Keep tension through the lift.
- FULL RANGE OF MOTION
- Elbow NEVER moves past the midline of the body.
Bro Tips:
- Slower is usually better, especially on the eccentric.
- Never lose tension. Don’t bottom out on the elbow, or drive the elbow forward at the top to unload the bells.
- You’re going to need LESS WEIGHT than you think.
- Higher reps are probably better. <—-if you’re doing single joint movements in ranges lower than 8 reps, you’re probably not getting that much out of the lift and you’re exposing the joints to undue stresses.
- If you deadlift, you should do some sort of directed bicep work to help strengthen the biceps tendon and protect it from going snapity snap, snap.
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