Build Bigger Arms!!

In the next series on Blogs, I would like to introduce you to Bob Hoffman.

Many of you may know who he is but there are those new to the iron game that may not know who this icon of physical culture may be. For those, I will give a brief description of who he is.

Along with that, I would like to share with you a famous course that Bob Hoffman wrote back in 1939 Titled “Big Arms”. This course will help you in your quest for Huge Biceps and Huge Arms in general. This information is as applicable today as it was the day it was written.

I will be sending you e-mail newsletters breaking the course down chapter by chapter.

Lets Begin…

Who was Bob Hoffman?

Bob Hoffman - athlete, nutritionist, weightlifter, coach and philanthropist - was born on a farm in Tifton, Georgia on Nov 9th 1898. His family stock was good. Bob was never the seven stone weakling claimed by other physical culturists. His father was a large strong man who liked to demonstrate the hardness of his tensed muscles. Given this it his easy to see how Bob was influenced in his formative years.

When Bob was 5 years old the family moved to Wilkinsburg near Pittsburgh where his athletic career started from a very young age. He was an exceptional athlete especially in aquatic sports - his favorite being canoeing.

The First World War saw Bob as a hero. He gained 3 Croix de Guerres with two palms and a silver star from France. From Belgium he was awarded The Belgian Order of Leopold and from Italy the Italian War Cross and the Purple Heart.

His business started in the 1920s, at first selling oil burners, before developing into the massive York Barbell Company.

Bob Hoffman, never a great coach or great weightlifter, was a man who influenced and guided weightlifting and bodybuilding for half a century. He died on July 18th 1985 suffering heart disease and dementia.

Chapter One

“Let Me Feel Your Muscle”

“Let me feel your muscle”. If you have advanced reasonably far in the acquisition of strength and development, and that request or demand were made of you, what muscle would you permit the curious person to feel? In perhaps 999 cases out of a thousand the Biceps would be the muscle group displayed. In the minds of most men and boys, the arm is always through of as the muscle. And the front of the arm, The Biceps, is the part of the arm that is usually revealed or felt.

There is something fascinating about the development of the upper arms. Although there is no advanced weight man who does not realize that the upper arms play the least important part in elevating a great poundage overhead, there is probably not one of them who does not show more interest in the development of the muscles of the arm than those of any other part of the body. I don’t believe there is a man anywhere who would not accepted the gift of a larger pair of arms if he could get them. But they can not be had as a gift. Hard work, as we will relate in subsequent chapters, is required to produce the best arms. The more work, the greater variety of proper exercises, intelligent practiced, the finer will be the resulting development of the arm.

It’s the aim of the majority of physical culturists to obtain big arms. The bigger the better, they believe. The young enthusiast who desires the maximum in strength and development finds it much more convenient to display the new muscles of the upper arm to his friends than the muscles of any other group.

There are more than 4,000,000,000 muscular fibers in the body. Old and young, frail and strong, all have the same number of muscular fibers. The only difference between the thin, eleven – inch arm of the underdeveloped young man and the powerful, swelling, beautifully-molded arm of the strength champions – the men who posses the greatest strength and development; men like John Grimek, Steve Stanko or Dave Mayor – is the size and development of the arms. The fibers through constant use have grown in bulk power and shapeliness and a really big arm results.

More than half of these 4,000,000,000 muscular fibers are located in the lower limbs. Of the remaining half, less than one-eighth would be in the arms, and of these approximately one-sixth are located in the Biceps group. According to this line of reasoning the Biceps would be about one one-hundredth of the muscular bulk of the body. The powerful lower limbs are usually ten times as strong as the arms. The world’s record in the back lift is 4,300 pounds, the world’s record in the harness lift, in which the legs supply most of the power, is 3,600 pounds. While men have supported over 5,000 pounds on their extended lower limbs, the world’s records in the two hands press is 317 pounds.

In spit of these facts, well known to all advanced bodybuilders, far more effort is placed back of building mighty arms than is spent in the development of any other part of the body.