Kai Kills Guns!


His Favorite Arm Exercises





“I had 21-inch arms before I was 18 years old.” -Kai Greene



By Ron Harris



Arms have never been a weak point for Greene. He began building his peashooters into cannons way back before he was even a teenager. “I’d see pictures of Arnold, Robby Robinson, Bertil Fox and other greats of that era and know that someday I would have arms like that,” he says. “A lot of kids have big dreams, but I believed I could make it happen.”





For a few years, Kai’s biceps and triceps were stimulated only by whatever exercises he could dream up using available items around the house. But shortly into his teens, Kai started hefting genuine barbells and dumbbells, and it was on. “I had 21-inch arms before I was 18 years old,” he relates. Since there are many thousands of guys out there who are more than twice that age and have been training for over 20 years, yet still haven’t hit that number (don’t cry for me; unless you really want to), that’s an exceptional achievement.





When Kai had his “breakout” year in 2006, his guns were so formidable that they shot down heavy hitters like Branch Warren and Dennis James at the New York Pro to earn the show’s “Best Arms” award. Here are some of The Predator’s favorite exercises he uses to blast his arms in the gym with no mercy.





Alternate Dumbbell Curls. A longtime staple in Kai’s biceps routine is some type of alternate dumbbell curl. He may do them seated or standing, and also may even lift with both arms simultaneously (which would no longer be an “alternate” dumbbell curl). “Doing both arms at the same time is a good option for anyone who has a tendency to lean into the working arm and cut their range of motion short.” Whichever way he does his dumbbell curls, Greene takes advantage of the supination action, starting the rep with his palms facing in toward his torso, and finishing with palms rotated and facing the ceiling.





“The biceps have two main functions, which are flexion and supination,” Kai explains. “If you never incorporate that twisting motion, you miss out on the full benefits of the dumbbell curl and what it has to offer.”





For arms in general, Kai likes to work in the 12-15 rep range. “That’s where I feel you are able to tap into the deep muscle fibers and get the stimulation it takes to make the arms grow,” he adds. “That’s not to say that occasionally going heavier doesn’t have its benefits, either. Rules are made to be broken, and there really are no rules when it comes to training anyway.”





Preacher Curls. Though Kai often does barbell curls, another favorite barbell move on biceps day is preacher curls. “I find that I’m able to spark deeper, more meaningful contractions when the arms are supported and immobile,” Kai comments. “You defeat the purpose of the strict preacher curl if you let your whole body swing like a pendulum from rep one to heave up the weight, though.” Still, Greene concedes that there is definitely a time and place for “cheating” type of form. “Cheating to extend the set and work the muscle deeper into the ground can be very useful, but all too often, what we see is guys cheating the whole time because they have too much weight on the bar to handle properly.”





Dumbbell Preacher Curls. When he wants to isolate one biceps at a time and really focus on a tight squeeze, Kai will opt for either concentration curls or dumbbell preacher curls. “I really like the preacher bench because it stabilizes the shoulder and forces you to use stricter form,” he says. “It’s a totally different feeling from preachers with a barbell, much more targeted and intense in the belly of the biceps muscle.”





Hammer Curls can do a perfect job of beefing up the brachialis as well as the short head of the biceps, but only if you do them right. “A lot of guys swing and throw the weights around and wind up hitting mostly front delts,” Kai says. He braces the nonworking arm on a bench, leans over slightly and strictly squeeze the weight up. “You won’t be using 90-pound dumbbells this way, so don’t even try,” he advises.





Concentration Curls. Every great champion of the last few decades has incorporated concentration curls at one time or another in his biceps training, and Kai is no exception. For variety’s sake, he will occasionally do them seated, as is the most common style, while other times he goes “old school” and does them standing and bent over like Robby and Arnold did back in the day. “Whether or not concentration curls can actually bring out more of a peak or not is debatable,” he says, “but regardless, the movement lets you focus on that midpoint of the rep where you work the belly of the muscle.”





Cable Pushdowns. For triceps, Kai usually starts off with some type of cable pushdown to warm up the elbows and get the whole area ready for the free weights to follow. He employs a variety of grip attachments at different times. He may begin with rope pushdowns to grease the joints and get a light pump going, then clip on a short straight bar for heavy pushdowns of even “power pushdowns.” “On those, I lean forward with a close grip on the bar, and let my elbows flare out,” he tells us. “You could almost think of this exercise as a close-grip bench press motion, but done with a cable and upside down because you’re pushing down rather than up.”





Skull-Crushers. I have yet to talk to any pro with monster triceps who hasn’t done his share of skull-crushers. “It’s just a very basic movement, like the barbell curl.” Kai says. He does caution against both starting with this exercise, and going too heavy. “It’s a killer exercise, but it can also be rough on the elbows and shoulders if you get careless or sloppy.”





Dips. Kai has been doing dips since his days as a foster kid, when he would rig up any two objects suitable to get between and push himself up from. Over the years he has done them both weighted and with bodyweight alone, and doesn’t really have a preference. “Weighted dips are definitely more of a power movement and can build good thickness in the whole triceps,” he concedes. “But you can’t write off bodyweight dips, either. You can get higher reps and have much better control over the contractions. It’s a lot easier to hold and squeeze at the top with your own weight as opposed to if you had 100 or more pounds strapped to your waist.” Then again, if you weigh over 300 pounds, I doubt you would need to bother with any extra weight.





One-Arm Reverse Cable Pushdowns. No area can be neglected if your goal is to own the best physique in the world, so Kai often includes single-arm pushdowns using a reverse grip to target the long head of the triceps. “This is the region of the triceps that you see when viewing a physique from the rear in your quarter-turns,” he informs us. “That area can never be too thick or too full and round.” As it’s a finesse movement, lighter weights and a slower controlled rep speed are what you’re looking for on these.





Sample Training Split*





Day one: Back and biceps, calves


Day two: Quads


Day three: Chest and triceps


Day four: Hamstrings and calves


Day five: OFF


Day six: Shoulders


*Kai rotates the order he trains body parts on a fairly regular basis.





Instagram @kaigreene


Twitter @KaiGreene


Facebook @officialkaigreene


trainwithkai.com


YouTube: Kai Greene





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