“ I OFTEN USE KICKBACKS TO PRE-EXHAUST MY TRICEPS PRIOR TO OTHER EXERCISES BY USING RELATIVELY LIGHT DUMBBELLS BEFORE PROGRESSING.”
MORNE’ S ARM RULES
1
Morné views a warmup up as nonnegotiable, although he is careful not to fatigue the muscle too much ahead of the actual workout. He uses the preacher bench a lot
2 because it forces him to work harder, which translates into better quality contractions. Morné always does some form of
3 standing curl, be it with barbells or dumbbells. He usually warms up with a set using a light weight to get the feel of the exercise before aiming for some better reps with heavier resistance. 4He is always careful where he positions his arm training because hammering back or chest can wreak havoc on the arms. One needs fresh, strong arms for your arm workouts. 5Morné warms up his triceps with a few sets of dips and would sometimes use chains or a weight belt to increase resistance. When your arms are loose, you ' re ready to make the most of the rest of the workout. 6Every few weeks he combines his biceps and triceps into giant and supersets. He then typically pairs one bicep move with one tricep move, and does one after the other without any breaks for an insane pump. 7Morné likes free weights. While machine and cable work have their place in the gym, free weights are king when your objective is animal size.
8While the focus is always on biceps, they make just one-third of the upper arm. Triceps can really set your arms apart from other competitors and give them that round, full appearance. 9Big arms are imposing and monstrous, no matter where you stand in a line-up. Don ' t neglect them!
Nothing packs on more size like
10multi-joint or compound movements. For this he suggests dips and close-grip bench presses. He regards dips as probably the best movement for tricep development. When he knocks out reps on dips he keeps his elbows tight as this stresses the muscles more while minimising assistance from the chest and shoulders.“ Don ' t tuck your chin in when you dip because this will only tilt your torso forward, bringing your chest and shoulders into play. Dip by keeping your head up and don ' t lower too far down.” Morné, when raising up to the top on dips, will hold the position for a few seconds to take full advantage of the contraction. Morné also recommends
11 skull crushers or lying tricep extensions. Holding the bar and his upper arms stationary, he would lower the bar to his forehead while keeping his upper arms motionless. Another great mass builder is the close-grip bench press with an Olympic bar. A trick is to keep your elbows tight in for inner head stress, and your elbows flared out for outer tricep head development.
DUMBBELL KICKBACKS
Dumbbell kickbacks activate those hard-to-reach muscle fibres. Although Morné loves barbell skull crushers to put meat on his arms, he believes kickbacks, rope pushdowns and closegrip barbell bench presses reduce the wear and tear on the elbow joints.
He keeps his form tight on kickbacks while trying to squeeze his triceps at the top of each rep, focusing on not moving his upper arm during the exercise.“ I would often do kickbacks as the last exercise in my triceps routine. I add three sets to failure of these and make sure I extend my arm by only recruiting the triceps. To add variety, I often use kickbacks to pre-exhaust my triceps prior to the other exercises in my workout by using relatively light dumbbells before progressing. You cannot overload kickbacks because the arm is in a vulnerable position and this is the reason you should not extend the elbow too much at the end of the exercise, to avoid injuring the elbow joint. Only move the forearms while you keep the arm and shoulder still and don’ t arch your back.” M. E
www. muscleevolution. co. za 45