Arm Workout at Gold’s Gym Venice (ATHLEAN X | Andrew Huberman)

If you want bigger arms, you can’t just curl and press your way through random biceps and triceps exercises and hope that more effort eventually turns into more growth. In this arm workout, Jeff Cavaliere takes Dr. Andrew Huberman through a science-based biceps and triceps workout that shows you how

Today’s going to be a truly legendary workout. Not because I’m going to be participating in it, but because this legend, the Jeff Cavaliere of Athlean-X. Many of you know who he is. For those of you that don’t, I basically grew up on his videos on YouTube. He’s one of the original fitness quote and quote influencers, but I consider really him a teacher, an educator.

So, I’m just so grateful to be here. I’m sort of in a pinch me moment, in case you can’t tell, where I’m about to train with the Jeff Cavaliere at the Gold’s Gym Venice. So, Jeff, thank you so much for making the flight out. >> miss this for the world. Like I said, this is actually a bucket list item for me.

Always wanted to make it out here. Came out here for work plenty of times, but never actually made it here. So, to be here with you and get a chance to train is going to be amazing. >> I’m super excited. So, let’s head on in.

I want to obviously be able to get the the elbow flexed, but I also want to save that shoulder flexion for the end. So, I’m talking right about there. It’s really like once we’re up at the top, that elbow coming up just a little bit. So, you curl it up. Now, as far as the supination part, what I like to do is shift the dumbbell in my hand towards the thumb side.

Cuz what that will do is it will put a disproportionate amount of the weight down, right? Pulling me into pronation. So, I have to actually lift against that. Sort of a, you know, sitting on this end of the seesaw, I have to lift against that. I’m resisting that supination.

So, if I do that and I’m curling at the same time, I’m getting resisted supination and elbow flexion. And when I get to the top here, good contraction, I lift just a little bit more to get that really balled up strong contraction and that almost that little bit of discomfort at the top. >> Rep range? >> I want it to be somewhere between six and 12, seven to 12, right? I don’t want it to be so heavy that I can’t get that many out, but I do think it it should be somewhere under 12 just so we can keep the workout moving.

Alternating or move them both at the same >> So, I’m going to move alternating here. That little top at the top. Again, a little bit of an offset grip there.

Uh, here you go. Come up. Good, done, done, done, done. Here you go. Fight it.

Good. You were doing You were maintaining a very upright, straightforward posture. When I curl, I’ll do a little bit of a twist towards that working side. So, when it comes up, I’m twisting a little bit that way. >> Got it.

Just over the top of it. >> Okay. >> And then down. And then when I come up the other side, I’m going to twist that way, too. So, just a little bit of Now, you’ve probably seen guys do that instinctively.

But again, remember the body knows how to do it. This is one of those cases where it knows what to do, but it’s actually not taking away from the exercise. >> Great. >> It’s just giving you more stability to perform the exercise. So, if I’m in here, how can I make this a better exercise?

Well, first of all, you want to seek out a variations machine that does not have a seat that you sit on. Right? Unless that seat is very high, what happens is people get in this position, and then they sit. Right? And now, when I go out like this, I basically created a fulcrum right here at my elbow, and there’s a lot of weight going down that direction.

Remember that the the biceps crosses the shoulder, that it is influenced by the shoulder positioning. If I take my elbows and I put them here by standing over the top of it. And then I actually drive back into the pad. Now I get my lats working. Right?

Because we’re doing this is a basically a triceps push down. Right? So, I get adduction of the elbow towards the side. I get stability of the entire shoulder girdle. So, when I’m in this position here, I’m much more stable in terms of the entire shoulder girdle, so that when I do the curl, I’ve got more support.

So, it’s a safer exercise done that way. And now I can actually focus on just overloading the biceps in that position. I’ll I’ll go first if you want. >> Yeah, just >> make sure that >> So, I get in position here where I can get over the top and drive the elbows back. They’re in the pad as hard as I can, right?

Now, when I’m down, I get a good stretch out there, full extension. Right? And as I curl up, I’m just going to let let the weight kind of almost lift straight towards the ceiling by letting the wrist bend back a little bit. Again, if I were to do this and curl it, I actually don’t feel much. I could probably stay here for another 5 minutes.

That’s not what I’m looking for. I want a little bit of effort still on the bicep at the top. And so, by stopping the bar a little short, too, I’m right here up against gravity fully and it’s difficult at the top. So, I’m down, up, peak at the top. Full extension.

As much as I can? >> Yep. Again, I’ve got that torn bicep on my right side. >> You’d never know it.

And again, you see my pace, it’s slow. But I’m trying to feel everything that’s going on here. >> So, driving the elbows back. >> that. Feel that?

Yeah. >> Want to be able to feel the lats there. Okay. Now, up at the top right there. And then you don’t go any further.

And I should actually flatten it out? >> You can flatten it, yeah, wherever it feels comfortable. Now, next repetition, go to the top and then go further. I just want you to feel how everything’s lost. If you go even further there, >> Yeah, it’s resting.

You can hang out here. I could make a phone call. >> Right. So, what’s the point? Because you you did more reps?

Like, I don’t care. I’d rather have you do more effective reps. There you go. Perfect. >> The driving the elbows back really helps.

you got all that stability all through the shoulder. >> It’s like >> And the bicep can actually It’s got more leverage to actually pull from here. You know that phrase, you can’t fire a cannon from a canoe? There’s an old Paul Chek thing, right? >> Yep.

I think we have here. >> Okay, yeah, yeah, that’s fine. If the if the canoe is wobbly, you’re not going to get a real lot of force. >> Was it Paul Check that said that? I like that.

He’s smart. >> So, here, if we want to train the long head of the biceps or again, favor more of that long head, then you want to get something that places the arm behind the body so there’s that stretch because again, that’s the the head of the bicep that crosses the shoulder joint. So, if it’s the part that’s responsible for that little flexion, then opposite of that would be extension. Now, the next thing though, before I get into it, what I want to do is I could take this a little bit further. I could do a traditional incline curl or I could do that in a in stack it with what we call a mechanical drop set so that I can go a little bit further and further and further and I can actually get another long head exercise which would be a drag curl done in sequence after this and after a seated curl because mechanically, the exercise gets easier and easier even though I get fatigued.

Down, hands back, curl up, supination here, resist and then a little lift at the top. So, down at the bottom, right there, and that’s the speed of that contraction. So, it’s not it’s not violent or ballistic. It’s down. I’m already in that stretch, one contraction, and come right back out of it.

Ideally, if you’re putting together a bicep workout, you would want to have one of these exercises that focuses on that position.

I noticed you’re really good about getting that pinky higher than that thumb at