This CrossFit-Inspired Arm Workout Will Give You a Legendary Pump
A post shared by Eb Samuel (@ebenezersamuel23) on Nov 4, 2018 at 11:40am PST
If you do CrossFit, you probably dread the days when you see a chipper on the WOD board. The intense workouts stack up tons of reps of different exercises on top of each other, daring you to push through all of the sets before exhaustion sets in.
That can be a great method to build up your raw work capacity - but for actual muscle training, you're wasting your time and effort, according to Men's Health Fitness Director Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S. Instead, he says that you should approach all that volume in a more targeted manner, and apply chipper principles to exercises you might not find CrossFitters performing in your local box.
"Let’s take [the chipper's] good ideas and adapt them to a super-fun format that can actually train our arms, a 100s Arm Shred," Samuel suggests. The resulting workout will have you do 300 reps of biceps exercises and 300 reps of triceps exercises, really hammering your guns. That might sound like too many reps for one workout - but the built in rest periods should help you to survive.
"You can take as many sets as necessary [to get to 100]," says Samuel. "The key thing is the rest between each set. The number of reps you have left after each set to get to 100 is the amount of seconds you take to rest."
For example, you might start the workout by performing 20 reps for the first set. That means you have 80 seconds to rest and recover before pumping out more. After you finish each exercise, you'll rest for 1 minute before moving on to the next.
To perform the workout, you should probably hit the gym. You'll need dumbbells, an adjustable bench, a resistance band, and a clock to time your rest periods. For some tips on how to perform each move, check out Samuel's commentary on the video above.
The 100s Arm Shred Workout
Tall Kneeling Biceps Alternating Curls
2nd IG slide; 100 reps per arm
Floor Dumbbell Skullcrushers
3rd IG slide; 100 reps
Incline Bench Pressdowns
4th IG slide; 100 reps
Lying Overhead Curls
5th IG slide; 100 reps
Superset
6th IG slide; 100 reps of each exercise. Cycle between the two exercises back to back until you finish all reps.
Wall Hammer Curls
100 reps
Bodyweight Skullcrushers
100 reps
To put the principles into action, there are some important ground rules. "Don’t do this all the time," Samuel says. "Think once or twice a month. Drink lots of water beforehand, and head into a rest day after."
Samuel also contends that deliberate, effective work is much more important than just ripping through reps. "Form is paramount," he says. "Be strict about rest periods to get the most out of this."
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