Arm Workout: 15 Minutes of Armageddon

People generally like to get a lot done in as little time as possible. This helps them feel more productive and accomplished at the day’s end. So if there’s a way to take care of a task that would generally take an hour in say…15 minutes, then that would be awesome, right?

Many of us as athletes and lifters at one time or another have looked at our training agenda and wished there was a way to do it in less time so we can move on to something else that is taking up a lot of space in the mind. In previous articles here at InfiniteLabs.com, we’ve shared 15 minute workouts for chest, back, and shoulders. Now we’re going to break down how to train the biceps and triceps in less than 900 seconds.

What You Need to Do

While you’re sipping on your Juggernaut HP or Juggernaut-X, take an EZ-Curl bar or barbell and load it with enough weight that you can curl or do extensions for 12 reps or so. Don’t go light but don’t try for a max either. Grab a pair of moderate dumbbells too. Take the bar and dumbbells to a cable station and place a rope on a pulley. If your cable station has an adjustable pulley, set it low. If your gym has two pulleys, start with the rope on the low pulley.

Your 6 Exercise Circuit

The point of this workout is to minimize time transitioning from one exercise to the next. Since the barbell and dumbbells are both forms of free weight, it’s easy to keep them next to you at a cable station. You’re going to do six exercises in a row without any rest in between. This is a form of circuit training. To allow maximum time for recovery while minimizing time to train, we will alternate between biceps and triceps exercises. You should have enough experience and know how to perform these exercises before trying a circuit of this magnitude.

• Standing EZ Bar Curl – 8 reps
• Overhead EZ Bar Triceps Extensions – 8 reps
• Two Arm Standing Dumbbell Curl – 10 reps
• Two Arm Dumbbell Kickbacks – 10 reps
• Cable Rope Hammer Curl – 12 reps
• Cable Rope Pressdown – 12 reps

The objective is to perform all six exercises in a row without any rest in between until you complete the pressdowns. It should take you around four and a half minutes. Once you complete that circuit you get one minute to rest. As soon as that minute passes, immediately start a second circuit in the same fashion. Once you can complete that second round, you have a choice. You can either stop there if you feel you’ve had enough or if you have a little left in the tank, go for one more round.

You should definitely not try for more than 3 rounds because it would take more than 15 minutes and you’d be pretty fatigued.

What you should notice is that your cardiovascular system will be feeling the effects of this as well. Your heart rate will increase, you’ll be taking deeper breaths to take in more oxygen, and your body temperature will rise. That’s another benefit of a workout like this. It will challenge you both anaerobically and aerobically. Keep your Massport close. You’ll need it by the time this is over.