[FONT="]Barbell Curls[/FONT]
Victor almost always starts his biceps workouts off with a barbell curl, alternating between a straight bar and an EZ-curl bar. With both the shorter bars weighing 25 pounds, he can do as much as four 25s on each side for a total of 225 pounds. Why not just put two 45s on? “The 45s are too wide, and I end up whacking myself in the shoulders,” he says. Vic was quick to point out that he doesn’t go that heavy all the time, usually only at certain times of the year when he has a little more fat and water in his body than usual. He also likes to pyramid up in weight, using 10s on each side until reaching his heaviest weight, and then do two double-drop sets. “I will also do partial reps once I can’t get any more full reps," he says. “Anything to get just a little more out of the set and make the biceps scream.”
[FONT="]Alternate Dumbbell Curls[/FONT]
Another basic biceps movement that you will typically find Victor doing at any given biceps workout is the standing dumbbell curl. Usually he alternates arms, though at times he will also do both simultaneously and shift the angle up a bit. “When I have my arms angled away from my body as you see me doing in these photos, I feel it hitting the short head of the biceps, the inner biceps that you see more of in a front double biceps pose.” He credits Arnold for that particular variation. As for the weights, in the past he would go up to a pair of 80s. “I would only get maybe two good reps, though, and after that I was swinging too much and hardly feeling the biceps work,” he shares. Nowadays he works his way up to 60s, with much better form and control of his contractions.
[FONT="]Dumbbell Preacher Curls[/FONT]
Just as Vic alternates between the straight and EZ-curl bar for his biceps curls, he also rotates between using a bar or a dumbbell for preacher curls. When he uses a dumbbell, he likes the straight side of the preacher pad rather than the angled side. Or, he may also use an incline bench set at a high angle. “It gives you more range of motion because you can lower it farther down,” he tells us. Another advantage to any type of preacher curl is that the arm is braced and stabilized, making it nearly impossible for the shoulders to step in and take stress away from the biceps.
[FONT="]Cable Curls[/FONT]
Though he doesn’t think cable curls compare to the barbell version when it comes to building size, Martinez does feel that they offer certain advantages all their own. “What I like to do with the cables is pause at the very top of the rep and squeeze real hard for a second. You can do that with a barbell, but you don’t get as much tension on the muscle at the top like you do with a cable curl.”
[FONT="]One-arm Cable Curls[/FONT]
Victor has really taken more of an open-minded approach to his training over the past few years. When I first started talking to him well over 10 years ago, he was all about free weights and considered cables pretty much a waste of his time. Since then, he started incorporating some cable work pre-contest, and eventually was supplementing free weights with cables year-round. “I do think cables can help you bring out more detail in the muscles, and that’s the name of the game for me now,” he says. “I’m not trying to get much bigger, just refine what I have so it’s a lot more polished and mature-looking.” For biceps, he often does one-hand cable curls to isolate the muscle and get a great pump in it.
[FONT="]“Front Double Biceps” Curls[/FONT]
In my ongoing effort to make this the official name for this exercise, burn that name into your brain as you see Victor performing it. Curling from such a high angle is a killer way to pinpoint the short head of the biceps, the segment that’s on the inside and faces the observer when in a front double biceps pose. Better-developed inner biceps also create the illusion of higher peaks. “I just like this exercise because it has a totally different feel to it,” Martinez says. “You have to keep your elbows steady and maintain tight control the entire time,” he explains. “Don’t let your shoulders squeeze in and together! Visualize hitting the front double biceps pose, and get a peak contraction on every rep. Do them like that, and you will totally isolate the biceps and leave them pumped and full of blood to finish off a workout.”
[FONT="]Dumbbell Concentration Curls[/FONT]
As for his famous biceps peaks, Victor says he owes them to years of concentration curls. “I know genetics has a lot to do with it, but even with the best genetics you still have to do the right exercises to bring the peaks out.” Concentration curls focus on the very mid-range of the curling motion, making them ideal for focusing on the middle of the biceps muscle where the peak, for those who have a peaked shape at least, is located. Martinez alternates between doing his concentration curls the standard way, which is to sit down and brace the working arm against the inner thigh as shown here, or the non-supported “hanging” version more popular in the “Pumping Iron” days. “I do like to have my other arm on a dumbbell rack or something solid for balance,” he says. “In a way this version forces you to be a little more strict, because your arm will start to swing around if you cheat. You have to go slow and make the biceps do the work.”
