Friday, June 7, 2013

How To Adapt An Action Movie Star Workout Into Your Fitness Routine

By Russ Howe


If you asked 100 men why they first joined a gym and started lifting weights, a large portion of them would reference an action movie such as Rambo as their primary influence for making the first step into the fitness community. However, dreaming of owning an action hero physique and actually doing it are two very different things, as you are about to find out when we tackle the Sylvester Stallone arm workout below.

Looking at the super lean physique you see on screen in the final product, it would be quite foolish to walk into a workout like this with ambitions of taking it easy. Use that vision of the end result as a barometer to tell you that this is going to be very tough.

One particular action star, Sylvester Stallone, is well known for his intense workout schedule and it would be ill advised to attempt a full scale workout in his style without first familiarizing yourself with the surroundings at your local gym for a few months.

The workout in question today is a four phase attack on biceps, triceps and forearms. It is to be performed as a circuit workout, with four rounds of a section required in order to progress to the next phase of the workout.

Dumbbell Hammer Curl - Go quite heavy on this exercise for 12 reps while your biceps are still at their full ability.

Incline Dumbbell Curl - 15 reps on an incline bench.

Biceps Curl - The old classic exercise is yours for 12 reps. After reaching 12 reps, switch to a wide grip and try to push out up to six more.

Flat Cable Curls - Pull a flat bench underneath a cable pulley station and lie on it. Curl down towards your head. The constant tension provided by the cables will make this variation of a curl much more difficult, so aim for 15 reps with a significantly lighter load.

Twisting Chain Curls - Attach a free weight to a chain and hold the chain so the weight is hanging down. Now perform a curl, while twisting your palms to face away from you at the top of each rep. This engages the muscles in your biceps and forearms. Remember, the forearms are a lot smaller and the instability of a hanging plate is very noticeable, thus a lighter weight is required.

Phase two begins with Reverse Curls, an often overlooked exercise which will not only help you to develop your forearms but also minimize the gap at the bottom of your biceps muscle. 15 repetitions will suffice. This exercise is paired with Wrist Curls and Reverse Wrist Curls, which both need 20 repetitions each, before performing a timed hang from a monkey bar for as long as you can hold it. The forearm round is finished off with one of Sly's favorite moves, Handshake Curls. This move needs 30 reps with a light weight, and simulates a handshaking motion with a dumbbell.

The workout's final stage features it's largest muscle group, the triceps. Go heavy to obtain maximum results but also bear in mind how fatigued you will feel at this point. The first exercise in this phase is Close-Grip Barbell Bench Press for 10 repetitions.

Bench Dips form a large part of this phase. Perform them to failure before moving onto a set of 12 Triceps Pushdowns with a rope attachment. Then go back into dips until you reach failure again and finish off with 20 Dumbbell Kickbacks.

Only a cool down phase remains, but by this point in time you might be tempted to quit. That would be a bad idea, as cool downs have been shown to help prevent blood pooling and dizziness. It only consists of a Plank held t failure three times and a closing out set of close-grip push ups.

The time and dedication which goes into building a physique for the big screen is quite daunting. Rome was not built in a day, as they say, and this workout is certainly structured with that quote in mind. The high intensity circuit style often tricks people into thinking it's going to be easy. You will increase your chances of success if you don't make that mistake.

The Sylvester Stallone arm workout is one of the oldest and most effective ways to blast your arms with a completely new approach. It is a well known workout and one which has been attempted many times in gyms around the world. Now it's your turn.




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