Armed For The Olympia

Classic Physique Competitor Arash Rahbar Subjects His Biceps and Triceps to "Blunt Force Trauma" With This Hard and Heavy Workout.

- Joe Wuebben

Ask Arash Rahbar what body parts he’s training on a given day and he will not say “back and biceps” or “chest and triceps” like countless other guys.

“I don’t like the philosophy of training back and bi’s or chest and tri’s together,” says the 2016 Olympia Classic Physique runner-up. “The arms get worked every day no matter whatwe’re doing. Of course, not on leg day, but anytime you’re hitting chest, shoulders, or back, the arms are getting a ton of work. Even in day-today life your arms are getting worked.”

Rahbar believes in training the arms when they’re as fresh as possible, not after training a larger upper body muscle group in the same workout. Hence, biceps and triceps are grouped together in his training split. The natural assumption is that he supersets bi’s and tri’s. Right? Nope.

“When I train my arms, after a proper warmup,of course, I want to go balls-to-the-wall and lift them heavy,” he says. “Using light weight, supersetting, dropsetting’s almost mimicking the work they’re getting with other body parts, so I don’t really use any of those techniques with arms. I want blunt-force trauma and hard work to make them grow, and that’s one of the reasons I don’t do chest and tri’s or back and bi’s. Because when I come to do my tri’s after chest, for example, they’re somewhat shot, and I’m sacrificing intensity and weight.”

In elite-level competitive bodybuilding, the arms often seem like an afterthought. Bigger muscle groups like the back and legs steal a lot of attention. In Rahbar’s mind, however, the arms are critical for ensuring optimal symmetry.