[FONT="]Rope Pushdowns[/FONT]
A perfect way to warm up the triceps, and an exercise that many other pros like Lee Priest do religiously at the start of their triceps workouts, is the rope pushdown. “I don’t usually count this as part of the workout,” Victor says. “It’s just to get the blood flowing in the muscle and around the elbow joints, get some heat in there to get it all ready for the real workout.” As such, his reps on it are higher than what he does for work sets, often in the 15-20 range. “I might stay there and make it my first exercise too, with heavier weight,” he says. “It all depends. My workouts change all the time.”
[FONT="]Seated Overhead Dumbbell Extensions[/FONT]
Martinez will alternate from workout to workout doing this exercise with one arm, in which case he will use around 50-70 pounds, or two arms, when he can really push some iron. “With two hands I have gone as heavy as a 150-pound dumbbell many times,” he says, “but I usually don’t use more than a 120 or a 130.” He also lets his elbows flare out and away from his head. “I don’t do any presses behind the neck because it’s suicide for your rotators,” he tells us, “so that’s why I keep my hands close behind my neck and don’t let them go back too far from my head.” One of his favorite supersets for triceps, which you might have seen in the MD video posted in January training arms with friends Juan Morel and Jonathan De La Rosa, is the two-arm overhead dumbbell extension with dumbbell kickbacks. “Two totally different angles,” notes Victor. “Your triceps won’t known what hit ‘em!”
[FONT="]Overhead Rope Extensions[/FONT]
In days gone by, Victor had a real problem doing this exercise. The issue was that because he could use so much weight, it pulled him backward as he lowered it for the negative. Eventually he figured out a couple of solutions. “Either I wait until near the end of the workout to do it so I don’t need to go as heavy, or I have a training partner pushing on the back of my shoulders to keep me in place,” he says. Overhead extensions with a rope let him get a stretch that no other movement can duplicate, which means it offers a subtly different type of stimulation to the tri’s.
Arm Workout
Biceps
Barbell Curls 3 x 10
Concentration Curls 3 x 10
Hammer Curls 3 x 10
Triceps
Close-grip Bench Presses 3 x 10
Bench Dips 3 x 10
Rope Pushdowns 3 x 10
Dumbbell Kickbacks 3 x 10
Victor’s Training Split: 3 on, 1 off*
Day 1: Chest and biceps
Day 2: Quads and calves
Day 3: Shoulders and triceps
Day 4: OFF
Day 5: Back and hams
Day 6: Chest and biceps
Day 7: Quads and hams
*The order of body parts trained remains the same, but because there are four different “training days,” the rest day constantly shifts in terms of where it falls in the rotation.
Victor almost always starts his biceps workouts off with a barbell curl, alternating between a straight bar and an EZ-curl bar. With both the shorter bars weighing 25 pounds, he can do as much as four 25s on each side for a total of 225 pounds. Why not just put two 45s on? “The 45s are too wide, and I end up whacking myself in the shoulders,” he says. Vic was quick to point out that he doesn’t go that heavy all the time, usually only at certain times of the year when he has a little more fat and water in his body than usual. He also likes to pyramid up in weight, using 10s on each side until reaching his heaviest weight, and then do two double-drop sets. “I will also do partial reps once I can’t get any more full reps," he says. “Anything to get just a little more out of the set and make the biceps scream.”
[FONT="]Alternate Dumbbell Curls[/FONT]
Another basic biceps movement that you will typically find Victor doing at any given biceps workout is the standing dumbbell curl. Usually he alternates arms, though at times he will also do both simultaneously and shift the angle up a bit. “When I have my arms angled away from my body as you see me doing in these photos, I feel it hitting the short head of the biceps, the inner biceps that you see more of in a front double biceps pose.” He credits Arnold for that particular variation. As for the weights, in the past he would go up to a pair of 80s. “I would only get maybe two good reps, though, and after that I was swinging too much and hardly feeling the biceps work,” he shares. Nowadays he works his way up to 60s, with much better form and control of his contractions.
Just as Vic alternates between the straight and EZ-curl bar for his biceps curls, he also rotates between using a bar or a dumbbell for preacher curls. When he uses a dumbbell, he likes the straight side of the preacher pad rather than the angled side. Or, he may also use an incline bench set at a high angle. “It gives you more range of motion because you can lower it farther down,” he tells us. Another advantage to any type of preacher curl is that the arm is braced and stabilized, making it nearly impossible for the shoulders to step in and take stress away from the biceps.
