One Month Later

After four weeks of curls, pressdowns, chins, dips, and awful, awful finishers that may actually violate some clause in the Geneva Convention, my four-week expedition in pursuit of bigger arms in finally over.

The result? An extra 1/4 inch on both arms.

That may sound disappointing, but I've been lifting weights for six years now; any small gain in mass or strength takes some serious scratching and clawing. It doesn't make for very dramatic after photos, but when  you unashamedly check out your arms as much as I do, you notice the difference; there is a muscle bulging from the side that wasn't there before, my forearms feel thicker, and my left bicep doesn't look quite as puny (except it kind of does).

Darren's in a similar boat, even though when you look at him in person the difference seems like night and day. He's doubled his reps with the same weight on the bench press, he can knock out 20 perfect pushups now (he could do maybe 10 shaky ones at the start), and he can do two more pullups than when he started, bringing him up to a grand total of two.

Four weeks is a very, very short amount of time, and a 1/4 inch doesn't look a whole lot bigger. But a contest is a contest, so here are our before and after pics for all to see:


Before on Left/top, After on Right/bottom

Pretty impressive for two drug-free guys who had real lives outside the gym.

Leave a comment telling us who you think made the most progress (we're obviously not factoring in time at the tanning bed). 

2 Tickets to the Gun Show

Dan John, possibly the man I idealize above all others especially where strength coaching is concerned, talks about "bus bench" versus "park bench" workouts in his book Never Let Go, and how they should be applied throughout life. Park bench workouts are where you just...work out. Get to the gym, perform the act of lifting something a few times, and go home. That's how I've been working out for the past... I don't know, five months. More, probably. I haven't kept track of my weights since summer. There is nothing wrong with working out this way, but I can't say I've made any real progress, I've only staved off regression.

Then there are the bus bench workouts. The structured, goal-oriented programs that got me into lifting in the first place. These are what get you results. Every so often, we need a clear, purposeful program to follow...and actually stick with.

I got an email from Jon Goodman at the Personal Trainer Development Center -which is usually just advice on training and marketing- about a contest Dan Trink was having to promote his new program. It's called "2 Tickets to the Gun Show" and, obviously, it is a program centered around arm development. The contest: take pictures and measurements of your biceps at the beginning and end, and whoever achieves the best results gets some training sessions and a t-shirt.

Arms have always been my weakness. So I bought it and entered.

Now, there isn't anything particularly special about this program. It emphasizes the eccentric portion of the rep, increases the volume for bi's and tri's, and includes a few finishers. That's not the point. The point is having a goal and a program to follow. The worst part is designing the damn thing, and now someone else has done the hard part for me. Now all I have to do is refrain from making excuses and following the program to the letter.

Here are my stats"

Left arm
Unflexed: just under 12.5"
Flexed: 13.5"

Right arm
Unflexed: 12.5"
Flexed: 13.75"

See you in four weeks.