Calum von Moger is one of the most popular bodybuilders in the world at the moment because his strength, physique and good looks have helped him win three Mr Universe titles, and have earned him an army of followers on his various social media channels.
Most impressive of all is that he is still only 27 years old at the time of writing. So he still has many years left to develop his physique even further.
He cites Arnold Schwarzenegger as his primary source of motivation and the person that he most wants to replicate, and strangely enough, he already has similar facial features and sounds very much like the great man when you actually hear him speak.
Many people would say that his upper body doesn’t yet match up with Arnie’s, but it is still pretty impressive because his arms in particular are absolutely massive.
Indeed I have just been searching online to see which arm exercises he does, and found this old school bodybuilding workout from Calum von Moger that is ideal if you are looking to build bigger arms yourself:
As you can see, there is nothing remarkable about this particular workout. All of the exercises are fairly well known and easy to perform.
It starts off with some compound exercises for size and mass, and also includes some isolation exercises for detail, targeting both your biceps and your triceps. The rep range is generally between 6 and 12 reps, but you can reduce the number of reps when finishing with higher weights.
Here is a guide to each of the exercises that are included in this arm workout:
Barbell Curl
The first exercise is the classic barbell curl where you are basically standing upright and curling a weighted barbell to your chest to really pump your biceps. Calum von Moger says that this is a great starting exercise because it requires co-ordination and balance, and develops your core strength.
You should aim to do five sets of 6-12 reps in total, with the first two sets acting as warm-up sets with a very light weight, moving up to heavier weights with the following three sets.
EZ Bar Preacher Curl
The next exercise is the EZ bar preacher curl, which will really help to isolate your biceps and get a good pump because there is no way of cheating. For greater activation, you should try to squeeze your biceps at the top of each movement.
You should aim to do four sets of 6-12 reps in total, and as Calum points out, it is a good idea to switch to a narrow grip for the final set in order to target the outer biceps a little bit more.
Concentration Curl
The final bicep exercise is the concentration curl because this will really help to define the peaks of your biceps. Some people prefer to sit on a bench when doing these curls, but Calum likes to do this exercise standing up, dropping the shoulder to ensure that the arms do all of the work. He says that he feels more resistance in his arms doing it this way, which makes sense.
You should aim to do four sets of 6-12 reps, squeezing out one or two extra reps at the end so that your biceps are completely exhausted.
French Press
Calum von Moger refers to this next move as the French press, but it is also referred to as lying tricep extensions or skull crushers. With this move, you are lying flat on a bench holding an EZ bar just above your forehead with your palms facing outwards and your elbows tucked in, and then pressing upwards towards the ceiling to really hit the triceps.
With this move you should aim to two sets of 6-12 reps with a lighter weight to get blood into the muscles and warm them up, and then gradually increase the weight for three more sets, doing 6-12 reps each time, or as many as you can manage.
Overhead Dumbbell Press
The next move targets the longer head of the triceps because you will be sitting upright on a bench, holding a dumbbell behind your head with each hand, and extending upwards towards the ceiling. The key here is to go down as much as possible and do a full extension with each rep.
You should aim to do five sets of 6-12 reps, and gradually increase the weight each time in order to completely exhaust your muscles.
Tricep Dips
The last exercise in this arm workout is the tricep dip, which Calum leaves to the end because the triceps are already fatigued, and so it is just a case of doing as many as you can until you cannot physically do any more. For greater effectiveness, you need to make sure that you have a full range of motion, ie you drop down as much as possible and fully extend to the top.
You should aim to do four sets in total, working your triceps to exhaustion with each set to complete this highly effective arm workout from Calum von Moger.
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