Though he doesn’t think cable curls compare to the barbell version when it comes to building size, Martinez does feel that they offer certain advantages all their own. “What I like to do with the cables is pause at the very top of the rep and squeeze real hard for a second. You can do that with a barbell, but you don’t get as much tension on the muscle at the top like you do with a cable curl.”
Victor has really taken more of an open-minded approach to his training over the past few years. When I first started talking to him well over 10 years ago, he was all about free weights and considered cables pretty much a waste of his time. Since then, he started incorporating some cable work pre-contest, and eventually was supplementing free weights with cables year-round. “I do think cables can help you bring out more detail in the muscles, and that’s the name of the game for me now,” he says. “I’m not trying to get much bigger, just refine what I have so it’s a lot more polished and mature-looking.” For biceps, he often does one-hand cable curls to isolate the muscle and get a great pump in it.
In my ongoing effort to make this the official name for this exercise, burn that name into your brain as you see Victor performing it. Curling from such a high angle is a killer way to pinpoint the short head of the biceps, the segment that’s on the inside and faces the observer when in a front double biceps pose. Better-developed inner biceps also create the illusion of higher peaks. “I just like this exercise because it has a totally different feel to it,” Martinez says. “You have to keep your elbows steady and maintain tight control the entire time,” he explains. “Don’t let your shoulders squeeze in and together! Visualize hitting the front double biceps pose, and get a peak contraction on every rep. Do them like that, and you will totally isolate the biceps and leave them pumped and full of blood to finish off a workout.”
As for his famous biceps peaks, Victor says he owes them to years of concentration curls. “I know genetics has a lot to do with it, but even with the best genetics you still have to do the right exercises to bring the peaks out.” Concentration curls focus on the very mid-range of the curling motion, making them ideal for focusing on the middle of the biceps muscle where the peak, for those who have a peaked shape at least, is located. Martinez alternates between doing his concentration curls the standard way, which is to sit down and brace the working arm against the inner thigh as shown here, or the non-supported “hanging” version more popular in the “Pumping Iron” days. “I do like to have my other arm on a dumbbell rack or something solid for balance,” he says. “In a way this version forces you to be a little more strict, because your arm will start to swing around if you cheat. You have to go slow and make the biceps do the work.”
A perfect way to warm up the triceps, and an exercise that many other pros like Lee Priest do religiously at the start of their triceps workouts, is the rope pushdown. “I don’t usually count this as part of the workout,” Victor says. “It’s just to get the blood flowing in the muscle and around the elbow joints, get some heat in there to get it all ready for the real workout.” As such, his reps on it are higher than what he does for work sets, often in the 15-20 range. “I might stay there and make it my first exercise too, with heavier weight,” he says. “It all depends. My workouts change all the time.”
Martinez will alternate from workout to workout doing this exercise with one arm, in which case he will use around 50-70 pounds, or two arms, when he can really push some iron. “With two hands I have gone as heavy as a 150-pound dumbbell many times,” he says, “but I usually don’t use more than a 120 or a 130.” He also lets his elbows flare out and away from his head. “I don’t do any presses behind the neck because it’s suicide for your rotators,” he tells us, “so that’s why I keep my hands close behind my neck and don’t let them go back too far from my head.” One of his favorite supersets for triceps, which you might have seen in the MD video posted in January training arms with friends Juan Morel and Jonathan De La Rosa, is the two-arm overhead dumbbell extension with dumbbell kickbacks. “Two totally different angles,” notes Victor. “Your triceps won’t known what hit ‘em!”
In days gone by, Victor had a real problem doing this exercise. The issue was that because he could use so much weight, it pulled him backward as he lowered it for the negative. Eventually he figured out a couple of solutions. “Either I wait until near the end of the workout to do it so I don’t need to go as heavy, or I have a training partner pushing on the back of my shoulders to keep me in place,” he says. Overhead extensions with a rope let him get a stretch that no other movement can duplicate, which means it offers a subtly different type of stimulation to the tri’s.
Biceps
Barbell Curls 3 x 10
Concentration Curls 3 x 10
Hammer Curls 3 x 10
Triceps
Close-grip Bench Presses 3 x 10
Bench Dips 3 x 10
Rope Pushdowns 3 x 10
Dumbbell Kickbacks 3 x 10
Victor’s Training Split: 3 on, 1 off*
Day 1: Chest and biceps
Day 2: Quads and calves
Day 3: Shoulders and triceps
Day 4: OFF
Day 5: Back and hams
Day 6: Chest and biceps
Day 7: Quads and hams
*The order of body parts trained remains the same, but because there are four different “training days,” the rest day constantly shifts in terms of where it falls in the rotation.
