Cracking the top five in your pro debut is no small feat. What’s more impressive is doing it at one of the biggest shows on the IFBB calendar less than a year after earning your pro card.
Moving up in weight class means Karr will need to put on some quality mass top to bottom. Here, Karr takes us through his plan to add the triceps mass needed to hang with the big boys.
Karr always starts his triceps workout with the most basic exercise there is, the cable pressdown. “Not only does it hit the entire triceps, but it’s a good warmup movement to get me going into the workout,” Karr says.
While the goal of adding mass means you’ll need to go heavy, it’s important to use good form here and make sure you’re controlling the weight through the entire movement.
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Ian Spanier / M+F Magazine
Cable Kickback
3 sets of 12 reps
“The benefit to the cable kickback over the dumbbell is that you get full tension throughout the entire range of motion,” Karr explains. Time under tension is key, and he feels that for as good an exercise as the kickback is, doing it with a dumbbell lends itself to losing that tension at the bottom of the movement. “Generally, when using the dumbbell, you have to keep your upper arm parallel with the floor and are actually limiting your range of motion that’s going to be effective for building muscle.”
Using a cable allows you to completely contract and extend your arm while having resistance the entire time and also lets you get a solid contraction at the top of the lift.
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Pavel Ythjall
Bench Dip
3 sets of 15 reps
“I prefer doing bench dips to traditional dips because I feel like not only do they allow for a better squeeze, the hand positioning takes some of the workload off the shoulders and chest and focuses it more on the triceps,” Karr says. “I do this lift with my feet up on another bench, as it allows for better range of motion than if you just put your feet on the floor.” Austin will add in a few more reps per set with this exercise to ensure maximum pump and to really push the blood flow at the end of his workout.
This movement is where some people really tend to sell themselves short, and it’s important to make sure you’re lowering yourself as deep as you can. “If we’re talking basics, then we have to talk range of motion. Don’t sell yourself short on this exercise by using too much weight on your lap and only going halfway down.”
To ease the strain on the shoulders sometimes associated with a barbell press, Karr likes to go slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and stops a little shy of the chest on the negative part of the lift. While some people like to tuck their elbows in on this lift, Karr prefers to have his elbows out to help make sure the focus is all on the triceps. “I like going heavy on this lift, but I still make sure to push with my triceps and make sure it’s not all chest and shoulders doing the work.”
Getting big arms isn’t fancy work. For Karr, it’s train heavy, train hard, and, most of all, train smart.
